Paul R. Shaffer

Colonel Paul R. Shaffer (1930–1975) was a United States military aide to Iran who, along with another US officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jack H. Turner, was assassinated by Marxist terrorists. Colonel Shaffer had served as an air force pilot in both Korea and Vietnam.[1][2] Vahid Afrakhteh, a founding member of Peykar, confessed to the killing and later was executed.[3][4][5][6] According to the Global Terrorism Database, the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) was responsible for the assassination.[7]

Ettela'at newspaper covering assassination of U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jack H. Turner and Colonel Paul R. Shaffer


Assassination

On 21 May 1975, terrorists stopped the car carrying Colonel Shaffer and Lieutenant Colonel Jack Turner. They ordered the Iranian driver to lie down, and then shot and killed the Americans at point-blank range. The shooting happened when the two officers were on their way to work at an Iranian military base in south Tehran.[1][8][2][9] The Iranian government identified the terrorists as Marxist guerrillas.[1]

Memorial

In 2005 a memorial was built by the War on Terror Foundation to honor Col. Shaffer.[10]

References
  1. "Daily Kent Stater 22 May 1975". Kent State University.
  2. "Desert Sun 21 May 1975" – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  3. Shirali, Mahnaz (28 July 2017). The Mystery of Contemporary Iran. ISBN 9781351479134. The most notable actions of the Marxist Mojahedin were assassinations of Savak general, of two American military advisers, and a failed attempt against an American diplomat, all in 1975
  4. Camp Ashraf: Iraqi Obligations and State Department Accountability : Joint Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, First Session, December 7, 2011. 2011. ISBN 9780160905018. Referred to in the Iranian press as the "Iranian People's Strugglers", and later known as Peykar, this group led by Tagui Shahram, Vahid Arakhteh and Bahram Aram was one of several underground groups waging a covert war against the Shah's secret police, SAVAK. Afrakhteh, who later confessed to the killings of Americans, was executed
  5. Iran Almanac and Book of Facts, Volumen 15. 1976. Ten terrorists were sentenced to death... The condemned terrorists were Vahid Afrakhteh... The terroirsts were charged with the murders of Brigadier-general Reza Zandipur, United States Colonels Hawkins, Paul Shaffer and ack Turner, the U.S. Embassy's translator Hassan Hossnan
  6. Reisinezhad, Arash (2018). The Shah of Iran, the Iraqi Kurds, and the Lebanese Shia. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 8. ASIN B07FBB6L8Y.
  7. Global Terrorism Database [Data file], National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), 1975-05-21, 197505210002
  8. "Desert Sun 28 August 1976" – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  9. "Terrorists Kill Iranian Employe of U.S. Embassy". The New York Times. 4 July 1975.
  10. http://www.waronterror.org/the-memorial/
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