A brief review of the book "Beyond My Stars"

Memoirs of Colonel Mohammad-Vali Mahmoudi Harsini

Fereydoun Heydari Molkmian
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2022-1-4

"Dedicated to the friends of burnt palms! Moments of self-sacrifice; Bombs and mines exploded! Offered to anonymous veterans; you who your grief is unlimited"!

   The book "Beyond My Stars" begins with the [above-mentioned] dedication that blends sense and image. After the table of contents, there is a short handwritten confirmation of Colonel Mohammad-Vali Mahmoudi Harsini and then the introduction of the Sacred Defense Documents Organization and then, the author's preface (the book's compiler). The book includes ten chapters. After the main text of the book, which is based on questions and answers, black-and-white drawings and pictures with relatively good quality, and then the index and finally the bibliography are inserted. The interesting thing about this book is its beautiful pagination, which shows the good taste that has been used even in the design of the cover. From the introduction to the index, the title of each chapter is on the odd pages and beautifully between the images of two strings of barbed wire. In addition, the compiler begins his introduction with words of Imam Ja'far Sadegh (PBUH), "I have not seen a happier cry than a pen," and prefaces some chapters as necessary, with one or more poems from great poets such as Hafez, Saadi, and Ferdowsi or adorns them with a verse from the Quran.

    The first chapter of the book is very short: almost three pages! But in this brief, everything we need to know about Colonel Mohammad-Vali Mahmoudi Harsini is presented; Born in 1949 in Harsin, which was one of the districts of Kermanshah at that time. The eldest child in a family with three brothers and two sisters. One of the brothers was wounded in the Chezabeh Strait and was chemically killed during Operation Dawn 8 in Faw, and another was martyred in an operation west of Kermanshah in the Nosud area. The third brother was also a teenager in the sacred defense, but he regularly participated in various expeditions to operational areas and operations such as Dawn 4 and 5, Karbala 4 and 5, and Mersad on the fronts.

   In the following, the narrator refers to the time of his marriage and its result, as well as to the degrees and positions before the revolution and his backgrounds and positions after the revolution.

   The second chapter deals with elementary school. Of course, the narrator begins the memories of this period of his life from the age of five and before entering primary school; Ever since his mother took him to school to teach the Qur'an. When he entered primary school, at the age of seven, his father took him to Qur'anic exegesis sessions. Little by little, he becomes famous for his intelligence and talent in school. In the final years of elementary school, whenever a teacher was absent, he was replaced and sent to the class. He even went to other classes and taught.

   Chapter three covers high school. Having reached this stage with the highest scores, he learns English well in high school and his mathematics is as good as in elementary school. Hence, it passes each year with a privileged rank.

   The fourth chapter is the narration of his university days in the officer's college. Participates in the Gendarmerie Officer School Exam and is accepted out of about 4,000 volunteers with a rank of 150 and enters the Officer College. After 18 months of training, he finally graduated in late April 1974 and received the rank of the third lieutenant. It was during this period that, at the suggestion of his parents, he married one of his sister's high school classmates.

    In the fifth chapter, the narrator talks about his service in the Ilam Gendarmerie Regiment and its coincidence with the victory of the Islamic Revolution. He refers to his services and actions to protect the borders and also to establish order and security in Ilam province and its cities from 1974 onwards, and then his activities amid the victory of the Islamic Revolution and the events one by one that took place in Ilam after the revolution.

   Chapter six deals with the movement of Iraqi forces across the border and their readiness for full-scale war. One of Colonel Mahmoudi's most important actions is his efforts to equip and combat the borders to counter the impending attack of the neighboring country. Although it was not easy for everyone to believe this at the time, the colonel never backed down from his guided and documented opinion in the face of negligence and unseen and unheard. In this case, his statement, the text of which was correctly chosen for the back cover of the book, is enlightening and telling: "... The latest information obtained on September 3, 1980, indicated that by the end of September, Iraq wanted to attack Iran's borders from northwest to south. The received news indicated that first, the Iraqi planes will bomb all the airports and sensitive points of Iran ... I wrote a report with the name of the Iraqi troops attacking the borders of the Islamic Republic and I wrote it directly through the Dehloran border to the Ilam Gendarmerie Regiment, Kermanshah Gendarmerie District, Tehran Gendarmerie Headquarters, Ilam Governorate, 81st, and 92nd Divisions, Second Department and Headquarters I subscribed to the army ... If we only paid attention to the last detailed report that I sent on September 4 and 5, we would certainly have prevented the Iraqis from advancing."

   Chapter seven goes back to the beginning of the imposed war and describes the events of the first days of the war. The turning point of this chapter is the accurate and documented diary of the 22-day siege of the gendarmerie in Dehloran, Mosian, and Chalat, during which the defending forces, despite their small numbers, fought valiantly. Chapter 8 deals with the unexpected deployment of Colonel Mahmoudi to the Gendarmerie Regiment of Qom Province, despite his many unique actions and activities on the western fronts of the country and the continuation of the revolution on different fronts.

   Chapter 9 is the story of the command of the Martyred Chamran Battalion in the Sarv area in the province of West Azerbaijan. Here we talk about the mission of Colonel Mahmoudi to the Gendarmerie Regiment of West Azerbaijan Province and the operational area of Chereh and his actions against the opposition of the Islamic Republic. In just 18 months, with his efforts, the situation changed so that the Chereh area, which was previously under the control of the opposition, came completely under the control of the police and security was restored. Kermanshah Gendarmerie pays, of course, this time with the position of Information Protection Commander of the Gendarmerie in the provinces of Kermanshah and Ilam. It also refers to the events after Resolution 598, as well as the colonel's recollections of Operation Mersad and his actions at that time.

   Chapter 10 deals with the return and re-service of the colonel in the Kermanshah gendarmerie area, who, of course, this time served as the gendarmerie area information protection commander in the Kermanshah and Ilam provinces. It also refers to the events after Resolution 598, as well as the colonel's memoirs of Operation Mersad and his actions at that time. When he was appointed as the commander of the Ilam Independent Regiment, his first step was to deploy gendarmerie forces at the initial bases in Mehran-Dehloran, Mosian, and Salehabad, which led the Peacekeeping Forces to record all gendarmerie deployments and thus he stayed away from Iraqis. Then, the reconstruction and organization of the gendarmerie units were put on the agenda, which was done in the shortest time in terms of places and lines of defense and the discipline of the personnel and was appreciated.

   [The book]"Beyond My Stars" is a collection of works in the field of oral history that was interviewed and edited by Fatemeh Ranjbaran. The first edition of the book was commissioned by the Sacred Defense Documents Organization, the General Directorate of Preservation of Relics and Publication of Sacred Defense Values of Hamadan Province in 2020 by the Foundation for the Preservation and Publication of Sacred Defense Values in 406 pages and 1000 copies with hardcover and Octavo format. And with the price of 220,000 Rial (Iranian currency), it has entered the book market.