Warrior's dream: Soldier, student and father beats the odds to become ace fighter pilot
Odyssey of one of the 170 graduatesof the IAF's Flight Academy - from the armored corps, to yeshiva studies, becoming a dad and finally being accepted into the prestigious flight academy.
Among those receiving their wings Thursday at the ceremony to mark the termination of the flight course at the Hatzerim Air Base southern Israel, was first lieutenant B., at 25, one of the oldest of the 170 graduates of the IAF Flight Academy. His journey to fulfill his dream was long and exhausting, sometimes discouraging, but in the end it paid off.
B. began his numerous attempts to be accepted into a flight course back in 2007, as a teenager whose dream was to be a fighter pilot. Along his odyssey to an F-16 cockpit, he followed the yeshiva path, which integrates a year and a half of actual military service.
After failing in his attempts to pass the selections to be a pilot, he was assigned to Battalion 9 of Brigade 401 of the Armored Corps, fighting in the advanced Merkava Mark 4 tank. Although the tank is considered one of the most advanced in the world, a "terrestrial fighter jet", B. insisted on fulfilling his dream.
The wings ceremony took place Thursday night and the IDF spokesman has published data on the graduates. Almost half live in cities and only 3% are from kibbutzim. Three of the graduates are woman. Exactly 49% have family ties to the Air Force. Five percent are only children.
Over a tenth of the graduates were not born in Israel and they include Russians, Americans and British. First lieutenant B. is not alone. 22% held other positions before the flight course, some having served in the Maglan unit, and in the air defense system.
During the next phase, the yeshiva studies, B. met H. who herself serves as a software engineer in a military intelligence unit . After they got married she supported him and his repeated attempts to be accepted to the prestigious pilot training. "Within the yeshiva track, my frequent attempts to leave and enter the flight course were accepted with much difficulty. I sent many letters, I got some air crew members involved, unitl they accepted me in the course three years ago, and then H. got pregnant," B. recounted.
B.'s wife, who is combining graduate studies and a military career, barely saw her husband during her pregnancy. "At the end of the first year of the course our daughter Elya was born, just when I started my first flights," said B.
"It was a very difficult time, no phones and visits home only once every three weeks. Only then did I get to see my little girl and see how much she grew. Of course the course commanders took it into consideration and released me to be at my daughter's birth."
H., who arrived to the graduation ceremony Thursday full of pride with their young daughter, said she had moved in with her parents during the course: "I took care of all the household needs, including buying a car. I was quite skeptical that they would accept B. to the course, but I went along with it and supported him. I had never thought that it would succeed, and suddenly I found myself alone, without a husband at night while pregnant and after that with a little baby girl."
Both H. and B. recount that they wanted to find themselves in the best positions they could in the army. "I had moments of crisis," admits B, "especially when I had to return to the course on Saturday night and say goodbye to Elya, but there are things that are more important than my own good. It was a dream for me."
