From the early days of the war, Lieutenant Colonel S. has been flying missions over the Gaza Strip, despite being almost 56 years old and having two young children at home. Since October 7, there hasn't been a week when he hasn't been airborne, providing real-time intelligence to ground forces.
Now, S. from the 100th Intelligence Squadron (also known as the "Flying Camel") has surpassed 1,000 flight hours since October 7.
According to the Israeli Air Force, this milestone makes Lieutenant Colonel S. the leader in flight hours during the war. Previously, he had accumulated tens of thousands of operational flight hours over the three decades of his active service - first as a squadron deputy commander 12 years ago, and since then in reserve duty.
The war caught Lt. Col. S. on vacation in Thailand. When news from home started coming in, he was already on the first flight back to Israel. "At my age, before the war, I was supposed to stop flying," he said (the maximum age for operational flying stood at 51). "But at 4:00 in the morning, between Saturday and Sunday, I landed in Israel, and by 11:00, I was already flying over Gaza. It wasn't easy leaving the kids and my partner abroad."
"I feel like I have to be in the air because we have soldiers on the ground who need us and hostages who haven't returned yet," said S. "There are limitations on pilots, but at the peak of tension and for the benefit of the fighters on the ground, they stopped arguing with me: I explained that I know my body well enough to know I'm fit to fly again. The issue of the hostages doesn't let up on me."
"I didn't track my flight hours; they told me about it when I landed after the flight that crossed the 1,000-hour mark in the war. For me, it's just a number, and it's hard to compare it to previous, shorter wars," he said.
S.'s longest flight during the war lasted 7 hours. "For me, age 60 is the next limitation. I undergo periodic medical tests like all pilots, and as long as I'm healthy and performing my duties properly, I don't see why age should be a problem."