Personnel… and Wars of Independence
July Fourth is coming up. We all know the names of the Generals who led our troops during the War of Independence. We know a quarter million people served in the army. We even know some names, among them John Neagle.
However, we don't know enough about the privates and corporals who fought during the war. Partly, this is by design. History, until recently, was written from the point of view of great men. It was men and primarily members of a specific social class. Far more recently, we started to look for ordinary people, read diaries, and interview common folk. When I was attending my master's, some of that change was beginning. Howard Zinn was one of the pioneering American historians who started doing this before it happened.
Today, I want to highlight a couple of the troops in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This is via Yigal Levin, but it’s important to understand that while we all write about this at the abstract level, these are the people fighting. So first, here is a Ukrainian fighter pilot, “Saber:”
A Ukrainian pilot with the call sign Saber has been fighting Russian invaders in his Su-27 since the first days of the full-scale invasion. He has a record of destroying Russian aircraft in the air and ground targets. He told Platfor.ma about why Ukrainians were able to resist the Russian Federation in the sky, about difficult tasks and prejudices.
“Our fighter aircraft are also the Soviet MiG-29 and Su-27. They are slightly better than Western aircraft in terms of maneuverability, but are significantly inferior in terms of weapons and sights. Russian fighters are also much more modern. To put it simply, they can see us earlier and launch a missile at us from several times greater distance than we do. We are multifunctional; there is no such thing that one pilot, for example, can only fly to intercept. You have to be able to do everything,” says the pilot.
Saber notes that the Russian Federation has built a fairly serious layered air defense system, so Ukrainian pilots cannot approach certain distances and latitudes, and cases of air duels between aircraft have been isolated.
“There were stories that I struck certain positions, returned to my home airfield, sat down to dinner and turned on the TV. And on all channels it was said that a certain command post had been hit. And so I ate dumplings, watched how everything exploded beautifully after me, and wrote to my friends, saying, these are the advantages of aviation,” says Saber.
A Ukrainian military man says that pilots have many superstitions — they don’t take pictures before a flight, they behave with the plane as if it had a soul. The pilot admits that he is not a believer, but there were cases when it was so scary that he even prayed.
“This happened at the beginning of a full-scale invasion, when you realized that not one missile was being fired at you, but several. You are constantly maneuvering, hiding. Even on the air I heard the Russians say: “Oh, the nimble one got caught.” Like, I couldn’t shoot it down. So, of course, I don’t believe it, but when I got on the plane, I thought: okay, I’ll pray,” says the pilot.
According to him, at the beginning of a full-scale Russian invasion, the pilots of the Russian Aerospace Forces made a major mistake — they believed that Ukrainian air defense and aviation had been destroyed and flew sorties without any tactics, which saved the lives of Ukrainian pilots.
“It happened that there were 2 of our planes in the air, and 13 Russians. But we still got involved in air battles to prevent them from freely breaking through and striking,” said Saber.
He remembered how he once caught up with a Russian plane actually in the occupied zone, but because of the excitement he could not stop. In the end, he shot down the enemy Su-25, and when the north of Ukraine was already deoccupied, he went to that place and saw for himself the remains of this downed Russian Su.
“Why is being a fighter pilot the best job in the world? In the morning you strike the enemy, and in the evening you walk around the city with your wife. This is, of course, a joke to a certain extent. But in fact, there is a period of time when you have already completed the combat mission, return to the airfield — and it’s pure pleasure, just flying for fun,” says Saber.
After the victory, he wants to visit all the comrades with whom he served and who died, and then celebrate and take at least three months of vacation.
He knows the job. He is flying missions. He can start to think of that three-month vacation. When victory comes, he will certainly deserve it. Every defender will. However, some still need to stand watch while others recharge their batteries.
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