The pilot who disobeyed Saddam!/ The story of secret war photos – Mehr News Agency | Iran and world’s news
Pooyan Afshinnejad, the director of the documentary “One Hot Day of Summer… Mehrabad”, which will be aired on TV at the same time as Holy Defense Week, explained about this work in a conversation with Mehr reporter: This documentary is a narrative of the historical history of Mehrabad Air Base. This base, which today is called the 1st fighter-transport base of Shahid Lashgari, is considered one of the most important and oldest bases of the air force. This base is located in the capital and one of its tasks is to defend Tehran’s airspace. On the other hand, heavy repairs of many airplanes are carried out at this Mehrabad base.
He continued: This base has a detailed history and during the war, it was the origin of important flights to special targets in Iraq. In addition, the reconnaissance battalion of the Air Force was stationed at the Mehrabad base at that time. Martyr Fereydoun Zulfiqari, as one of the most famous figures of the Air Force, flew from this base in 1965 and was martyred.
This documentary maker added: “We had done many things about the air force, but nothing had been done about this base, which is a kind of mother base and many things have happened in the heart of it.” It was 2 years ago that the idea of making this documentary came to my mind. This base is still considered one of our center of gravity in important incidents like Corona.
A base whose missions become bolder
Afshinnejad, referring to a part of his observations of the activities of Mehrabad Air Base during critical periods, said: Many factors worked together to choose Mehrabad Air Base as the subject of a documentary. From the presence of notable martyrs to the pristine and lasting history of this base. As the life of this base passes, it seems that its roles and missions become more prominent. For these reasons, we had to do something about this base.
This documentary maker explained the details of the documentary “One Hot Summer Day… Mehrabad”: In this documentary, we have first discussed the history of Mehrabad, which includes a part of the war and the training of pilots. In a part of the documentary, we have discussed the services of this database. We have mentioned its role in updating Air Force planes. Mehrabad Air Base has a significant number of organizational houses and a large population lives in it. All of these people have memories of this base and we have discussed these stories as well. We tried to cover the important features of this base as much as we had time. This base is like a small air force in the heart of the main air force.
All our honors during the war years are due to the information obtained in the form of these photographs in the air force reconnaissance battalion. This battalion has been the center of a group of the bravest and most intelligent Iranian pilots. Fereydoun Zulfaqari has been one of the prominent figures in this group
Afshinnejad also said about Martyr Zulfiqari in this documentary: Air Force has a battalion called Reconnaissance Battalion in its combat organization. The task of this battalion is different during peace and war. In principle, the main mission of this battalion is to identify and photograph specific targets and situations. During the war, we wanted to bomb any target or we needed aerial photography at any point where the ground force was going to carry out an operation. The reconnaissance battalion should have taken action first. This was an important and dangerous task for this battalion.
He continued: Due to maximum safety, reconnaissance planes are not capable of face-to-face confrontation with enemy planes. Both because these planes must be agile and because they should not enter the battlefield. A reconnaissance plane, unlike a bombing plane, does not end its mission as soon as it takes a picture, and the important thing is to return to the hangar safely. If the bomber plane is hit by a missile after carrying out its operation, it has still carried out its operation. Reconnaissance pilot, but after taking pictures, his mission just begins.
This documentary maker emphasized: All our honors during the war years are due to the information that was obtained in the form of these photographs in the reconnaissance battalion of the Air Force. This battalion has been the center of a group of the bravest and most intelligent Iranian pilots. Fereydoun Zulfaqari has been one of the prominent figures in this group. Fereydoun Zulfiqari loved flying and his father was one of the army commanders during the Shah’s reign. He studied at the French school in Tehran and when he gets his diploma, he plans to become a pilot, which his father opposes. He goes to Austria and studies metallurgical engineering. A year before finishing his education, he comes to Iran and at a family party, he wants another person to convince his father to enter the field of flying, and this happens. This same person will later become martyr Zulfiqari. If you search in the history of the air force, most of the photos we had of the important and vital centers of Iraq in the war were recorded by Fereydoun Zulfiqari.
He added: Fereydoun Zulfiqari was the one whom the Iraqi intelligence system and Saddam himself knew by name because he disobeyed them. They even planned to assassinate him. He was very patriotic. When he was martyred in Faw region, he had a very high military post and the logic of militarism prohibited him from flying, but at the height of the war, our fighting forces needed accurate photos of these areas, and flights were made several times to take photos by other pilots. was that it did not include the result. Fereydoun Zulfiqari made this flight despite all the opposition, and finally, with the attack of several planes and the heavy work of Iraqi radar and flight, he succeeded in shooting down his plane and Martyr Nowrozi in his rear cabin. The story of finding the body and its return to the homeland can also be narrated in the form of a series.
We must respect the science and love of the documentary audience
This documentary maker said about the narrative format of the documentary “One Hot Summer Day… Mehrabad”: This documentary has a dialogue-oriented structure and we have used archival images in addition to it. There are images in this documentary that have not been seen before. The value of archival images is their quality and relevance. Among the audience of archival documentaries related to the holy defense, there are so many expert audiences who have a very high knowledge of the war. A documentary maker should respect the science and love of this audience and not use anything in the name of archive. We raised the quality of some of these archival images by spending time and money to make them playable.
Referring to the structural considerations in the formation of the narrative of the documentary “One Hot Day of Summer… Mehrabad”, he added: A narrative documentary has a specific trajectory that must be followed in the entire narrative. Making documentaries with a military theme has its own difficulties and it is the same everywhere in the world. The Army Air Force values its history and tries to work in this field and has always been concerned in the cultural sector that this is very important. In making this documentary, the support and companionship of the Army Air Force and loved ones will undoubtedly be provided. The 1st Martyr Lashgari Base of Mehrabad was very important.