Prime Minister Menachem Begin today described the Israel Air Force as the “bulwark” defending the country today. Addressing a passing-out parade of new pilots on annual Air Force Day at an air force base somewhere in Israel, he quoted Winston Churchill’s famous saying “Never have so many owed so much to so few.”
With his characteristic sense of the past, Begin traced Jewish military history “back 3,000 years to David, our great king and military leader.” He said that some people told him the Israel Air Force was the best air force in the world. He said he would not argue with that, but he knew it was the air force with the greatest battle experience in the world.
Air Force Commander Gen. David Ivry said the coming year was a year of great challenges for the Air Force because of the logistics of its move to new bases in the Negev with Israeli’s withdrawal from Sinai.
But even with those problems, the Air Force would not let up on its training and development program, Ivry said. He welcomed the new intake of pilots after years of arduous training.
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