History News

Brig. Gen. (res.) Aharon 'Yalo' Shavit, First Commander of Etzion Air Base, Dies at 91

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Sources
Courtroom-sketch editorial illustration of a pale Dassault Super Mystère B2 jet fighter with its canopy open, parked on a concrete flight line with two more of the jets lined up behind it, drawn from a 1988 U.S. Air Force photograph; a contextual image of the Super Mystère, the jet type Aharon Shavit's 105 Squadron flew in the 1967 Six-Day War, not a depiction of Shavit or of his own aircraft.

Brig. Gen. (res.) Aharon "Yalo" Shavit, an Israeli Air Force fighter pilot, died on Saturday at 91. Born Aharon Yalovsky in 1935, he shot down two Egyptian aircraft while flying a Mystère with 101 Squadron in the 1956 Sinai Campaign. In the 1967 Six-Day War he commanded 105 "Scorpion" Squadron, leading strikes on Egyptian and Syrian airfields and downing a Syrian MiG-21. He oversaw construction of Etzion air base in Sinai and became its first commander; its 144 Squadron was credited with more than 40 kills in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Ness Ziona Mayor Shmuel Boxer, his cousin, called him "a legendary fighter pilot."

Sources

Shmuel BoxerSource Language: HebrewIsrael Ministry of DefenseSource Language: HebrewIsraeli governmentSecondary sources:1

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