Training of foreign military specialists was a task of national importance. This issue was once not subject to wide publicity. In previous issues, our magazine first described how Soviet officers trained Egyptian military personnel, including its current President, M. H. Mubarak. Continues the forgotten history of another essay. Retired Colonel Nikolai Ivanovich GAPEENOK, a front-line pilot and Hero of the Soviet Union, shared his memories with our correspondent Vasily Khoreshko. The program without Marx Time is fleeting. It seems that quite recently a large group of Syrian officers visited us at the Yuri Gagarin Air Force Academy. I unwittingly found myself in the center of attention when the head of the academy announced that one of the old guard of teachers is also present here who once studied with Hafez Assad. The entire audience applauded, thereby expressing respect for the Syrian president. In 1990, on the occasion of his 60th birthday, I was invited to a reception at the embassy. And before that, the ambassador visited me in Monino and asked me to make a gift inscription on my photo to the president: they say that the picture will be given to him among other messages for the anniversary. It is clear that this is not about my person, but about the signs of an unforgettable time. The late Hafez al-Assad was a loyal friend of our country, and I am proud to have known this extraordinary man intimately. In 1964, I was called to the General Staff and offered to go to Syria to train students at the military academy there. I was assigned as a senior member of the group. Our teaching "landing" would be an honor for an educational institution of the highest rank. Professors, candidates of sciences. All without exception, not only with long experience, but also with combat experience. Pilots of various profiles-fighters, bombers, attack aircraft-had a solid flight time of hours. Besides me, there were three other frontline Heroes of the Soviet Union-Semyon Andrianovich ... Читать далее