One by one, the names of 55 fallen from the Argentine Air Force (FAA) in the Malvinas War resounded this Sunday among the old hangars of the San Julián aerodrome, where several of his comrades together with civil and military authorities commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Baptism of Fire of the Argentine pilots.
Pilots, mechanics and technicians who during the war were deployed at the aerodrome of this Santa Cruz town off the coast of the Argentine Sea, some 600 kilometers from Malvinas, arrived in the morning to the same place from where 40 years ago the FAA launched its first combat missions against the British force.
Far from the intense activity of that May 1, 1982, in which they had to prepare 56 sorties in which they dropped 20 tons of bombs on British ships, many veterans from different parts of the country gathered in groups to remember anecdotes and get up to date on their family lives.
Under an intense drizzle, a young student from San Julián was responsible for reading the list of the 55 fallen from the FAA in the Malvinas War, and received a response from the head of that force, Brigadier General Xavier Isaac, the “they fell for God and for the Country” which was completed by the “Presents!” that the participants of the act exclaimed before starting the minute of silence.
Defense Minister Jorge Taiana stated that “it is an honor to share this commemoration with these veterans who in 1982 defended the inalienable rights of our country in the South Atlantic, and to be able to vindicate the Malvinas cause with them here in San Julián with a people so historically linked to Malvinas”.
Taiana maintained that “the feeling of homeland belongs to the community shared and united in a common destiny, and to consolidate that homeland, one of the necessary tasks is to provide the Argentine Republic with a sufficiently dissuasive military instrument to protect the rights of our village”.
“In this sense, we have been working through the National Defense Fund (Fondef), under the premise that, without the appropriate military instrument, a country is weak and has fewer capacities to assert its sovereignty or interests.”he added.
“There is no society that cannot stand up if it is not with pride for its struggles and its heroes, and the 649 heroes who fell in Malvinas, all our beloved veterans and that inalienable cause that we are going to keep pushing until the colonial power that illegally occupies that part of our territory returns our islands,” added Taiana.
Meanwhile, the head of the Air Force, Brigadier General Xavier Isaac, affirmed that “today we return here to reaffirm that the feeling of Malvinas is still alive, and that here in San Julián a deep relationship was forged between our force and this people.”
“The best tribute that we as the Air Force can pay to our heroes is to fly, and that is something that today we can say that we do 365 days a year through the training of our combat units, the services provided by our transport aircraft and the vital task that Líneas Aéreas del Estado (LADE) fulfills in Patagonia”, he added.
The commemoration took place at the airport “Capitán José Daniel Vázquez”named after one of the Air Force A4C pilots who took off from the same runway on May 1, 1982 along with his companions, and who was shot down on May 25 during the attack on the aircraft carrier HMS “Invincible”.
The Baptism of Fire recalls what happened on May 1, 1982 when the “Aerial Battle of the Malvinas” took place. in which members of the force carried out 56 aerial sorties, in cover missions and attacks on British naval targets, dropping 20 tons of bombs.
The day before, on April 30, the bulk of the English task force had assembled some 400 kilometers northeast of Puerto Argentino, and its commander, Vice Admiral Sandy Woodward, aboard the flagship of the fleet, HMS “Hermes” ordered to start the attack in order to fulfill the “Corporate” operation for the recovery of the islands.
To that end, on May 1, at 4:40 a.m., British forces began bombing the two Argentine military airfields in Puerto Argentino and Puerto Darwin with Vulcan and Sea Harrier aircraft, and sent ships from the amphibious assault group to the Malvinas coast. .
At 4 p.m. that day, the Argentine Air Force fought the first battle in its history to prevent that action, which constituted its Baptism of Fire.
The chief of the Cabinet of Advisors of the Ministry of Defense, Héctor Mazzei; the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lieutenant General Juan Martín Paleo; Chief of the Navy, Admiral Julio Guardia; the Secretary of Military Coordination in Emergencies, Inés Barboza Belistri; the Secretary of International Affairs for Defense, Francisco Cafiero; the Secretary of Malvinas, Antarctica and the South Atlantic, Guillermo Carmona and the Secretary General of ARA; Rear Admiral Diego Suárez del Solar, among other special guests.
