27.5.1964 - 28.1.1965

Many Middle East or African countries are presented by our propaganda, as progressive, friendly and allied nations. However, our training course N^o644 in Syria has experienced completely different attitudes and approach.

Quote:

"Syrian officers have very low impression from the training in the USSR (due to personal welfare issues, attitude of government towards Muslim Uzbeks, etc...). They hate Israel and Jews; SS is their role model. According to the discussions between us and Syrian officers, it is clear, that they are strictly against marxism-leninism and they have only approached us, because USA and Great Britain are supporting Israel. The opinions of Aleppo Air force base personnel are strongly reactional (movement in the direction of political conservatism or extreme rightism), far closer to the national socialism (Nazi) than socialism of marxism-leninism model. Since the very beginning of the theoretical courses, our group has experienced strong aversion towards L-29; which was spreaded by Syrian officers-technicians, heads of individual specializations. This aversion grew even stronger during the hand-over of the airplanes by the Syrian side, and the reasons were analyzed as following:

1. until the delivery of L-29, Syrian air force used simple "Chipmunk" airplanes, with minimal service and maintenance requirements, so their airbase has lived the life of our pre-WW II. airclub. L-29 was more complex and demanding for service, and it meant end of calm and lazy life for Syrian air force personnel.
2. the officers of the air base are trained not only in USSR, but also in Britain, majority of them is anglophile, they admire Western technology and underestimate the technology of socialist countries. English bourgeoise liberalism is considered as the highest democracy for them.
3. The acquirement of L-29 was pushed by general DAKAR, the main inspector of the allied command of Arab armies, deeply hated by whole officer´s corps (he was Christian and has bossy and offensive behavior towards his subordinates). All officers call him "damned dog DAKAR".

We have achieved the aversion to disappear, which I consider the main achievement of our mission. During the course of the training, we have experienced frequent problems with electro-pneumatical system of the EK-48 ventil (for canopy ejection); leaking of fuel pipes (which was aluminium, instead of copper), bad level signs on the tank with hydraulical oil, so it was frequently overfilled and it leaked under the engine. We also experienced frequent break-downs of the radios. "