by Justine Hemmestad
4-11-24
Dayton, Iowa was named for Dayton, Ohio when it was founded in the mid 19th Century. Dayton, Ohio is known for being near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force is located. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base also houses extensive WWII aviation history. The Air Force recognizes the part that Rosie the Riveters played in WWII aviation history, when women comprised much of the labor force used to construct fighter planes (personal note: my grandfather designed fighter planes in WWII and doubtless worked around many such Rosies). The Rosie the Riveter program will be coming to the Lehigh library (and has already been at the Dayton library) to discuss the more than 310,000 women who worked in the US aircraft industry (and that number is just in 1943, alone). In 1943, The Saturday Evening Post published a cover by Norman Rockwell that showed Rosie with an American flag in the background and a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf under her feet. 2010 Southeast Webster graduate, Megan Hemmestad McMahon, was herself stationed at an airforce base - Bagram Air Force Base - as part of the TSA where she worked with people of German, American, as well as Afghani nationality. She says all the countries had to go through her TSA unit. Then, people usually went on to Kuwait, she says. She was part of the police force that stopped those who intended to board a flight with smuggled, contraband items (which she says there were a lot of). She’s glad to have learned how much diversity there is in the world, and she’s glad to have learned aspects of several different languages. She also learned how to sleep through incredible noise. Of being in the Middle East, McMahon recalls that she had a hard time driving, “if the sand was blowing, especially,” which I asked her about because I wondered what kind of difficulties the Israeli air force may face in the Middle East. She also says that Americans are especially hated in the Middle East and are called ‘pigs.’ The one country in the Middle East that shares the same values as America is Israel, and the one Middle East country with a democracy is Israel. In fact, America and Israel have been intricately woven since America was the first to recognize Israel as an independent state in 1948. The country that America has always stood beside, unwaveringly, is Israel. In addition, the country with an Air Force as formidable as America’s is Israel. The Israeli Air Force, called Kheil HaAvir in Hebrew, has played a vital role in defending Israel’s borders. Best known for its excellent pilots, the IAF is one of the most elite in the world. Founded during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, the IAF is modeled upon the British Air Force, and initially consisted of several service members who each contributed skills and capabilities with just a limited number of WWII aircraft. Resourcefulness makes for great skill. The IAF proved highly skilled and has become one of the world’s best since the initial war of Independence, from playing vital parts in Operation Kadesh, dropping paratroopers over Sinai, to obliterating Egyptian communication lines, carrying out rescue missions, supporting ground troops, and conducting aerial missions. By the 1960s new aircraft made up the Israeli air force, which excelled in a number of different clashes across the Middle East. During the Six Day War the IAF almost completely destroyed the Egyptian Air Force and severely crippled the Jordanian, Syrian, and Iraqi air forces. The Yom Kippur War of 1973 proved the IAF formidable in the face of other countries, and though surface to air anti aircraft missiles were a great threat against them, they found ways to turn their losses into lessons learned and skills gained. Since then, the IAF has returned Israeli hostages safely, transported forces, supported operations around the world, destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor, as well as a Syrian nuclear reactor, carried out strategic missions in the Lebanon War, brought Jews back to Israel, and attacked the PLO command. More recent operations the IAF has accentuated are the 2006 Lebanon War, Operation Pillar of Cloud, Operation Guardian of the Walls, and Operation Swords of Iron.
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