Yadollah Sharifirad
Yadollah Sharifirad (born March 24, 1946) is an Iranian former fighter pilot and military attaché. He was also in 1978 a member of Golden Crown. Golden Crown was the national aerobatics team of Iran. It was a part of the former Imperial Iranian Air Force.[1]
Sharifirad was one of the most successful Iranian F-5 pilots during the Iran–Iraq War. He had 5 victories against the Iraqi fighter aircraft (3 confirmed victories and 2 probable victories). The victories include: one Su-22 and four MiG-21s.[2][3][4] After that he attacked an Iraqi power station, 3 Iraqi fighters attacked him. The Iraqi fighters shot his airplane down. He ejected and Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas took him back to Iran. A movie called The Eagles was made about this event.
From 1984 until 1987, he was a military attaché in Pakistan.[5] In 1987, the Iranian government ordered him back to Iran and accused him of the espionage for the United States. He spent one year in prison. He was set free after one year and fled to Canada.[6]
In 2010, Sharifirad wrote a book about his life, called Flight of a Patriot." In this book he tells the story of his life from his youth and through taking part in the Iran-Iraq war, his arrest, prison and being tortured, ending with his immigrating to Canada.[7]
References
- ↑ iiaf.net Golden Crown (retrieved on 12th of September 2013)
- ↑ "cieldegloire.com". Archived from the original on 2013-10-17. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
- ↑ Arabian Peninsula & Persian Gulf Database: Iranian Air-to-Air Victories, 1982-Today, Sept. 16, 2003
- ↑ Arabian Peninsula & Persian Gulf Database: Iranian Air-to-Air Victories, 1976-1981, Sept. 16, 2003
- ↑ amazon.ca Flight of the Patriot: Escape from Revolutionary Iran (retrieved on the 12th of September 2013)
- ↑ irandarjahan.net Archived 2014-05-29 at the Wayback Machine (retrieved on the 12th of September 2013)
- ↑ amazon.ca Flight of the Patriot: Escape from Revolutionary Iran (retrieved on 12 September 2013)