The 344th Night of Memoir-4

Compiled by: Leila Rostami
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2023-10-12

Note: The 344th night of memoir was held on Thursday, the 23 February of 2023, with the presence of the brave men of the Air Force in the Soura Hall of Arts Center. In this program, General Alireza Rudbari, Second Brigadier General Fereydoun Samadi, General Mohammad Hasan Luqmanejad and captive pilot Brigadier General Mohammad Sediq Qaderi shared their memories. Also, the book "Honest Pilot" was unveiled in the presence of Mohammad Hasan Abu Tarabifard. Davood Salehi was in charge of this night of memoir.

The fourth narrator of the 344th night of memoir was captive and pilot Brigadier General Mohammad Sediq Qaderi, born on 31 January 1954 in the city of Sanandaj. When he was studying in the first grade of high school, on his way to school, he saw a helicopter that had an accident and was sitting in the middle of the city square. Seeing the awe of the helicopter and the pilot who came down from it, he wished to become a pilot that day. Later, he participated in the national entrance exam and was accepted in Tabriz University. After passing a few semesters, he is informed that he can come to Tehran to study piloting. From here, his life path changes and he comes to Tehran and studies piloting.

In the early days of Iraq's imposed war against Iran, on the 30th of September 1980, he and the pilots of four Iranian planes were assigned to fly to Iraqi cities. One of these planes was hit by a missile in the sky of Baghdad. The two pilots decided at the moment to get out of the plane and take the plane's nose up to avoid hitting a nearby building. Moments before the plane hits the building, both pilots eject, after which the plane explodes.

At the beginning of his speech, Mohammad Sediq Qadri pointed out the reason and motive for trying not to crash that plane on that building and said: A few days before this incident, Iraqi planes bombed a school in Iran and about 450 students had died. Iranian pilots were full of revenge, but a message came from Imam Komeini (PBUH) to tell my comrades not to be subject to emotions and make the right decision.

The narrator continued: When the war started, I was dismissed like many other soldiers. When I saw the Iraqi planes, I quickly knew that the war had begun. I called my friends, including martyr Ghafoor Jadi, and said: "I don't have the strength, I have to go back to the base right now and fight with my own equipment." He and other people like Mr. Mehdiyar and other forces had the same feeling. I can only say that twenty-four-five of us returned. Out of this number, 19 people were martyred, two or three of us, like me and Mr. Azhari who was with me, and Mr. Dehkhwaraghani were also captured.

I was proud that in the third month of captivity and during an interrogation, without knowing who he was, I met Hajj Seyyed Ali Akbar Abu Tarabi and I still remember him. As long as I am alive, his memory will be cherished in my body, soul and spirit. Of course, I can swear that all captives feel the same way and everyone remembers him well.

The narrator further said: When I entered the operational phase of the 31st Battalion as a pilot, my first encounter was with our older, kind brother and commander Mr. Fereydoun Samadi. It is not hidden from anyone and we do not want to keep anything secret and politicize it; but on the eve of the revolution, the goal of many, including the intelligence systems of the West and East and the hypocrites, was to destroy the army, and they made many plans to destroy the army. At that time, Iranian TV read the names of nearly fourteen thousand people who were deported and imprisoned.

I have explained in the book "Pilot Sadiq" that these slaps did not prevent me from giving up my life and going to the front when I was needed. When the war started, the Iraqi forces came and no one was in front of them. The intelligence services had done their work and had given reports that there is no army or pilot in Iran. My pilot friends were crying and shouting at the command post asking for the plane to be ready as soon as possible so that they could fly and stop the Iraqis. I had many friends who are not among us today and were martyred. One of them was martyr Khosrow Jafari. We were always together and made plans to attack Iraq. I told Mr. Loqmaninejad: Khosrow was very busy; He said: No! Khosrow was very active and he was so brave and courageous that he mockingly looked at the millions of bullets that were coming towards him.

To be continued...