240 pilots in six volumes, but hundreds of memories still remain untold

Ahmad Mehrnia, a researcher and author in the field of the Sacred Defense, who has compiled the oral history of 240 pilots of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force in a six-volume series, told IBNA that the oral history of the Air Force pilots is a national treasure and a part of this country’s history. Hundreds of memories still remain untold, and it is necessary for an organization to take charge of this matter.

He added: “The collection you mentioned began in 2011 with the aim of compiling the oral history of the Air Force pilots of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and it continues to this day. Of course, the output of this effort is several other books besides this six-volume collection.”

Mehrnia stated: “Our country’s history is full of ups and downs, and we have many untold stories. What is now referred to as the oral history of the Sacred Defense is a part of our national history, and we must preserve it. The events that our pilots, and in general, all our fighters, experienced during the eight years of the Sacred Defense are a part of our national history. My focus has been on the Air Force, and I must say that our pilots performed brilliantly during those eight years. We must record and preserve this brilliance for history.”

This author and researcher of the Sacred Defense, regarding the challenges of this work, said: “Our main challenge in this project was the lack of a proper archive. We had to go to each individual to get the information we needed. Finding the pilots and convincing them to be interviewed was one of the most difficult tasks in this project. Now, at this age, each of them lives in a different city, and finding them was very hard. After finding them, we had to get them to speak, and this was not an easy task either.”

He continued: “When a pilot recounts their memories, we have to verify them with documents. For this, we need an archive, which, as I mentioned, we did not have. Therefore, we had to check all the documents day by day and match them with the pilots’ accounts. That’s why I believe that recording the oral history of the pilots is not a task for one person. It requires an organization to take on this responsibility.”