Raid on the Sun(30)
Several weeks later, after Gary Michaels and the base OTU officers had straightened things out between the Israelis and base security, Yaffe, Shafir, and Katz found themselves in another disagreement over base procedures. During a training run one of the planes malfunctioned. The Israelis reported the problem to the crew tech on duty in the operations hangar.
“We want to switch planes,” Yaffe informed him. “Tell maintenance.”
“We don’t do that,” the tech answered. “That’s not how it works. You just don’t take a new plane.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Yaffe said. “We need a new aircraft.”
The men argued with the tech until the crewman strode angrily out of the hangar. The Israelis mulled around the hangar for a minute or two until they heard the unmistakable sound of a jeep roaring to a stop outside. Seconds later three MPs marched to the pilots, the same MPs who just weeks before had arrested Raz.
“You again,” Yaffe said.
The MPs were not amused. The IAF pilots argued their case, but the guards showed little interest in their troubles. They were breaking rules. That was all that was important. Unlike poor Raz, however, the men were not arrested.
At the end of training, the OTU officers threw Raz’s team a going-away party. During the bash the lead instructor, Michaels, approached Yaffe, who had sent him scrambling on more than one occasion to find the answer to some complex design question.
Michaels smiled.
“You know,” the instructor said, scratching and shaking his head. “It was a very refreshing experience having you here.”
Raz’s team returned to Ramat David in May to await delivery of the first four F-16s on Israeli soil, now scheduled for early July. As Raz, Yaffe, Katz, and Shafir set up housekeeping in the officers’ quarters on the base, Amir Nachumi’s team, including celebrated pilot Udi Ben-Amitay, left for their OT at Hill. At last the squadron received word that the F-16s would be delivered to Ramat David July 4. But the American pilots assigned to deliver the planes began complaining that they would miss Independence Day if they were held to the present schedule. To accommodate the USAF pilots, delivery was moved up to July 2. The American volunteer pilots flew the four F-16s in an eleven-hour, six-thousand-mile nonstop flight that required three in-air tanker refuelings. The IAF celebrated delivery of the planes like a national holiday, feting the American pilots as brothers. After more than a year, Israel’s elite new fighting squadron finally had aircraft—a small but nonetheless crucial beginning.
Weeks after returning from the United States, Raz received orders from General Ivry to report to him at IAF headquarters in the Kirya in Tel Aviv. Raz flew in a small prop plane from Ramat David to the tiny air base at the northern edge of the city.
After some polite conversation about his time at Hill, Ivry shifted gears.
“I want you to begin training in low-level, long-distance navigation,” Ivry said cryptically. “Start with shorter distances and work up.”
“Yes, sir,” Raz responded. “Anything specifically I’m looking for?” he added, fishing a bit.
“We want to know the extreme range of the plane’s operational envelope,” Ivry replied.
Raz said nothing, but Ivry had taken him by complete surprise. He had returned to Israel anticipating pulling together the new F-16 squadron and perhaps notching a few more Syrian MiGs with the sophisticated new fighter. The last thing on his mind was long-range navigation. What could Ivry be thinking?
The reports out of Baghdad were all bad. The nondescript, Soviet-era administration buildings that Khidhir Hamza had encountered on his first visit to al-Tuwaitha ten years earlier had disappeared completely, replaced by a vast, modern fortress more akin to Russia’s Star City than anything found in the deserts of the Middle East. Officially dubbed Project Tammuz 17, the first of many such planned future complexes, the Nuclear Research Center covered one-quarter square mile and included dozens of labs, plants, shops, and buildings. In the north corner, landscaped with flower planters and hedges, stood the main administration building. Another building containing the main entrance hall, administrative offices, and a data center faced administration. To the south was the Italian-made fuel fabrication facility. Iraq’s Atomic Energy claimed that the fabrication facility’s purpose was to supply fuel for its ambitious power plant program, but Israel’s scientists determined that the facility existed for one reason: to assemble uranium fuel packages for the production of weapons-grade plutonium. Just east of the fabrication plant was a radioactive waste facility to dispose of toxic detritus. In the southeast corner stood a large machine shop for manufacturing and repairing tools and hardware to support the reactors.