F) David: Sir, how many flying hours do the Iranian pilots log on average every year?

Col. M: The average flight hours for each and every F-14 driver and GIB (guy in the back) is somewhere between 550 to 600 hours per year. The airframes go through 2500 to 2800 hours of flight time per year as well.

I) David: Have you ever encountered any US fighters or military planes in the international air space?

Col. M: Yes. Through out the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, I had numerous encounters with US and Persian Gulf region area air forces’ planes (mostly Saudis) during my own armed patrols. In one encounter, I was vectored towards a US navy fighter that had apparently crossed into Iran’s air space but the USN jet turned away after it was given a radio warning. On other occasions, I encountered Saudi based USAF AWACS aircraft. But both sides would resort to ‘radio warnings’ alone to warn each other. In an interesting encounter, I had intercepted a Royal Saudi Air Force’s F-15A in the later stages of the war. As I was getting ready to lock on and engage the Saudi F-15A Eagle, I was ordered to disengage by our ground control radar.

J) When were your first and last air-to-air combat kills?

Col. M: My very first air-to-air combat kill came on Sept. 17^th 1980, using the AIM-54A Phoenix (the first use of Phoenix in combat in its history) downing an Iraqi air force’s “MiG-23 Flogger” that had crossed into Iran’s air space days before the official start of hostilities. My last air-to-air kill took place in December 1986 using the air-to-air version of MIM-23 Hawk missile (firing an AIM-23C Sedjil for the first time in combat) bringing down a French built “Super Étendard” over the northern Persian Gulf region.