חברים להכשרה בארצות הברית
I initially flew w i th Shaul on intercepts and he mastered search, detection, acquisition and
attach quickly. F r om then on he f l ew w i th Ehud when the syllabus called for a crew
mission.
The B FM, A C M and D A RT phases passed quickly as one might expect given the
Israelis' knowledge, skill and expenence in these areas... especially, Ehud's. I feel I
learned more about aerial combat f r om Ehud than Ehud did f r om me. The D A RT phase
was unusually long It was flown w i th one F -4 t ow i ng the D A RT for the Israeli flight o f
four. Inevitably, the first Israeli shooter wou ld shoot o f f the D A RT and we spent the rest
o f the mission f l y i ng A CM . In fact, in the later DART missions, we spent more time
talking about the back-up A C M mission than the primary D A R T mission because the
D A R T was gone after the first firing pass. Ehud was exceptional at aerial gunnery.
Du r i ng the months o f training, Stephanie and I learned about the Kabutz, dancing, and
the closeness o f the Israelis families. The group socials and parties we had were
wonderful. On June 18
th
, Stephanie gave birth to our first child, John A Madden III,
"Johnny". Ehud, Tova, Shaul, and Dova all shared our j o y at the event just like close
family.
A l l t oo soon it was time for the Graduation Party at the Officers' C l ub It was a grand
party and a fitting close to a wonderful experience. The Chenkins' departure along w i t h
the rest o f the Israelis left a sad and empty feeling in our lives but rich w i th wonde r f ul
memories .. which I have to this day.
History it seems continued to challenge the Israelis' survival It wasn't many months
after they had returned to Israel that I got a personal note f r om Ehud telling me about his
down i ng an enemy fighter. In the note Ehud commented that after shooting down the
M1G that he got the F ^ l go i ng over 800 lets leaving the area.
Some time later I learned that in other combat Ehud and Shaul had been downed t r y i ng to
evade the third surface-to-air missile that had been fired at them. I was deeply saddened
to hear that Ehud had been killed.
The passing o f Ehud was to me like losing a brother
The only comfort is know i ng that this Israeli fighter pilot, a combat commander and
leader, a national hero, a devoted husband and father has gone to his eternal rest. May
God rest his soul for all eternity.
M y life is fuller for having know and flown w i th this wonderful person... Ehud Chenkin.
John Madden
Colonel, USAF Retired
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