[nasional_list] [ppiindia] Where have all Indonesian great pilots gone?
- From: "Ambon" <sea@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <"Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@freelists.org>
- Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:31:58 +0200
** Forum Nasional Indonesia PPI India Mailing List **
** Untuk bergabung dg Milis Nasional kunjungi:
** Situs Milis: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/ **
** Beasiswa dalam negeri dan luar negeri S1 S2 S3 dan post-doctoral
scholarship, kunjungi
http://informasi-beasiswa.blogspot.com
**http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20060823.F04&irec=3
Where have all Indonesian great pilots gone?
Rahardjo Mustadjab, Jakarta
More than 50 years ago, a Dutch boy saw an Indonesian Air Force plane drop from
the sky and plunge into a house, killing the pilot and the house's single
occupant. It was August 1949 in Surabaya.
Soon after, the boy, Jonathan Goei, left with his parents to the Netherlands.
Now in his 60s, he planned to retrace this childhood memory, and asked about
the crash on an online mailing list before returning to Surabaya.
Promptly I gave Goei the answer -- the pilot was my aunt Suwarni's first
husband. In an open letter, I told Goei that Capt. Muljono was performing at an
air show that fateful day. After completing a series of acrobatic rolls and
loops he successfully pulled his P-51 Mustang into a deep dive, swooping 150
meters from the ground before hurtling back up into the sky.
Wanting to display his daring, he dove again -- lower. At 50 meters above the
ground perhaps he blacked out, and the Mustang slammed into Pak Haji's house,
killing both Capt. Muljono and Haji instantly.
Despite that fatal blunder, the crash turned Muljono into a folk hero and soon
people were singing Juruterbang (pilot) Pak Muljono to the popular tune of
Tukang Becak Bang Samiun (Bang Samiun the becak driver) to honor him.
A couple of months after I wrote the letter, Goei wrote back and said he had
returned to Indonesia and laid flowers at Muljono's grave in the Heroes
Cemetery in Surabaya.
What I forgot to tell Goei -- but what he found out himself -- was why Muljono
deserved to be buried in the Heroes Cemetery. Refusing to recognize Indonesia's
independence on Aug. 17, 1945, the Dutch made an attempt to reoccupy the
country and force the capital to move to Yogyakarta.
On July 29, 1947, Muljono, Sutarjo Sigit and Suharnoko Harbani were responsible
for what would later be known as Hari Bakti TNI-AU or Air Force Dedication Day.
In the wee hours of the morning, Muljono, flying a Mitsubishi KI-51 fighter,
and Sutarjo Sigit and Suharnoko Harbani, both flying Yokosuka K5Y1 training
planes, took off from Maguwo air base near Yogyakarta.
Muljono, Sutarjo and Suharnoko bombed Dutch army positions in Semarang,
Ambarawa and Salatiga, respectively. The three young men were Air Force cadets,
and they had learned to fly the Japanese aircraft they had at their disposal
simply by reading the manuals written in Japanese. In the absence of bomb bays,
the pilots lobbed the small bombs from the cockpits of their fighter planes by
hand. Because of this, the Dutch did not suffer any reported loss of life or
great damage, though it probably did give them a scare.
Of course, the ragtag Japanese aircraft the occupiers had left behind in
Indonesia were no match for the Dutch, whose American P-40 Kitty Hawk fighter
planes then roamed the skies above Java with a vengeance. To avoid being
intercepted, the Indonesian pilots flew just above the treetops. After
accomplishing their jobs, they returned to base safely and the ground crew hid
the planes under the trees.
The Dutch punishment came swiftly and severely. That same morning only a couple
of hours later, two Kitty Hawks strafed Yogyakarta. Later that afternoon a
Kitty Hawk gunned down an Indian transport plane, a Dakota C-47, carrying
medicines donated by the Malaya Red Cross, which was about to land at Maguwo.
The hapless plane went down in flames in a nearby village, killing all three
Indonesian Air Force crew members: Agustinus Adisutjipto, Abdulrachman Saleh
and Adisumarno, who had airports named after them in Yogyakarta, Malang and
Surakarta.
Also killed were pilot Alexander Noel Constantine (an Australian), co-pilot Roy
Hazelhurst (a Briton), flight engineer Bidha Ram (Indian), Zainal Arifin (the
Indonesian consul in Malaya) and Mrs. Noel Constantine. The only survivor was
one passenger, Abdulgani Handokotjokro.
The reason the Air Force chose to honor this day is obvious: the bravery of the
pilots serves as an antidote to the black picture later painted of the entire
corps by the Army in the New Order.
Because of a lack of hindsight, I failed to tell Goei about the other exploits
of our ace pilots Ignatius Dewanto and Leo Wattimena. The first was hit in 1957
after a successful mission against the Permesta rebels in North Sulawesi.
Another pilot from the Mustang P-51 squadron who saw him losing altitude, Sri
Muljono Herlambang, radioed for him to eject. Dewanto refused to bail out as he
wanted to save the plane, at the time a precious asset for the Air Force. He
landed his P-51 safely in the waters off Sulawesi, but before long it sank. A
flotation device saved the life of the pilot.
Perhaps Leo Wattimena is our version of the famed Red Baron. When he trained in
the United Kingdom in a Dehaviland Vampire Trainer jet, he angered his hosts
when he flew under a bridge on the Thames River. A hot-tempered pilot, on one
occasion he ordered the hangar of Bandung's Hussein Sastranegara Airport
cleared and its doors opened, and then flew a Mustang P-51 through it. He was
also known for his penchant for flying the famed fighter plane upside down,
only a few meters above the tarmac.
Daring, yes, foolhardy even. But no one can deny the commitment and bravery of
our pilots, the heroes of the sky who did all they could to liberate our
country.
The writer is a former Indonesian Air Force pilot.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
***************************************************************************
Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg
Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia
***************************************************************************
__________________________________________________________________________
Mohon Perhatian:
1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik)
2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari.
3. Reading only, http://dear.to/ppi
4. Satu email perhari: ppiindia-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
5. No-email/web only: ppiindia-nomail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
6. kembali menerima email: ppiindia-normal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ppiindia-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
** Forum Nasional Indonesia PPI India Mailing List **
** Untuk bergabung dg Milis Nasional kunjungi:
** Situs Milis: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/ **
** Beasiswa dalam negeri dan luar negeri S1 S2 S3 dan post-doctoral
scholarship, kunjungi
http://informasi-beasiswa.blogspot.com **
Other related posts:
- » [nasional_list] [ppiindia] Where have all Indonesian great pilots gone?
