Interview - April 4th & April 5th 2009 Hebrew Text
Interview of Uri Breier by Segal in Israel 04.04.06.pdf
The text of the Interview discusses our Father and his family’s life in Germany, their move to Israel and their efforts to rebuild their lives, our father’s passion for flying and the development of his flying career from Germany through its conclusion at Avco, Lycoming in Stratford, Ct., and aspects of his service in the Israeli Air Force, El Al and Avco Lycoming. The Interview is long and in some places redundant. Mixed in however, are incredible pieces which reveal our father’s flying brilliance and speak to his incredible character. Some of the segments that spoke most directly to us of the person our father is are articulated below. Of course you can see the entire Video or fast forward the Video as you would like, so as to move you through it more quickly.
Hands down Rachel Aviv for your gallant commitment to and success translating this interview from Hewbrew to English. And, for your unyielding friendship..... through the tough times. Oshrat Minachem - thank you for your gifts - simply given to me - someone you didn’t even know. Your friendship and efforts to assist with the translation of this interview were invaluable. This was not an easy undertaking. You will never be forgotten.
May it fill your hearts and touch your souls.
“There are other options also available to a person – not only one option.
You just have to take the chance. I took the chance. That is the story.” (Uri Breier)
This is Uri Breier’s story. He always took the chance - and through the chances he took, the stand he assumed, and the commitments he made ....... this his story unfolded - a legacy formed of bravery, passion, clarity, skill, tenacity, commitment, creativity, purpose and love ........
The following excerpts of the Interview speak to qualities of his, dear to our hearts ....
Outwardly focused: clarity of purpose
Text: Pg. 15 “And I told my parents – go to Israel, leave me here – I will came afterwards.” (he was 16 at the time; his family was fleeing from the Nazis).
Text: Pg. 117 “I declined. I said I do not want to be in any political party. I want to serve the Israeli Air Force in Air Transportation. That was my aim and my goal.”
Text: Pg. 118 “But I don’t like to - I just did not want to get involved in any politics as long as I was worked for Israeli Aviation. That was my goal. To work for the good and the benefit of Israeli Aviation. That was my goal and everything else was secondary.”
Text: Pg. 98 “If I would have been afraid I would not have been able to do these runs because they were shooting incessantly. So ok I was not afraid – it had to be done.” (Uri’s comment when asked about some of the dangerous missions he flew - over and over again).
Persevering: do whatever it takes
Text: Pg. 13 “I didn’t get any help from the school at all. I had to find out everything on my own.” (in Germany where it appears Anti-Semitism precluded his curiosity about planes and flying from being responded to by his teachers).
Text: Pg. 15 “That was his job. My duty at the end of the day, was to find a job. And I found a job at a garage as a mechanic.” (upon his arrival in Israel with his family - prior to having knowledge of Hebrew).
Text: Pg. 58 “I learned on my train ride from Tel Aviv to Cairo, I learned how to answer my questions I thought they (the British Air Force) would ask me in the interview in English.” (Uri was traveling to Cairo to interview with the British Air Force personnel with the hopes of being accepted into their Air Force. He did not know English and knew the interview would be in English).
Text: Pg. 124 “He hired me and for 5 years – I was sitting in an office – nobody else – with paper and pencil doing calculations - aerodynamic calculations for my boss. Can you imagine there in Israel, I was a free for all – a free person – free like a bird. Suddenly you’re sitting for 5 years in an office...”. (Uri’s comments on the nature of his first years of employment here in the U.S.).
Aeronautical skill and intuition
Text: Pg. 9 At the age of 9, you visited, with your or our – brother or mother????? brother and another friend, an airplane event in Berlin – and you started to explain to your friend about some glider, and people started to come. “When I explained this to my mother, other people gathered around us and listened to me explaining the roles of the different knobs. Some professional man in the gathering said to my mother, this young boy will be an important pilot because he knows everything about flying already.”
Text: Pg. 86 “What is the bang? Where did it come from? I looked at my instruments. The instruments didn’t show anything. I checked the aircraft; the aircraft performed perfectly well. But I didn’t understand why it had a bang. I didn’t like that bang. So I thought I better go back to Tel Aviv to check the bang. I got a bullet in my tank and the gas was leaking out very quickly.”
Courage
Text: Pg. 99 & 100 Yes - So he said to me “You don’t want to do this?” I said – “No, I don’t do it – it is not a reasonable order – that is a wrong order.” So he wanted to put me into prison then for disobeying orders. “Ok put me in prison if you want to for disobeying orders – but I am not doing that – that is wrong.” (Uri was asked to fly a mission he thought was suicidal).
Text: Pg. 106 “And as you approached the aircraft – the landing field – not having any other reference on the horizon – it was always going like that – it was always going like that (see sawing) – always going like that - the aeroplane was always see sawing – and the lights were always dancing in front of you. It was very difficult to hold the aircraft steady and stable and to concentrate not to get influenced by that shaking – by the wobbly movement you know. And then finally I landed. I always landed – I never missed a landing. But it was always tricky.”
Text: Pg. 108 “And after the search light came up, anti air craft come up - like sausages – boom, boom, boom, boom. Every 7th bullet or whatever it was, was a tracer bullet you know. You could see the bullets coming up – looks like weeeeee. Well, I asked the navigator then always when we were over there and the search lights were catching us, I asked him to put the bag over my face. I didn’t want to see the search lights, I didn’t want to see the sausages coming up – I wanted to see only my instrument panel.”
Avi: You wanted to concentrate…
Uri: “On my flying – only. And my technique was simple. I know that those bullets were adjusted to explode at a certain altitude – either 8 or 10,000 feet altitude and I wanted to fool them. I didn’t want to be at that altitude. So I put the bag over my face and I started to concentrate on those instruments. Put the aircraft on shallow dive – losing altitude. I could see them the bombs – the …...”
Avi: The shells.
Uri: “The shells coming left from the side there – but I went down there and dropped the bombs out you see. Once I dropped them out, I got a signal, I turned around and went back again right away.”
Text: Pg. 109 “And I decided I would make a low flight - very low, not high, so they couldn’t shoot at me – so they couldn’t see me. So I took off in the direction we had to go and I saw there the whole group of Arabs and I could see already that they are trying to point the guns towards me. When I saw that I just lifted my aircraft – the fuselage up, I put the propeller into high pitch – it makes a very big noise and I dove right onto them down – right down to them and I could see that they saw me coming, they dropped the guns and also them on the floor and I passed over them. It was also a good trick to go into high pitch because it makes such a big noise – it shakes them up a little bit.”
Text: Pg. 119 “And there I was – there I had a very, very strong inclination to change my, to change – my approach towards everything. Because I saw here is something which I cannot overcome. If the management of El Al cannot help me to overcome a problem, I myself cannot overcome it. I have to prove myself that I am worth the money I am getting paid for. Very simple. And that was one of the reasons that I finally decided to quit Israel.”
Text: Pg. 125 “There are other options also available to a person – not only one option. You just have to take the chance. I took the chance. That is the story.”
Humility
Text: Pg. 102 “They were not in the right place – that is all I can tell you. More I cannot say. And the next morning I was sitting at a Café on Dizengoff Street – in a coffee shop and the paper came out telling about our airplanes bombed Aman and so and so. So one of the soldiers there told another group of people - he started to tell them that he was flying in one of the aeroplanes. That is not true. He was bullshitting. So the group of people that was sitting at my table told them that this is not true. I said “Leave him alone. Let him have the honor that he bombed the Aman. Let him have that honor.” (our Father was the one who flew the aeroplane that bombed Aman)
Text: Pg. 129 “You were one of the first founders of the aviation – the civilian and later on military aviation in Israel. You were starting it.”
Uri: “Yes , I am aware of that – I know that. But I don’t want to publicize that and tell everybody that. Either the people know that and appreciate that; fine. And if they don’t know that and don’t appreciate that, also good. I know what I did. I know my part. I did what I could do for the advancement of Israeli aviation. I did everything I could only do.”
Love
Text: Page 128 “What did I do – yes. I had a big problem on my hands. No sooner did I retire, my wife got very sick and I spent lots of time focused on her.” (Uri’s devotion to his beloved wife Marianne, was unparalleled. He spent day and night, hour after hour - caring for her - feeding her, wheeling her, stroking her face, checking if the room temperature was comfortable for her, holding her hand, preparing food treats for her and on and on and on and on and on).
Text: Page 127 “1956 war, I contacted the consul – I wanted to go; ‘56 war I called the consul and told them I want to go back to Israel to fight for Israel. They said “We don’t need you anymore. We finished the fight there.”
Text: Page 129 “I wish the Israeli Air Force all the very best. I don’t know - I hope there will be no war again. But if there should be a war , I hope the Israeli Air Force will be again there where it was before – right on top of everything and do their job as good as only possible – only better.”
Our beautiful parents
uriandmariannebreier@gmail.com
Judith Breier jbreier@msn.com Michele Breier michele.breier@gmail.com