Son of hero pilot Milenko Pavlovic proud of his memory: He was with me only 9 years but he gave me everything

"Some people get to have their parents their whole lives, until the old age, and they don't get anything from them in terms of upbringing. I got literally everything from my father, even though I only lived with him for nine years."

While speaking in this way about his father, the brave pilot Milenko Pavlovic who died on this day in 1999 defending Serbia's sky from NATO aggressors, Nemanja pauses for a moment as if fighting back the tears. But, in a calm and dignified tone, he continues to talk about his dad. As he himself tells us, he does this filled with pride.

Milenko's feat went to eternity, remaining engraved in history as a deed that we admire, but so will generations after us. With the words, "Damn kids, you won't be dying, I will," Pavlovic pulled a younger colleague out of the cockpit of a MiG-29 and set out to defend his homeland. His plane was hit by three NATO missiles just as he was flying over his hometown, Valjevo.

16 aggressor planes went after him alone. He resisted the attack for a full 12 minutes, and then his colleagues heard only two words: "They got me"...

His sons Srdjan and Nemanja and his wife Slavica were waiting for him at home. They knew that he was nervous in those days, that he did not want to say long goodbyes, but they had no idea that May 2, when he last visited them, would be the last time they saw him.

Today, Nemanja finds it difficult to talk about the last words, the last time they spent together...

"Emotions are too strong. But above all, I am proud, very proud. Once, when I was talking to a man from the army about my dad, he told me, 'Be proud. Millions are born without such a father'. From his aviator colleagues, I learned that my father is one of only two commanders of a fighter squadron who died on a combat mission. The other is Walter Nowotny, who died in the Second World War," Nemanja tells us.

He remembers that his dad taught him to ski at the age of four, and as a game while on a cable car on Mt. Kopaonik, he also learned the multiplication table.

"There are other memories of my dad from skiing, summer vacations, studying... Beautiful memories. He was the best dad and a role model for all of us," says Nemanja.

He proudly adds that the lineage continues. His brother Srdjan has two children, Vojin and Masa, so his mother Slavica is today a proud grandmother.

Nemanja's father was posthumously awarded the Order of Bravery. The Serbian Orthodox Church awarded his family the Order of the Holy Bishop Nikolaj. A documentary film was made about Milenko Pavlovic, a memorial complex was erected in his birthplace of Gornje Crniljevo, and there are monuments dedicated to him in Valjevo and Bujacic. The main street in Batajnica, a Belgrade municipality, bears his name, as well as the military airport from which he took off on the fateful day. And went to eternity.

(Telegraf.rs)