Today Sub-Lieutenant Nikolaos Sialmas gave his life for his country
Greek airmen view defending the Aegean as a sacred duty rooted in historical tradition, maintaining readiness through rigorous training while political leadership is criticized for appeasement.
The dream of every Greek Airman, even before entering the Icarus School, is to spread his wings and soar over the Aegean. To become the continuation of a long tradition of Fighters for the Homeland. What a blessing, honor, and heavy RESPONSIBILITY, to constitute the spearhead of the State, to be given the sacred duty of defending our Aegean and the NATIONAL INTEREST.
Nowhere else in the world do the sky, the sun, and the sea blend so harmoniously together. And the Airmen, embraced by these formidable steel birds, become initiates of this mystical and primordial relationship. Only those who have lived it can fully comprehend the grandeur of this feeling.
It is the same feeling that Icarus experienced with awe before his fall in the Archipelago. The same feeling that drives the Greek Aviators when, after hearing the “wail of the siren,” they take off to engage the eastern invaders.
The historical Memory of the Race “flows” in their blood. Heroic figures of the past, memories of struggles and sacrifices, and “historical debts” with the nomadic plunderers leave no room for failure.
One step before pulling the trigger, one movement away from “MASTER ARM,” they deliver the message that ONLY “Hard Power” can make understood to the infidel enemies of the Nation. The message that “diplomacy” and the gang of appeasement and defeatism fail to convey.
It is paradoxical indeed that the adversary knows your Strength and beyond words does not dare the next step, while the cowardly political, academic, and journalistic establishment of the Homeland cultivates groundless phobic syndromes.
The life of an Aviator, ascetic. Confinement, study, study, study, knowledge of the aircraft, procedures, weapons, the adversary, physical condition, mental and emotional preparation, vigilance, honesty in debriefing, a continuous cycle.
A symbol for the warrior monks of the Combat Squadrons is a point on the map: SIALMAS POINT or Cape of Squadron Leader Nikolaos Sialmas, southern tip of Agios Efstratios, 25th Meridian…
Place of Sacrifice, Monument of Duty, Pilgrimage site, and Source of eternal Spirit for the Airmen. It is there that on June 18, 1992, Squadron Leader (F) Nikolaos Sialmas from Thermo in Aetolia-Acarnania, with callsign “SPARTA,” became for the Airmen EQUAL to LEONIDAS. He gave his life, at 27 years old, for the Aegean and the Homeland.
A tremendous Shield, a Spear toward the East, and a “MOLON LABE.”
ETERNAL BE HIS MEMORY
Wing Commander (F) ret. Stefanos Karavidas
Former Aviator 335 Squadron “TIGER”
