Another Tragedy For The Ramon Family

Assaf Ramon next to a picture of his father Ilan.

Some young men dream of becoming doctors. Some dream of becoming sports stars. Some young men dream of flying to the stars. And this last dream was the ambition of Lt. Assaf Ramon who was killed in a training accident on Sunday.

Assaf Ramon was the son of Colonel Ilan Ramon who was killed in the Columbia Shuttle Disaster. Assaf graduated the IAF pilot's course this last June and was the valedictorian at graduation.

The cause of the accident is under investigation. All signs are pointing to pilot error.

Israel's political and military leaders joined friends and relatives of Assaf Ramon in mourning the young pilot on Sunday evening. Ramon died Sunday when his F-16 jet crashed in the southern Hevron Hills.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reacted to the fatal crash, saying, "This is a dreadful tragedy for Rona [Ramon], the entire Ramon family, and the entire nation.

"It is rare that a private tragedy pierces the heart of the nation with such strength,” he continued. “Today we all grieve the death of Assaf, who fell from the heavens like his father Ilan.

"There is no comfort, only tears,” the prime minister concluded.

President Shimon Peres, who himself had been discharged from the hospital earlier in the day, spoke of his personal recollections of both Assaf and his father. “They are the symbol of all that is good in the Jewish State, they were the best of the best,” he said. “What has happened today is more than a tragedy, it is shattering.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed his condolences during a joint news conference with United States special envoy George Mitchell. "This is a painful and sad day,” Barak said. “Our hearts are breaking, and we all feel for Rona and for Assaf's siblings.”

Barak went on to say that despite the tragedy, Israel must “continue to build our strength, while extending a hand to peace.”

Among the IDF commanders to assemble at the Ramon family home was Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. Former Air Force commanders joined the family as well.

Ashkenazi recalled happier times three months earlier, when he joined the family in celebrating Assaf's completion of his pilots' course. “This is a terrible blow... Unfortunately, this is part of the price we pay for living in our beloved land.”

Air Force Deputy Commander Brigadier-General Yochanan Locker expressed sympathy as well. Asaf and Ilan were both exceptional soldiers “who served as an example for many,” he said.

Here at Monkey in the Middle we send our condolences and prayers to the Ramon Family. May G-d comfort and console you in this time.

In The Footstep Of His Father

On February 1, 2003, Colonel Ilan Ramon died upon the Columbia Shuttle when it broke apart over Texas.

Col. Ramon's career in the IAF was remarkable. Born on June 20, 1954 in Ramat Gan, Israel, Ilan excelled in his schooling. In 1974 he became a fighter pilot with the IAF, was one of the first F-16 pilots for Israel, he was the youngest pilot who took part in the 1981 Raid on the Osiraq Nuclear Plant in Iraq, and Israel's first astronaut.

Ilan was posthumously awarded the US Congressional Space Medal of Honor, the NASA Space Flight Medal, and the Distinguished Public Service Medal. He remains the only foreigner to be awarded the US Congressional Space Medal of Honor.

The love of flying runs in his family. It must for his son, Assaf has earned his wings.

Assaf Ramon, son of Israel's first astronaut Ilan Ramon, will receive his wings and officer's ranks this Thursday at a graduation ceremony for the Israel Air Force's pilot training course.

Ilan Ramon became the first Israeli in space aboard the Columbia, which exploded during its reentry over Texas in 2003.

Ramon was a colonel in the IAF and before joining NASA he held a number of staff positions at the branch's Tel Aviv headquarters.

Assaf Ramon announced his plans to follow in his father's footsteps shortly following the Columbia tragedy.

In 2006 he was enlisted in the IDF and successfully passed the IAF's grueling examinations and trials for the prestigious pilots course.

Ramon has also been chosen as valedictorian.

Several months ago, during a routine training flight in a Skyhawk A4, Ramon encountered a technical failure when the engine suddenly died.

Instead of injecting, as protocol dictates, Ramon, together with the flight instructor, successfully restarted the engine and safely returned to base.

Ramon is training to become a fighter pilot and following the course will be assigned to a squadron.

Ramon's graduating class is comprised of men only, most of whom are residents of cities, in stark contrast to the IAF's early days, when most pilots came from kibbutzim.

To become a pilot for the IAF you must be the best of the best. For the IAF only takes the best students from Israeli schools, and only the best of these can even hope to become fighter pilots.

Young Assaf is following in his father's footsteps, but also blazing his own trail upon the skies.

Mitzpeh Ilan

Road sign to Mitzpeh Ilan

On February 1, 2003 the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas, while attempting to land back in Florida. All 7 members of the crew were killed.

On board was Israel's first astronaut, Ilan Ramon. To honor his memory, Israel has named a new town after him.

The Supreme Court has removed what is apparently the last obstacle on the rocky road towards the establishment of a new Jewish town just south of the Galilee. The community is named Mitzpeh Ilan (Ilan Outlook), in memory of fallen Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon.

The Court ruled on Tuesday against the Society for the Preservation of Nature in Israel (SPNI), which had asked that criminal proceedings be initiated against the families living there. The SPNI claimed that the families had built in and populated the area before official approval was given.

Mitzpeh Ilan is located between Harish and Katzir, in the Nachal I’ron (Wadi Ara) area of pre-1967 Israel, adjacent to the northern Shomron. It began, as nearly 80 other towns in Israel have begun, as a Nachal army outpost. Though the initial core group is religious, the families hope that Mitzpeh Ilan will be a mixed community of close to 350 families.

Nachal is an acronym for Pioneering Combat Youth, an IDF unit engaged mostly in settling new areas in the Land of Israel and preparing them to become civilian towns. New towns have been established in this manner in the Negev, Galilee, and Aravah, and after 1967, also in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Golan and the Sinai.

The decision to turn the I’ron Valley outpost into a regular town was made by the Defense Ministry in 2005, and nearly 40 families, with 100 children, began to move in shortly afterwards.

Mitzpeh Ilan Entrance

During the Supreme Court sessions, some judges raised their eyebrows at the “great interest” shown by the SPNI in prosecuting the pioneers. The judges advised the SPNI to concentrate on its original objectives, namely, the preservation of nature and environment.

SPNI has also been leading the legal struggle against the plans to build new towns for the expelled residents of Gush Katif in the relatively unpopulated area between Kiryat Gat and southern Judea.

Ilan Ramon

Ilan Ramon, for whom the new town is named, was killed in February 2003, together with six other astronauts, when their Columbia spacecraft exploded during its re-entry orbit after a 16-day trip. He and the other astronauts had been asked to make a list of personal items they would like to take into space. Ramon, who was not a religious Jew, chose the following, as Arutz-7's Kobi Finkler reported at the time:

"Because his mother was a Holocaust survivor, he took along a drawing of Earth as it might look from the moon, drawn by a boy who died in Auschwitz shortly before the end of the war. As a representative of the State of Israel, he took along a Presidential pennant, as well as flags of the Israel Air Force, the two cities in which he lived - Be'er Sheva and Ramat Gan - and the high school in which he studied. He hung a mezuzah on one of the doors in the spacecraft; he took a silver 'hand' used for reading from the Torah; the world saw him proudly wave his Kiddush cup used on the Sabbath; and in his bag was a Book of Psalms. At every press conference he would proudly say, 'I am an emissary of Zionism and the Jewish People.'"

I hope that this new town prospers and grows. A fitting memorial to one who gave so much to his nation.