MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
1982 air ace takes over as Argentine Air Force number two
At a ceremony held this morning at the Air Force headquarters building in downtown Buenos Aires Brigadier Horacio Mir Gonzalez took over as Secretary General of the Argentine Air Force.
Mir Gonzalez, who earlier this week hosted Royal Air Force Chief of the Air Staff Sir Peter Squire in his three day visit to Buenos Aires is a decorated Malvinas War Dagger pilot who flew numerous combat missions as part of the crack Argentine Air Force Sixth Fighter Group, known as the Wild Buzzards, a unit which flew over 150 combat missions during the conflict losing eleven aircraft and five pilots.
A photograph of a squadron of Group 6 Daggers led by Mir Gonzalez flying at mast level behind HMS Fearless and HMS Plymouth in San Carlos Water on 24 May 1982 went round the world and was the motive of much praise about the courage and professionalism shown by many young Argentine pilots flying combat missions in Bomb Alley.
The son of a senior Air Force officer, Mir Gonzalez is highly respected in the Air Force, and is one of the forerunners of the generation of 1982 war veterans now moving into senior positions within the Argentine armed Forces.
A fluent English speaker and a keen golfer Mir Gonzalez was based for several years in the US where he co-ordinated the purchase of Argentina's 36 Skyhawks A4ARs purchased in the 1990s and refitted with the code name Fighting hawks
Earlier this year he travelled to the UK where he took part at a conference held at Sandhurst Military Academy marking the 20th anniversary of the war.
Mir Gonzalez is the only Argentine member of the prestigious Eagles Association, the US Air Command and Staff College team of distinguished aviators who share their unique flying experiences with ACSC students.
Nicholas Tozer ? (MP) Buenos Aires
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