ABSTRACT
Forty-five minutes before Albert and his entourage hear the Egyptian MiGs over Refidim, Sukhoi 7 pilot Captain Sharif Abdul Wahab Mustapha is summoned to his squadron briefing room. Alexandrian born Sharif will be one of the first Arab pilots shot down. On another airfield, Captain Halil Yussuf Halim reviews the maps. Halil, resident of Cairo and a Copt, is the pilot of a Nil 8 helicopter. He, with 25 others, is to transport the first assault wave of commandos into Sinai to block roads and strike at IDF command posts. The Iraqi squadron stationed in Egypt will also come in later. In this squadron is Lieutenant Abd el-Kader Hader, a 27-year-old from Mosul.
