Prop Fighters
In 1972 (1349), twelve O-2A ships were purchased and delivered to IIAF pilots in the USA.
The aircraft had to be completely modified into a large fuel tank, leaving the pilots’ seat unchanged from the original design; this accommodated the large fuel requirements for a direct flight from the US base to Tehran. The excellent skills of the IIAF pilots allowed the 12 ships to be flown without incident to Iran.
The Squadron was first formed in Tehran (Doshan Tappeh)and subsequently transferred to Tabriz, which later became a Tactical Air Base.
The Squadron was initially under the command of Shahrokhi AFB(Hamadan).
When Tabriz became a Tactical Fighter Base, the Squadron was operationally
under the command of the Second Tactical Fighter Base.
The O-2 Squadron was one of the rare squadrons in IIAF, which was a self-sufficient squadron, Having more than 25 Instructor pilots and pilots and over 400 Maintenance crew, all under the command of the squadron commander.
The O-2 A squadron commanders were:
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Col. Jahanfakhr
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Col. Mohammad Reza Pezeshki
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Col. Mostafa Afshar
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Maj. Yadolah Nazeri
List of names of a few pilots:
Bijan Riahi, Abdolah Saedy, Ata Rahimi, Hooshang Shad Anbaz, Akbar Salehi, Mahmood Firoozi, Asghar Razaghi, Mahmood Khaleghi, Abbas Mir Lohi, Reza Saadatmandi, Khosrow Anssari, Khosrow Moogooei, Ghassem Ebadi, Akbar Rookh Faraz, (First name) Moghaddam, (First name) Derogar, (First name) Sotoodeh, Dawood Fardmanesh, Majid Rashidi pour , (First name) Reyhani, (First name) Teymoor Zadeh, Mostafa Soory, Reza Moezi, (First name) Fereydoon Zadeh, (First name) Shamsaee, (First name) Chamani, (First name) Khadiv, (First name) Alikhani
Squadron Mission
The squadron’s mission was pilot training and operational readiness in combined Army/Navy/Air Force operations. The squadron also assumed wing training for those stationed in Iran.
Their missions were:
Formation, Navigation, Night Flight, Gunnery, Night Gunnery and Instrument Flight.
The aircraft had two guns and two rocket pods with the capability for seven rockets or four rocket pods
.In 1978, this squadron was ultimately transferred to the Army (Hawa Nirooz). There, the instructor pilots trained the Hawa Nirooz pilots for a minimum of six months.
When the aircraft were transferred, the Army pilots were more than ready to operate these ships. Later, all pilots, instructor pilots, and maintenance specialists were assigned to transport squadrons such as “Friendship” F-27 and the reliable “Hercules” C-130 squadrons.
