Amir Nachumi Amir Nachumi ( , born 1945 ) is a retired Israeli Air Force Brigadier General who in the course of his career shot down 14 enemy aircraft , making him one of Israel ' s top flying ace s . He scored 7 aerial kills in the F - 4 Phantom II during the Yom Kippur War , 7 in the F - 16 Fighting Falcon in fighting over Lebanon , and participated in Operation Opera , the 1981 raid that destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor . Military service . Born in Jerusalem in 1945 , Amir Nachumi was drafted into the Israel Defence Forces in 1962 . Failing to complete IAF flight course 44 , Nachumi joined the IDF Armored Corps with which he completed his mandatory service , attaining the rank of staff sergeant . Discharged in 1964 , Nachumi entered the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , graduating in 1967 with a degree in chemistry and physics . Shortly before completing his studies , he was called up to serve in the Six Day War , fighting in the AMX - 13 . Following the losses suffered in the war and the subsequent expansion of the IAF , Nachumi was allowed to re - enlist with the IAF flight school . On November 21 , 1968 , he completed flight course 57 and began flying Dassault Ouragan s with 113 Squadron out of Hatzor . Nachumi flew 50 combat missions on the Ouragan during the War of Attrition and later returned to the IAF flight school as an instructor . In 1971 he converted to the McDonnell Douglas F - 4 Phantom II , which he flew with 107 Squadron . Yom Kippur War . In early October 1973 Nachumi was among two F - 4 Phantom crews on quick reaction alert duty at Ofir air force base , near Sharm el - Sheikh at the southern tip of the Sinai . Neither pilots were qualified as pair leaders , but on the morning of October 6 , when it became clear that war was imminent , Nachumi was promoted on the phone by squadron leader Yiftah Spector . The two Phantom crews ( Nachumi / Yossi Yavin and Daniel Shaki / David Regev ) were sitting in their aircraft when war broke out at 14 : 00 , spearheaded by an Egyptian aerial strike against Israeli positions in the Sinai . Radar had detected Egyptian Air Force formations heading for Ofir but the two aircraft were not scrambled yet . Despite orders to the contrary , Nachumi scrambled the two jets himself : 28 EAF MiG - 17 s and their MiG - 21 escorts had arrived to attack Ofir and had Nachumi not made the decision to scramble , the Phantoms would not have been able to take off from the damaged runway . He jettisoned his external fuel tanks and the two aircraft separated , each going after his own quarries . Nachumi had managed to down two MiG - 17s using AIM - 9 Sidewinder s and hit two more with his cannon , when one of his engines suffered a compressor stall . He relit it and continued chasing the MiGs , eventually shooting down two more , both with the AIM - 9D . Shaki and Regev had downed 3 other aircraft and both aircraft landed on the damaged runway , avoiding bomb craters and debris . After the war , all four airmen received Israel ' s third highest decoration , the Medal of Distinguished Service , for their conduct during the battle . By the war ' s end Nachumi had also become the IAF ' s top F - 4 Phantom ace , with 7 confirmed kills . He scored his fifth kill on October 13 when 107 squadron struck the Syrian air base at Saiqal . A MiG - 21 was attempting to down his wingman when Nachumi manoeuvred behind it and fired an AIM - 9D from 1300 meters away . He scored two more kills on the following day , October 14 . 107 squadron was tasked with attacking the Egyptian airfield at Tanta , but Nachumi and wingman Meir Most were intercepted en route by a pair of MiG - 21s from El Mansoura . After shooting down a MiG that had gone after Most , Nachumi battled with the other aircraft which eventually crashed into the Mediterranean . Opera and Lebanon . Seven years after joining the squadron , in June 1978 Nachumi was promoted to 107 squadron leader . Two years later he was selected to lead 110 Squadron , the IAF ' s second F - 16 Fighting Falcon squadron , which formally opened at Ramat David on September 28 , 1980 . On June 7 , 1981 , the Israeli Air Force carried out Operation Opera , when 8 Israeli F - 16s destroyed an Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad . Nachumi was the leader of the second four - ship formation to attack the reactor , flying F - 16 ' 228 ' . A few weeks later , on July 14 , a flight of Syrian MiG - 21s attempted to intercept Israeli A - 4 Skyhawk s over Lebanon but were intercepted by their 110 Squadron escorts . Nachumi shot down a single MiG to become the world ' s first pilot to shoot down an enemy fighter in the F - 16 . Over the course of the 1982 Lebanon War , 110 Squadron was credited with 23 aerial kills , including 6 fighters shot down by Nachumi himself , all using the AIM - 9L . Three of the kills were scored on the same sortie : Later service . Now a 14 - kills ace , Nachumi completed his tenure at 110 squadron in April 1983 and transferred to the IAF ' s Air Intelligence Directorate . Four years later he was appointed commander of Ramat David and in 1989 promoted to Brigadier General ( " Tat - Aluf " ) and assigned command of the IAF ' s Air Group , responsible for operations and training . In this capacity Nachumi commanded the air element of Operation Solomon , the 1991 airlift of Ethiopian Jews to Israel . Nachumi flew in an IAF C - 130 Hercules to Addis Ababa and personally oversaw various logistic elements of the operation . Amir Nachumi took his last flight on the F - 16 on June 26 , 1995 , flying 110 squadron ' s F - 16C ' 329 ' . He retired from the IDF in 1996 but continued to fly with the IAF as a volunteer instructor at the flight academy until April 2005 when forced to retire by new IAF regulations limiting pilot age . Civilian career . After leaving the military Nachumi was president and CEO of TIL Defense Systems . He was later CEO of Triphase Technologies Ltd . , an investment company , and then manager of GlassCeraX , a company dealing with extreme performance material . Besides his chemistry degree from the Hebrew University , he also holds an MBA from Tel Aviv University . He is married to Naomi and a father of three .