In 1981, Ilan Ramon was on the team that was to bomb the Iraqi reactor.

His commanding officer, Gen. Yadlin, spoke on Sunday evening, February 2 on Israeli TV on the “Seven and a Half” early evening news program about that action, saying that the simulations predicated a possibility that two planes could be shot down.

The main problem was that there were to be eight sorties over the target and the planners were unsure about the reaction time and capabilities of the ground defense crews and their response to the attacking force with anti-aircraft guns and missiles.

Ilan basically volunteered to be in the eighth plane. He was then unmarried whereas all the other pilots were married and fathers.

Ilan told Yadlin that as he was the son of a Holocaust survivor, anything that he could do to prevent another Holocaust was worth all the risks.