Života Đurić

Života Ðurić (Serbian Cyrillic: Живота Ђурић; 11 April 1963 – 25 March 1999) was a Yugoslav fighter pilot who fought in the Kosovo War, during which he was killed in the FR Yugoslav Strike Mission.

Early life Born in 1963, he was educated in the village of Davidovac in the Paraćin municipality. After elementary school he went to Mostar to the Military Aviation School there, and then to the Aviation Academy in Zemunik near Zadar and two more years in Titograd (today's Podgorica).

Service as pilot The service of the military pilot began in 1986 at the Petrovec airport near Skopje. There he married Biljana, who is from the vicinity of Paraćin. For six years they were in Skopje, then the squadron was moved to Kraljevo. The war found him at the position of the commander of the Tigers, a squadron of the "eagles" warplanes in the 98th Fighter-Bubbarrian Air Force Regiment. A unit that was based at the airport in Ladjevci near Kraljevo. There he becomes the commander of the 241st Fighter-Bubbarrier Squadron. That March 1999, it was clear to everyone that NATO would attack Serbia. The aviation regiment in Ladjevci had war plans, reconnaissance "eagles" recorded the positions of the KLA on Kosmet, and possible targets. The airmen approached the dislocation of manpower and equipment, the planes were removed from the airport and masked in their surroundings. His face, in his legacy, was later painted on a Soko J-22 Orao warplane in Serbia.