{"id":172609,"date":"2025-03-24T15:03:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T13:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=172609"},"modified":"2025-03-24T15:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T13:03:14","slug":"you-young-men-wont-die-i-will-milenko-pavlovic-the-pilot-who-flew-to-his-death-and-into-eternity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/you-young-men-wont-die-i-will-milenko-pavlovic-the-pilot-who-flew-to-his-death-and-into-eternity\/","title":{"rendered":"“YOU YOUNG MEN WON\u2019T DIE, I WILL!”: Milenko Pavlovi\u0107, the pilot who flew to his death and into eternity!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With the words: “Damn it, kids, you won\u2019t die, I will!”<\/strong> Milenko Pavlovi\u0107 pulled his younger colleague out of the cockpit of the MiG-29<\/strong> and took off alone to defend his homeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Some people live with their parents their entire lives and never receive anything from them in terms of upbringing. I got everything from my father, even though I lived with him for only nine years.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he utters these words about his father, the brave pilot Milenko Pavlovi\u0107, who lost his life on this day in 1999<\/strong> while defending Serbian airspace from NATO aggressors<\/strong>, his son Nemanja pauses, as if about to cry. But with a calm and dignified tone, he continues speaking about his father\u2014full of pride, as he himself says.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milenko\u2019s heroic act has become eternal, etched into history as a deed admired not only by us but by all generations to come. With the words: “Damn it, kids, you won\u2019t die, I will!”<\/strong> Pavlovi\u0107 pulled his younger colleague out of the cockpit of the MiG-29<\/strong> and took off alone to defend his homeland. His aircraft was struck by three NATO missiles<\/strong>\u2014at the very moment he was flying over his hometown.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was alone against 16 enemy aircraft.<\/strong> He held his ground for a full 12 minutes<\/strong>, and then his colleagues heard just two final words over the radio: “They got me…”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At home, his sons Sr\u0111an and Nemanja<\/strong> and his wife Slavica<\/strong> were waiting for him. They knew he had been nervous in those days, that he didn\u2019t want to prolong his goodbyes, but they never imagined that their meeting on May 2<\/strong>, when he last visited them, would be their final one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Nemanja, speaking about his father\u2019s last words<\/strong> and last meeting<\/strong> is still difficult today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The emotions are too strong. But above all, I am proud\u2014so very proud. Once, when I was speaking with a man from the military about my father, he told me: ‘Be proud. Millions are born, but few have a father like that.’ From his colleagues in aviation, I learned that my father was one of only two fighter regiment commanders in the world to die on a combat mission. The other was Walter Nowotny, who was killed in World War II,”<\/strong> Nemanja tells us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He remembers that his father taught him to ski at the age of four<\/strong> and that through playful lessons on the ski lift in Kopaonik<\/strong>, he also learned the multiplication table.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I have memories of skiing with my dad, vacations, lessons… Beautiful memories. He was the best dad and a role model for all of us,”<\/strong> Nemanja says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With pride, he adds that the family lineage continues<\/strong>. His brother Sr\u0111an has two children, Vojin and Ma\u0161a<\/strong>, making their mother Slavica a proud grandmother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nemanja\u2019s father was posthumously awarded the Medal for Bravery<\/strong>. The Serbian Orthodox Church<\/strong> honored his family with the Order of Saint Bishop Nikolaj<\/strong>. A documentary film was made about Milenko Pavlovi\u0107, a memorial complex<\/strong> was built in his hometown of Gornje Crniljevo<\/strong>, and monuments<\/strong> were erected in Valjevo<\/strong> and Buja\u010di\u0107<\/strong>. The main street in Batajnica<\/strong> bears his name, as does the airbase from which he took off on that fateful day\u2014flying into eternity.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source<\/strong>: Telegraf<\/a>, Foto<\/strong>: Privatna arhiva<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the words: “Damn it, kids, you won\u2019t die, I will!” Milenko Pavlovi\u0107 pulled his younger colleague out of the cockpit of the MiG-29 and took off alone to defend his homeland. “Some people live with their parents their entire lives and never receive anything from them in terms of upbringing. I got everything from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2169,"featured_media":172612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2954,2471,4718,5753,113,5754,5755],"class_list":["post-172609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-avijacija","tag-nato-bombardovanje-1999","tag-pilot","tag-ratno-vazduhoplovstvo","tag-srbija","tag-srpski-heroji","tag-srpski-junaci","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Serbiantimes.info EN","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":172646,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172609\/revisions\/172646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}