Hafez Al-Assad - Air Force Career

Air Force Career

After his graduation from high school, Assad wanted to be a medical doctor but his father could not pay for his study at the Jesuit University of St. Joseph in Beirut. Instead, in 1950 he decided to join the Syrian Armed Forces. Assad entered the Military Academy in Homs, which offered free food, lodging and a stipend that suited him. He wanted to fly, and entered the flying school in Aleppo in 1950. Assad graduated in 1955, after which he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Syrian Air Force. Upon his graduation from the flying school, he won a trophy for the best aviator and shortly afterwards was assigned to the Mezze air base near Damascus. While he was a lieutenant in his early 20s, he married Aniseh Makhlouf, a distant relative of a powerful family.

In 1954, the military split in a revolt against Adib Shishakli. Hashim al-Atassi, head of the National Bloc and briefly the president after Sami al-Hinnawi's coup, returned as president; Syria was again under the civilian rule. After 1955, Atassi's hold on the country was increasingly shaky. At the 1955 election, Atassi was replaced by Shukri al-Quwatli, who had been president before Syria's independence from France. At the time, the Ba'ath Party started to get close to the Communist Party; not because of shared ideology, but shared opposition towards the west. While at the Academy, Assad met Mustafa Tlass, his future Minister of Defense. When in 1956 Gamal Abdel Nasser took control of the Suez Canal, Syria feared retaliation from the United Kingdom and Hafez flew in an air defense mission. In 1955, Assad was sent to Egypt for a further six months training. He was among the Syrian pilots who were sent to fly to Cairo to show Syria's commitment to Egypt, which was threatened by Israel and members of the Baghdad Pact, which included Iraq and Turkey. After he finished a course in Egypt the following year, Assad returned to a small air base near Damascus. In that year, during the Suez Crisis, Assad flew a reconnaissance mission over northern and eastern Syria. In 1957, Assad became squadron commander and was sent to the Soviet Union for training to fly the MiG-17. He spent ten months in the Soviet Union, during which he fathered a daughter who died as an infant while he was abroad.

In 1958, Syria and Egypt formed the United Arab Republic (UAR), separating themselves from Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, which were aligned to the United Kingdom. This pact led to the rejection of Communist influence in favor of Egyptian control over Syria. All Syrian political parties, including the Ba'ath Party, were dissolved. Senior officers, especially those who supported the Communists, were dismissed from the Syrian Armed Forces. Assad however remained in the army and rose quickly through its ranks. After attaining the rank of captain, Assad was transferred to Egypt where he continued his military education, studying together with his Egyptian colleague Hosni Mubarak, the future president of Egypt.