3. Mutineers or loyal flyers?

In fact, not only was Gen. Aseffa crucial to my ability to add aeronautical engineering to my purely flying career in the IEAF but also, in 1955, in persuading me not to leave the air force in the undesirable and non-conventional fashion prevalent at the time. The policy of the IEAF, in force from the start of the air force through the early sixties, that prohibited resignations by pilots and technicians from the air force led to the practice of fabricating medical disability to leave the IEAF. In my case, what I considered an unfair hand dealt to me by Col. Count Gustav von Rosen set me off on a disastrous path for leaving the air force at any cost. One should ask why would Count von Rosen, a person of the stature of Commanding Officer of the IEAF, deal an unfair hand to a lowly pilot. What was that unfair hand anyway? It was the loss of a dream scholarship to study engineering in the USA, as I will explain later.

Count von Rosen has given laudable service to Ethiopia over a period spanning decades starting during Italy’s invasion before the second WW, including starting the IEAF in 1946. He was a pioneer aviator who always sided with the underdog, which Ethiopia was in its armed conflict with Italy, indicating a high dose of idealism in him. Ethiopian pilots serving the UN in the Congo spotted him in the early sixties, when Katanga attempted to break away, although I could not find out what role he was playing there. In the early seventies, he flew the MFI-15, Saab’s all-purpose light airplane, for Biafra. With his Ibo pilots, they were breaking up Nigerian Air Force MIGs on the ground with rocket fire. In his thinking Biafra was the underdog, I feel certain. My point is not to enumerate the armed conflicts that he has participated in but to point out that his preferred side invariably is that of the underdog. When I was the chief executive of Ethiopian Airlines in the early seventies, he related to me the above account about Biafra and convinced me of the usefulness of the further developed SAAB MFI-17 for our country and for the Ethiopian Airlines Flying School. When I countered by suggesting that SAAB should build the type here in Addis Ababa if we are to buy it, since the country has sufficient skilled manpower to start the project with, he immediately put his weight behind us in the ensuing negotiations with SAAB. As it happened, we were not to be able to build the type in the country, in accordance with the excellent agreement reached at with SAAB, because of the revolution that started in 1973. He became a casualty of war in the Ogaden on the Ethiopian side during the Ethio-Somalia armed conflict that started in 1977 while carrying out relief work with the very same MFI-17 aircraft but built in Sweden and not in Addis Ababa. He had a flair for publicity and became famous.

I have often wondered, and never understood, how an outstanding person of Count von Rosen’s stature could negatively engage the simple pilot that I was. The clash between Count von Rosen and me started when a series of sixteen SAAB B-17A accidents and/or incidents, over a short period in 1953 during training sorties of the first Attack Wing based in Asmara, induced all trainee pilots to self ground themselves. Both squadrons became non-operational. We, the trainee pilots of the wing, not only grounded ourselves but also sent a letter from each of the two squadrons to the Emperor explaining the circumstances and stating that our act is not mutiny. Little did we know that those letters would spark a conflict of serious consequence for me and perhaps even for Count von Rosen himself. From present day perspective, letters to an Emperor seem far-fetched and highly pretentious when claimed. Nevertheless, one should be aware that all of us concerned pilots had received our wings directly from the hand of the Emperor and many of us had received gifts and prizes each year, myself starting from primary school through all my high school years, at end of school-year celebrations. The Emperor was a father figure and, since we were accusing the air force administration headed by Count von Rosen, a letter to the Emperor appeared to us a safeguard. As it happened, the Minister of the Palace, Tsehafi-Tezaz Teferra-Work Kidane-Wolde, referred the unsigned letters back through the liaison officer to the IEAF and a court martial process of serious consequence to us was set in motion.

HIM HS in the midst of our IEAF’s 3^rd Entry graduates, 16 January 1951. On HIM’s right is Kiflom, who passed out during Count von Rosen’s ‘briefing’, and on HMS’s left is Yohannes, who checked me out on new types upon my return after a five years absence, with me standing behind him to his left. Gen. Aseffa Ayene, then liaison officer, is on far right. Mulutsega, his nephew, is behind him in second row.

An Admiral from the Swedish Armed Forces, probably from their Judge Advocate General’s office, came from Sweden. Col. Tesfa Desta, head of the legal section of the Ethiopian Armed Forces, was also present in Asmara having come from Addis Ababa. They sat at a table on an elevated platform and so were Gen. Aseffa, at that time a Colonel, and Count von Rosen, flanking them and forming the tribunal. The hall at the Asmara air force base, where the sessions took place, was choke-full. We the thirty-five pilots sat in the center of a U shaped mass of people, some of whom were higher-ranking Swedish and Ethiopian officers, all of us facing the tribunal.

Even though all thirty-five pilots of the wing had unanimously agreed the written explanation and appeal to the Emperor, Count von Rosen picked on me as the ringleader for reasons known only to him. This happened right at the start of the court martial. As commanding officer of the air force, he started the proceedings by declaring that a court cannot proceed based on an unsigned letter and, since it is impractical to have all thirty-five of us sign and referring to me as the ringleader, he ordered me to sign the letters on behalf of all thirty-five pilots. Standing at attention, I argued that in this case rank should not prevail and that Count von Rosen should not order me to sign but that I am willing to sign the letters if the concerned pilots voluntarily designated me. After consultations, the Admiral and Col. Tesfa agreed with me and put the issue to the vote. The pilots designated me unanimously and I signed the documents. This first small procedural victory set the stage for what followed.

Count von Rosen continued by accusing us of mutiny, a crime punishable by incarceration and even execution in times of conflict. He demanded that I, as representative of the group, reveal the foreign source that put us to this hideous act. I stood up to attention to respond but the Admiral indicated I could remain seated to save time. To me, this given latitude seemed a supportive act. I countered not by answering the question but by falling back on procedure stating that, to facilitate the proceedings, I shall take on the spokesperson role subject to enabling any one of the pilots to add to or correct my statements. Again, the court accepted the position taken and all the pilots consented. I then went on to decline responding to the question posed by Count von Rosen not only on grounds of no basis but also on grounds that an accused should not sit in judgement of the accusers. Our letters have accused Count von Rosen’s administration of serious aircraft maintenance malpractices on the B-17A’s that we were flying. We have listed sixteen of the major cases in our letter of appeal. The court should first verify that the sixteen major cases we have enumerated in the letters, some of which have cost lives and all have caused grave damage, are valid or not before judging us as stooges of foreign powers that we certainly were not. After consultation, our stand carried and the Admiral downgraded the session to a court of inquiry. Count von Rosen ceased to be the leader of the inquiry. We had scored a telling victory in the first hour of the proceedings.

A case-by-case examination of our grievances continued for the entire day until Lt. Taye Metcha, an officious duty officer, interrupted the session for flag lowering ceremony at 18:00 hrs. We called witnesses and exhibited records from pilot logbooks to demonstrate that SAAB B-17As that are not airworthy were launched causing accidents. We maintained that many ‘Pilot Error’ labels on accident investigation conclusions were invalid. As the examination continued a senior Ethiopian officer, Capt. Negash W/Mikael, who had test-flown most of the equipment in the incidents and declaring them airworthy, increasingly became the voice shedding doubt on our position. However, his technical knowledge was wanting. He had gained his commission in ground forces, coming to the air force as a lieutenant. To the dismay of the air force administration, and I may add to the embarrassment of us all Ethiopians, I exposed his weakness under cross-examination via an instance where he had declared a wanting equipment airworthy. His testimony lost weight. Confronted with testifying under oath, civilian mechanics both Swedish and Ethiopian, owned up to their responsibilities. A crack between the technical staff in the field and Head Office was becoming apparent.

Around mid-afternoon, I noticed a sense of relief in Gen. Aseffa who had sat silently throughout the session writing in his notebook. The Admiral’s face was impassive and that of Col. Tesfa exhibited curiosity. The great pioneer aviator Count von Rosen was angered, we could see. He took advantage of Taye Metcha’s interruption to suggest a recess until the next morning, which was accepted so close to a satisfactory conclusion of the inquiry in our favour. The next day, even though there must have been an overnight softening of those Swedish and Ethiopian technicians who testified in our favour, the dye appeared cast. Count von Rosen did not raise his original question about interference by foreign powers. It appeared that the Admiral had dismissed the notion that a foreign power, presumably the British as must have been surmised by Count von Rosen, had influenced us against Sweden. The truth was that we were just trying to rectify what we thought was unjust and dangerous. We were just afraid of being maimed or killed due to no fault of ours.

The outcome was that

• the IEAF formally grounded the B-17As pending improved maintenance and the acquisition of fully overhauled ones from Sweden. The later were to have their instruments and controls labelled in English and not in Swedish as the previous, ones were.

• Gen. Christian Nilsson, a career officer from the Swedish Air Force, replaced Count von Rosen, we believed when the Swedish military authorities added the above outlined to their doubt of the Count representing them well.

• Count von Rosen stayed on as Advisor for some time.

• Since we had very little knowledge of military law and procedures, the court recommended that we take a course on the subject.

The rumour circulating at the time was that the ‘ring-leaders’, Cadet Sergeant Mekonnen Beri and I, were awarded the privilege of ferrying B-17As from Sweden. It was cause for my first visit to Europe where I witnessed people walking across on the frozen strait between Malmo in Sweden and Copenhagen in Denmark. However, the warmth of the people compensated for the freezing cold weather of Scandinavia. I ferried one B-17A in December 53 and another in January 1954.

Self, on the North African coast, while ferrying a B-17A from Sweden to Ethiopia, January 1954. Lennart Jerlstrom, a SAAB technician, took this photo en-route. He is my first international passenger and sat all the way in the 2^nd crew's seat with his legs over a box of spare parts.

I also carried my first international passenger Lennart Jerlstrom, sitting with his legs over a box filled with spare parts, from Sweden to Ethiopia. His wife had asked me to take good care of her better-half before we took off from Malmo but, in blissful ignorance he participated in my first night-landing ever which happened when we saw the sun set while flying towards Tripoli from Tunis. He took pictures and kept a diary of those hedge-hopping flights that also served as a tourism vehicle. He and his family have remained lifelong family friends to this day.