Monument to Modi Alon unveiled in Herzliya
78 years after he was killed in a crash near the Herzliya airfield, a monument was unveiled in memory of Lt. Col. Modi Alon, the first commander of Squadron 101 and a pioneer of combat flight in the Israeli Air Force. Speeches were given by Dan Halutz, Yariv Fisher, and Alon Peled, Alon's grandson.
78 years after he was killed in a crash near the Herzliya airfield, a monument was unveiled in memory of Lt. Col. Modi Alon, the first commander of Squadron 101 and a pioneer of combat flight in the Israeli Air Force. The ceremony was held under the auspices of the Herzliya Municipality and the Israeli Air Force Association, with speeches by retired Maj. Gen. Dan Halutz, president of the Air Force Association, Yariv Fisher, mayor of Herzliya, and Alon Peled, Modi Alon's grandson. Alon was a courageous role model, serving as a fighter pilot in the RAF in Italy at the end of World War II, and joined the Jewish Air Service in Palestine. He took part in the Israeli Air Force's first historic attack to stop the Egyptian column, and shot down two Egyptian Dakota bombers over Tel Aviv. On October 16, 1948, during a return from an attack on Egyptian forces, his plane crashed in Herzliya due to a landing gear malfunction. His new wife witnessed the crash.