The Deputy Minister of National Defence Alkiviadis Stefanis attended, on Friday 23 July 2021, a memorial service, in Nea Styra – Euboea, in honour of the Hellenic Air Force pilots who lost their lives during a great firefighting operation in the area, in 2007.
Captain Dimitrios Stoilidis and Lieutenant Ioannis Chatzoudis were the two pilots of the firefighting aircraft CL – 415 (CANADAIR).
Other attendants at the ceremony were the relatives of the hero Lieutenant Chatzoudis, the Euboea MP Mr Athanasios Zebilis, the Mayor of Karystos Mr Lefteris Raviolos, the Director of the Military Office of the Presidency of the Republic Vice Admiral Efthymios Mikros, the Deputy Mayor of the Municipal Unit of Styra Mr Ioannis Gemisis, delegations from Security Forces, members of the Hellenic Air Force, retired Major General Efstathios Kotronis, as well as Clubs of Volunteer Forest Firefighters.
During his address, the Deputy Minister of National Defence mentioned the following:
“With sentiments of particular emotion I am attending today’s commemoration event, paying the tribute due to our fallen airmen, who lost their lives on the line of duty, in the tragic accident of CL – 415 in July 2007.
The crash of the CANADAIR which operated at the great firefighting operation in Nea Styra Euboea and resulted in the death of the pilot Captain Stoilidis Dimitrios and the copilot Lieutenant Chatzoudis Ioannis, constitutes a truly tragic event which shook the Greek society, desolating at the same time the relatives, friends and colleagues of the prematurely lost airmen.
This ceremony in honour of the brave members, who lost their lives so soon, in peacetime, is the minimum tribute we can pay for their morality and the services they offered to the Homeland.
The history of every people constitutes the dominant element of its national identity, defining factor of its social cohesion, but also the starting point for the realisation of its goals and ideals. Such compelling events constitute the aforementioned historical framework, in which the sacrifice on the line of duty maintains a commanding and dominating position.
For a people lucky enough to refer to heroes, the sacrifice, the devotion to the higher collective goal, the faith and the duty take on a national context, constituting a true power of control and evaluation of the high ideals of Hellenism. In that sense, sacrifice bears loss, but is baptised in immortality, the ageless glory, the collective memory.
Since the day that the sacrifice of the Reserve 2nd Lieutenant Emmanouil Argyropoulos decorated the Pantheon of the Hellenic Air Force’s heroes, the first fallen Greek airman, up to this day, a multitude of our airmen have treaded on the path of duty, in wartime as well as in peacetime, shedding their blood on every corner of the Greek land and making themselves a shining beacon and starting point of the national dignity and pride.
The Greek people, having inherited the priceless intellectual treasure and history of its ancient ancestors, considers our airmen’s sacrifice as the supreme contribution to the Homeland, which with its emotional content and its ethical dimension, renders the deed itself an element of exemplary devotion to the race’s ideals and a precondition for national regrouping and historical exaltation of our people.
For all of the above, today’s commemoration event, must not constitute a typical action of paying tribute to our dead airmen, but a significant happening with particular ethical gravity.
Because, just like in Ancient Greece, a Funeral Oration was a kind of sermon and collective reference to the dominant notions of the Homeland, of honour and self-denial, thus today’s ceremony constitutes the best proof for all of us that the Nation’s course and especially of our Air Force to the future, is directly dependent on the war virtue and the sense of duty increasingly born by the Greek pilots.
This day is dedicated to these great airmen, a day of honour and acknowledgement in general of all the country’s Armed Forces, which, devoted to their duty, guarantee the national independence and the territorial integrity of the Homeland.
Addressing the relatives of the two dearly departed airmen, allow me to express you once more, the sincere condolences of the State for the loss of your people. Acknowledging that the pain you are going through cannot be mitigated, you must always be profoundly proud for the ones you lost, for the path they followed, their stance and their magnificent contribution to the Homeland.
Captain Stoilidis Dimitrios,
