On the twelfth of June, the country celebrates Russia’s national day – a holiday for all who love their Homeland and are proud of it. Since its foundation, the Military Training Center at South Ural State University has been tirelessly educating patriots and preparing young people to defend the Fatherland. There are many officers with combat experience among the teachers and staff. One of them is the Deputy head of the SUSU Military-political department, Colonel Alexander Shkrebtiy. His services to the country were awarded, among other things, the Order of Courage – for Syria and the Medal of the order “For Merit for the Fatherland” II class – for SMO.
- I didn’t have to think about who to be for a long time: my father, my uncle (my father’s brother), my grandfather and my great-grandfather were officers, - says Alexander Andreevich. – By the way, my son also followed in my footsteps – he is a cadet at a military school. I graduated in 1990 from the Borisoglebsk Higher Military Aviation Order of Lenin Red Banner School of Pilots named after V.P.Chkalov (Voronezh region).
For a pilot, the most important teacher is probably the instructor pilot with whom he got into the cockpit of an airplane. I myself have trained more than a dozen pilots. There are commanders who become not just bosses, but mentors, comrades, because you learn from them. Such for me were my regiment commander Sergei Vladimirovich Dronov and division commanders Nikolai Vasilyevich Gostev and Vladimir Alexandrovich Koryagin.
After graduation, I was assigned to Transbaikalia, to the Bada airfield – this is west of Chita, east of Ulan-Ude. I went from lieutenant to colonel. I had to serve in the 1990s and 2000s. You can probably imagine what kind of time it was back then. Now our country is increasing the power of the army, the modernization of old weapons is underway and new ones are being adopted. At the time, especially in the 1990s, it was much more difficult for us.
I have flown on various planes. I started, like many others, on the Czechoslovak L-29 “Dolphin” training aircraft, then flew fighter jets, fighter-bombers, bombers – for example, MiG-21 and Su-17, Su-24 and Su-34.
Military serving is not easy. Of course, pilots always have a huge responsibility – the rules in aviation are strict. In general, each flight is unique, there are no patterns, everything is new every time. Therefore, there are more than enough thrills. There is even a joke: pilots do not like extreme sports, their whole life is a continuous extreme. But seriously, of course, you can’t live without sport: you need to keep yourself fit.
In total, I served in Transbaikalia for more than 20 years. The fate of a military pilot is this: we constantly fly from place to place, from one airfield to another. We probably visited all of our military airfields in Siberia, The North and the Far East: Perm, Norilsk, Bratsk, Krasnoyarsk. It happened, that we flew in one direction for six, seven or even eight hours, then back the same amount of time. At the same time, it is often without landing, that is, several hours in the air. The distances are huge, and there are not many additional airfields where you can land and refuel. So, pilots have to master the technique of refueling in the air – otherwise they simply will not fly. The element is complex, one might say high pilotage, but absolutely necessary. In fact, life depend on it. Additional fuel tanks of course give a certain increase in flight range. But their capacity is not always enough. That’s why you often have to refuel in the air and sometimes more than once. By the way, without bragging, I can say that we have worked out a new method to refuel in the air in Chita. There was a very interesting episode when we even organized a non-stop flight with in-flight refueling to the North Pole and back.
I have participated in combat operations in various hot spots, including in the North Caucasus. But I don’t like to think about it.
When our military unit was transferred to Chelyabinsk, it was great for us: after small remote military towns, we found ourselves in a city with population of million people, where infrastructure is developed, there are many cultural, educational institutions and so on. In 2010, I was appointed deputy chief of the Chelyabinsk territorial garrison. There was enough work for me. Among other things, I was engaged in organization of celebrations dedicated to the Great Victory Day – I think many people saw the processions on Revolution Square.
In 2014, Crimea returned to the Russian Federation and we participated in the Victory Day parade in Sevastopol. And then there was Syria.
Our air division was chosen for the mission in Syria, among other things, due to the fact that we had the most pilots who had completed refueling in the air at that moment. At that time, the Syrian leadership asked Russia to help in the fight against terrorism – and our country did not refuse. In Syria, the military service has its own specifics. The airfield, the base and the entire infrastructure had to be rebuilt. We arrived in a foreign country, seemingly friendly, but the situation is tense. The experience of our comrades who went through Vietnam, Angola and Afghanistan was very useful. One of the problems in hot countries is a lot of reptiles, insects, rodents. Therefore, for instance, when we took off our shoes at night, we put the sole up so no one would crawl in there. And before putting shoes on, we shook out the shoes, just in case. But all sorts of advertised devices and devices against mice and cockroaches turned out to be ineffective.
There are all sorts of things in the military service. When we arrived in Syria in 2015, I remember landing at the airfield – and it was hot, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky – and suddenly we heard a rumble. We think: “What kind of thunder from a clear sky?!”. It turned out that these were multiple rocket launchers – the terrorists once again tried to shell our airfield. This story may seem funny to someone, but back then it wasn’t up to jokes.
Life has been adjusted; the service has started. Many of our guys have already had combat experience, but they have gained even more, proved themselves to be the best and received well-deserved awards. When the special military operation in Ukraine began, I participated in it. I will not hide it: those with whom I once served in the same division fought there. The professionalism and courage shown by our soldiers during special military operation speaks volumes. For example, my colleague who served with us in Chelyabinsk, pilot Alexander Sergeevich Antonov, who went through the war in Syria, repeated the act of bravery of Nikolay Frantsevich Gastello and was awarded the title of Hero of Russian posthumously. I hope there will be a mural in honor of the Hero of Chelyabinsk. It is necessary to educate children and young people on such examples!
The position I held until recently was Deputy commander of the mixed aviation division. I have known Nikolai Karpov, the head of the Military training center at SUSU for a long time. When my time came to go to reserve, he invited me to the university. I thought about it and decided that the positions are similar, the range of responsibilities is clear and I can benefit the state here. I agreed. So, since 2023, I have been the deputy head of the University of Higher Education at South Ural State University.
I’m often invited to various civic-patriotic events. Speaking to young people, I always try to convey to the students: who, if not us, will defend the Motherland? We have only one Homeland. By the way, the tradition of inviting veterans of “hot spots” is in fact a continuation of the Soviet tradition of meeting with participants of the Great Patriotic War. By the 1960s, a generation that did not know the was born and grew up. And it was for them and their children that meetings with veterans were actively organized. But the veterans aged and passed away. And the younger generation should be educated in the spirit of patriotism and service to the Motherland. Therefore, now those who have gone through local wars of a later time are invited to patriotic events. I think this is right thing to do: children and young people are being brought up on the example of different generations of defenders of the Motherland. The goal is always the same – to save our country from enemies. So, it is crucial to understand very well: now Russia is fighting in the special military operation for the same thing that our ancestors fought for on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War.
When communicating with young people, it is always important for me that the guys are interested in asking their questions. I’ll be honest: I’ve seen different people during my service and it upsets me when young men are indifferent. I think that the Soviet system of education and upbringing was the best in the world. Without it, such colossal successes in aviation, space exploration and the nuclear industry would have been impossible – after all, competent specialists are needed for all of this. Fortunately, it seems to me that we are now gradually reviving these traditions. I hope everything works out.
I’m glad that those guys who are now studying at our university have a normal, healthy interest in military affairs and the history of Russia. This was once again confirmed by the recent success of the team of students of the Military Training Center at SUSU, which won the regional search competition dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the formation of the famous Ural Volunteer Tank Corps (UDTC) and the Chelyabinsk Volunteer Tank brigade, which was the part of it.