Amet-khan Sultan

Amet-khan Sultan, 20 October 1920 at Alupka – 1 February 1971 in Moscow oblast. A Crimean Tatar fighter ace, twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1943 and 1945). A graduate of the 1st Kacha military aviation school, he rose during the war from pilot to squadron commander. The English article credits him with 30 personal and 19 shared victories. He was able to avoid the 1944 deportation on account of his father background, but refused to change the nationality entry in his passport and identified as a Crimean Tatar for the rest of his life, under pressure from government organs.