Miloslav Neuberg

photo: Archiv Miloslava Neuberga
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Colonel of the General Staff (ret.) Ing. Miloslav Neuberg was born on 26 December 1930 in the colony of Čína (China) in Prague-Hloubětín, near the Kbely airbase. His father was a carpenter, he helped build the dome of the Prague planetarium. His mother was a housewife. Towards the end of World War II Miloslav Neuberg witnessed the bombing of Vysočany and the Kbely airbase. In his youth he took an interest in music, and he signed up to study at a conservatoire. However, he did not pass the entrance exams, and so he decided to choose the career of a military pilot. In 1948 he joined the Military Aviation Academy. He underwent training in Šternberk, Olomouc, and Prostějov. After completing his training he was stationed with the air force wing in Pilsen. In 1951 in Milovice he retrained to MiG-15 jet fighters and then served at the military airfield in Líní near Pilsen. In 1953 he was given the offer to study at the military academy in Monin near Moscow. He accepted this offer. He studied in the Soviet Union, where he met his future wife, until 1956. After his return he briefly functioned as deputy wing commander in Kbely, in 1957-1961 he was commander of the 4th Air Force Wing in Pardubice. He was then transferred to the airbase in Bechyně in southern Bohemia, where he was made commander of the 1st Zvolen-Ostrava Division in 1962. He was the division’s commander during the events of August 1968, when his division’s airfields were occupied by Soviet soldiers. At the end of August 1968 he left to Moscow for a two-year course at Voroshilov Military Academy. He returned to Czechoslovakia in 1970, and a year later he was discharged from the army for political reasons. Until his retirement in 1985 he worked in Svazarm (an association of military and technology enthusiasts) In 1990 he rejoined the army and served briefly in the Warsaw Pact staff in Moscow. In 1991 he retired a second time. He is the now chairman of the Pilots’ Union in Hradec Králové.