John T. Correll
Air Force Magazine, June 24, 2016
“There is no official explanation for naming the airlift “Nickel Grass,” but it was most likely the work of an airman in the planning chain who whimsically borrowed the words from a bawdy World War II fighter pilot ballad that began, “Throw a nickel in the grass. …””
Three times during the first 25 years of its existence, Israel had soundly beaten the armed forces of the neighboring Arab states, who wanted to wipe Israel off the map. In the Six Day War of 1967, the Israelis had greatly expanded their defensive depth by capturing the Sinai peninsula, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank of the Jordan River.
By 1973, the Israelis had grown dangerously overconfident. Israeli military intelligence rated the probability of war as “very low.” The deployment of Israeli Defense Forces in the Sinai and on the Golan Heights was thin.
In an article published in July 1973, Yitzhak Rabin, former IDF chief of staff and a future prime minister, cited a “widening gap of military power in Israel’s favor” and said that “Israel’s military strength is sufficient to prevent the other side from gaining any military objective.”
John T. Correll was editor in chief of Air Force Magazine for 18 years and is now a contributor. His most recent article, “Operation Barbarossa Stalls Out,” appeared in the June issue.
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