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The E-2C Hawkeye, returning from a mission in Afghanistan, was a few miles out from the Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier. Zilberman, 31, was a veteran U.S. Navy pilot who had flown many times in the Middle East with the Hawkeye, a turbo-prop aircraft loaded with radar equipment.
The starboard propeller shut down, causing the plane to become unstable and plunge. Zilberman ordered his three crew mates, including the co-pilot, to bail. He manually held the plane as steady as possible so they could jump.
Zilberman went down with the aircraft on March 31.
"He held the plane level for them to do so, despite nearly uncontrollable forces. His three crewmen are alive today because of his actions,"
Navy Rear Adm. Philip S. Davidson wrote to Zilberman's parents.
Zilberman's last act earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross, one of the highest honors the U.S. Navy bestows, Rosi said.
The medal was presented to his wife, Katrina Zilberman, in Norfolk, where she lives with their children, Daniel, 4, and Sarah, 2. A copy of the medal also was given to his parents - Boris Zilberman and his wife, Anna Sokolov - who live in the Eastmoor area of Columbus.
Zilberman was born in Ukraine, and his flight nickname was "Abrek," the name of one of the first two monkeys that flew into outer space for the Soviet Union.
Making a better life for their son was a major reason his parents decided to emigrate from Kiev, Ukraine. They were fearful of living only 90 miles from the leaking nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, and that their son would one day be forced into military service. They joined a wave of Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union who settled in Columbus in 1991.
Sokolov said she was initially shocked when her son told her he had joined the Navy.
"We were afraid of the military service because it was awful for Jewish people" in the Soviet Union, she said.
Rofsky said she went to the recruiter and tried to persuade him to have Zilberman change his mind. But Zilberman wanted to pay his own way to college and knew that the military would help him do that.
While in the Navy, Zilberman earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., in three years.
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