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Rechkalov Grigoriy Andreevich, 9 fevralya 1918 — 20 dekabrya 1990 — letchik, dvazhdy Geroy Sovetskogo Soyuza, uchastnik Velikoy Otechestvennoy voyny, general-mayor.

February 9, 1918 - December 20, 1990 - pilot, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, participant in the Great Patriotic War, major general.

Grigory Andreevich Rechkalov was born in the village of Khudyakovo, Irbitsky district, Perm province (now the village of Zaykovo, Irbitsky district, Sverdlovsk region) into a peasant family. When Grigory Rechkalov was in school, his family moved to the village of Bobrovka near Sverdlovsk, and he completed 6 classes there at a school in the village of Bolshoy Istok. At the age of 14 he began working as an electrician at a local mill. Later he moved to Sverdlovsk and entered the factory apprenticeship school at the Verkh-Isetsky plant. At the same time, Rechkalov began studying in a gliding circle.

In 1937, he was sent to the Perm Military Pilot School on a Komsomol ticket and in 1939, with the rank of sergeant, he was enlisted in the 55th Aviation Fighter Regiment in Kirovograd. During his service in the regiment, he took part in the campaign against Bessarabia. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, the regiment was based on the outskirts of the city of Balti.

The day before the start of the war, Rechkalov underwent a medical flight commission and was rejected due to discovered color blindness. However, on June 22, when he returned to the unit, the regimental chief of staff gave him an urgent task to deliver documents and did not even look at the medical report. At the beginning of the war, he flew the I-153 Chaika fighter. He won his first aerial victory on June 27, shooting down an Me-109 with a rocket. Already in the first month of the war, Grigory Rechkalov shot down 3 enemy planes, was wounded himself, but brought the plane to the airfield. He was sent to a hospital, and then to a reserve aviation regiment, to master the Yak-1 aircraft, but in April 1942 he fled to his regiment, which by that time had received the rank of Guards and became known as the 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (16 GvIAP) .

In the regiment he mastered the American Airacobra fighter. Since the spring of 1943, the regiment entered into battles with the enemy in the Kuban. In the first two weeks of fighting, Grigory Rechkalov shot down 19 enemy aircraft, and in three combat missions he shot down 2 aircraft, and in one - 3. On May 24, 1943, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

By June 1944, deputy regiment commander Rechkalov made 415 combat missions, participated in 112 air battles and personally shot down 48 enemy aircraft and 6 in the group. For new military exploits of the guard, Captain Rechkalov Grigory Andreevich was awarded the second Gold Star medal by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 1, 1944.

In total, during the war, Grigory Rechkalov flew 450 combat missions, 122 air battles, and shot down more than 60 enemy aircraft.

After the war, Grigory Rechkalov continued to serve in the air force and graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1951. In 1959 he was transferred to the reserve. Lived in Moscow, since 1980 - in the city of Zhukovsky, Moscow region. He was buried next to his mother in the cemetery of the village of Bobrovsky, Sysert urban district, Sverdlovsk region.