“I want the president to make my dream come true,” said a 106-year-old war veteran from Ferghana

“Before the start of the war, I worked on a collective farm and worked as a machinist on the railway. I came back from the war and worked in various fields. I wish I could meet our president and tell him my dream. I would ask them to give me a car. I would travel to Bukhara and Samarkand in the car given by the president at my age,” says the father.

Osmanjon Father Rahimov recounted his war memories:

“I was born in 1920. When the war started, I worked on a collective farm. I was 21 years old at the time. My father was 84, and my mother was 75.

When the famine begins, there is not even bread to eat. Not knowing what to do, I gather firewood in the village, put it in a cart, go to the center and exchange it for half a loaf of bread. That’s how I supported my parents. There were days when we did not eat bread for weeks. My uncle and I planted turnips and radishes in our garden and cooked them in a big pot and ate them. While serving my parents and receiving their prayers, I reluctantly went to war.

I arrived in Moscow on December 29, 1941…

They taught sniper, rifle and mortar shooting. I didn’t just drive a tank in the war. But my partners called me “tankist”. The war was so terrible that it was the German who destroyed Kharkiv. A German’s bullet hits my helmet in the rain of bullets. My helmets have holes in them. Most of my partners died. I gave my life and returned to our homeland safely.

Last year, the president’s daughter and sons-in-law came and took me away. They took a dollar in my hand. We joked with them and laughed a little.

I turned 106 years old. My dream… if I meet with our president Shavkat Mirziyoyev, if they say what do you want from me, if they respect my work and give me one car. If I could get out of the car and visit Sarmarkand and Bukhara, I wouldn’t be disappointed,” says Usmonjon father Rahimov.