Usually, servicemembers who died while serving the nation are buried in cemeteries specifically designated to honor their service, like the Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia. The graves of these brave soldiers were marked with tombstones. Meanwhile, the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France, where American soldiers who died in Europe during World War II were buried, have crosses as markers.

In the secluded stretch of the Estonian forest also lies the final resting place of Soviet-Estonian fighter pilots who were killed during the Cold War era. What’s striking and eerily unique about this burial place was that the graves were not marked with tombstones or crosses but with aircraft tail fins.

A Unique Final Resting Place

Just a few distances away from a NATO-controlled Amari Air Base was the final resting place of a number of pilots who flew under the Soviet Regime of Estonia that was in power until 1991. Before it was built sometime after 1945, the site was a former cemetery that was used for burying the casualties of war. From 1945 until 1991, when the Soviet occupation ended, the Amari Airbase served as the home of heavy bombers, then known as the Suurküla aerodrome. At that time, the aerodrome housed several Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer medium bomber squadrons that could possibly be the source of the many tail fins that were erected in the cemetery until today.

There were also normal-looking and crude graves that looked just like any other historic cemetery. However, it was the graves of the military pilots that are marked with actual Russian tail fins that literally and figuratively stand out. Looking at all of them lined up makes it appear like a squadron of planes are somehow in formation and “flying” beneath the ground.

It is said that the memorial was placed a bit away from the actual base so that it would not crush the morale of the airmen working on the base whenever they see the reminders of their fellow pilots that were once soaring in the skies like them. No one would appreciate a constant reminder that you could be crashing down with your vehicle and end up underneath the earth just like those that were buried and marked with the tail fins.

Questions Left Unanswered

There were some claims that the fins were the very aircraft that these Soviet airmen likely died in, although it could not be really confirmed. The exact number of the pilot that has been laid to rest in the cemetery was also unknown because even though it was indeed the final resting place of a few pilots, there is a huge chance that their remains were sent back to their families for a proper burial elsewhere.

If this is the case, then that would mean that the cemetery was actually established to honor the servicemembers who sacrificed their lives for the country and its cause.

As for the tailfin markers in the Amari Pilots’ Cemetery, opinions are divided on whether they came from the very aircraft that crashed when these pilots died, as that would be a bit impractical if the rest of the crashed plane were still salvageable. There was also no evidence of some sort to confirm such claims.

One theory was that the tail fins could’ve been from planes already out of commission, although it could still be up for debate.

Fall of the Soviet

Together with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Suurküla aerodrome fell out of use. In May 1997, the Amari Air Base was turned into an Air Force unit. When Estonia joined NATO in 2004, the Amari Air Base became interoperable with NATO. It received a lot of major infrastructural makeover, but the Amari Air Force Cemetery was left untouched, and no changes were made at all.

Today, the Amari Pilots’ Cemetery is no longer an active graveyard, but the place is still being maintained. The cemetery is on the outskirts of the village and could be accessed either through one’s own vehicle or even through public transportation.

The cemetery was no question unique. Even when it is unusual, it sure is an effective approach in ensuring the pilots who offered their lives for the country will forever be remembered.