Journalist Kash Ryan in his book Air Combat Memoirs of the Iranian Air Force Pilots compiled first-hand accounts of some of these aerial battles. Here's What You Need to Remember: Our missile hit the Iraqi fighter head on as I shouted in the radio. “Enemy target destroyed. Long live Iran!” There was dead silence on the radio for a minute then we could hear the ground radar controllers breaking in cheers and clapping, which meant they were confirming our kill as well. It was crazy. Iran’s force of American-made F-14 Tomcat interceptors dominated the sky during the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988. F-14s reportedly downed more than 160 Iraqi planes.