This Fishbed is preserved as part of a memorial park to Rudolf Perešin, a Croatian fighter pilot serving in the Yugoslav AF (JRZ) during the 1991-95 Croatian War of Independence. Perešin defected to the Croatian side in October 1991 by flying his MiG-21 from Željava AB to Klagenfurt, Austria.. He was the first pilot to desert from the JRZ. and following his defection he continued to fly missions for the Croatian AF. He was shot down and killed in May 1995 by Serbian Krajina military forces.