Vladimir Avramovich Aleksenko was a ground-attack aviation squadron and regimental commander during World War II who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. He was awarded his first Hero of the Soviet Union award for making 107 attack sorties, and his second award was for making another 143 sorties, but by the end of the war he reached a total of 292 attack sorties. After the war he remained in the military, becoming a became a Lieutenant general after graduation from the Military Academy of the General Staff. Between 1967 and 1974, he commanded the 5th Air Army.

The 5th Air Army was an air army of the Soviet Air Forces and later the Ukrainian Air Force. First formed in 1942 during World War II, the army provided air support to Soviet forces through the rest of the war, and was renumbered as the 48th Air Army in 1949. It was stationed in the Odessa Military District during the postwar period, and in 1968 its original number was restored. Between 1980 and 1988 it was known as the Air Forces of the Odessa Military District. Redesignated as the 5th Air Army again in 1988, it became part of the Ukrainian Air Force after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and was converted into an aviation corps in 1994.