Cpt. Or, the first female soldier to command a Patriot Battery, who employed an advanced air defense system to shoot down the Syrian airplane and drone that invaded Israeli airspace this past July, spoke to the participants at the FIDF event in Manhattan.
“Making split second life and death decisions, every day, every night, week after week is what we do. And for me, since I was a little child, I knew I wanted to join the IDF and protect my country,” she said.
“I grew up in the IDF. My father is a retired paratrooper and my brother started there and now is a Major. My uncle Barry was a commander in the Golani Brigade.”
“When I was 14, my dream finally came true,” she recalled. “I started military boarding school. I came home that day wearing my uniform for the first time, but instead of smiling to see me, my mother started crying. That very day, my uncle was shot and killed by a Lebanese sniper. My first day in uniform was my uncle’s last. When I saw my mother’s face, the sadness, I said to myself, ‘I will bring the light back into her eyes.’”
“Today my troops and I operate the American-made Patriot system, which is the first line of defense on the northern border. Every single time I put my uniform on, I’m proud to remember my uncle’s spirit and his legacy, proud to be a soldier in the IDF, protecting Israel and America, and my mother is proud of me because I’m one of the best Patriot shooters in Israel.”