Sergeant Major D., an air mechanic in the “Dorsey Halayla” squadron, talks to Arutz Sheva - Israel National News about the day of battle on October 7th in which he and his team were able to successfully land 50 paratroopers in the battlefield despite the severe damage they suffered.

"We are actually the first aircraft that came to transport paratroopers," explains D. on the chain of events of the first day of combat. "We were given a mission to land them near one of the towns surrounding Gaza. When you are within the borders of your country, you don't feel threatened, but as we advanced and saw the clouds of smoke, we realized that we were under threat, and that's how we treated it - a 360 degree threat."

Major D. continues to describe: "Then we arrive at a point and saw motorcycles and some people on our runway. We make a decision to turn right and land somewhere else, and as we turned we felt the impact. We were without an engine and loaded with the heavy weight of 50 soldiers, and the pilot team is doing the right things to help bring us to land."

"When I realized that we had been hit, I turned to the soldiers and told them to “hold on tight.” I felt something splashing on my face. Bullets passed by the helicopter from both sides and fortunately no one in the helicopter was hurt."

"We managed to land safely and save them. All I can think of as the father of a paratrooper is, “I have to save these children.” When we arrived at the landing field, I tried to open the electric ramp and failed. There is a more complex malfunction here that occurred from the impact and I managed to release two locks and the ramp fell from the weight," explains Major D. about the nerve-wrecking moments of drama.

"After the soldiers left, I scanned the trunk and identified a soldier stuck there," D. describes the situation when most of the soldiers had already left the helicopter and entered the fighting zone. "The co-pilot and I were the last to leave and ran to the second helicopter that had just landed with more power and is our rescue helicopter. At this point we heard the whistles of bullets and grenades falling near us, and we realized that we needed to run quickly to the second helicopter. While running there we heard a boom behind us. This was the second missile that hit the helicopter."

He also spoke about the course of the war and his family's mobilization for the war effort: "We are in an unequivocal war, from the first day we understood that. Every day we are busy evacuating the wounded and every landing anywhere is accompanied by difficult sights for all of us."

"I want to say that I am also proud of my paratrooper son, who is in Gaza and since the beginning of the fighting I only got to see him once. But I have so much pride, also for my wife who has been in the reserves since the beginning of the fighting and is doing a wonderful job."