Dana Jung, wife of the late Sergeant major (res.) Ofer z"l, a 39-year-old reservist from Tel Aviv, who was murdered in a terror attack in the Jordan Valley, spoke about how she begged him not to go to reserve duty again.
"Ofer served in three rounds of reserve duty, and for the last round not everyone showed up. I was angry with him, why should he go? He also had an independent business and he was working alone. He also managed an environmental department. He was an engineer from the Technion. So many procedures had to be arranged and he encountered many difficulties, but he still chose to go and contribute his part," Jung said in an interview with Kan Reshet Bet.
During the war, he served about 200 days of reserve duty, including a round of 40 consecutive days. "I literally begged him not to go, because when I was 17, I had a friend who was killed in tanks, and this still traumatized me. He said there was no choice, that we were fighting for our home."
She added, "I also think everyone has to contribute. I think that every reservist, out of necessity until all the hostages return home, must enlist, because in the meantime there are others who need to serve and are not doing their part, not in a political way, God forbid. But I really think that everyone should enlist.
According to the testimonies of his comrades in the unit, Ofer led the IDF force when the shots were first heard at the checkpoint. "He was a squad commander and he knew his squad. He said, 'Come on, there are shots, we have to get organized,'" Dana described. "He saw Friedman lying on the ground and he came to pull him in, when he was hit with a barrage of gunfire."
"Ofer had a spark that made everyone around him just love him. He was phenomenally clever, he had zero ego. Whenever someone tried to convince him otherwise, he would always say, 'You need to understand his side as well, try and breathe.' He made me a much better person," she added.
Yesterday, Dana was forced to explain to her two-year-old son about his father's death. "The city officer explained to me that I must say that his father had died and that he would never be coming back. I went into his room and told him, 'Ori, I want to talk to you for a minute.' He really understood and nodded 'no' with his head. He put his head on me and hugged me. Ofer left me two amazing treasures – Oriki, who has got Ofer's brains and Eitan who look just like Ofer when he was a baby."