#YOM KIPPER WAR SKIN#
#YOM KIPPER WAR FULL#
#YOM KIPPER WAR TV#

Both women worked day and night without complaining.

Batya, a Russian intern, and Miki, an Israeli, served with us. All male interns and residents were gone, at the front with their combat units. Two other plastic surgeons, from Tel Aviv and Netanya, were drafted to the unit. Haggai Tzur, a superb Israeli, trained locally, and a very organized person. Borenstein, a Bellevue-trained surgeon, who joined the hospital as a plastic surgeon in 1948. After receiving a chaluk, a pair of scrubs, a military ID, a meal ticket and a dormitory room assignment, I started working in the operating room. Air Force in 1956-1958 during the Sinai War, and decided that I was a trained military surgeon. The hospital director went over my resume, saw that I served in the U.S. Not knowing where I would volunteer, he suggested that I go with him to Tel Hashomer, where they would surely be able to put my surgical talents to good use. It is comprised of Quonset huts of a pre-1948 British military camp. Chaim Boichus, a senior pediatric nephrologist of Tel Hashomer Hospital, the main military (and civilian) hospital in the Tel Aviv area. What would the country look like when we arrived? Will the center of the country be bombed? Would the civilian population be spared?Īs it turned out, all the casualties were at the northern and southern fronts, and the civilian populations of all three countries were spared.

#YOM KIPPER WAR FULL#

The plane was full and there wasn’t much conversation, just quiet and deep thought. Here, our boys are begging to be allowed to return to their country at war.” Even as they clamored, deep-down everyone knew that not all those who would leave on that 707 would ever return. I thought, “What a difference from the scenes Americans witnessed, of people rushing to get on the last helicopter leaving Saigon, to leave a country at war. Young Israeli men waving $100 bills begged for seats on the last plane to Israel, to be able to join their units.

#YOM KIPPER WAR SKIN#

I gathered a few dermatomes (for skin grafts), cantor tubes, gallons of betadine solution, scrub brushes and ointment, as well as a few boxes of cadaver skin and pigksin sent from Walter Reed Army Hospital. As chief of pediatric surgery at that facility, I received permission to take surgical needs with me to Israel. When word came that a seat on a 707 to Israel had been reserved for me, I went to Mt. I told my family and two medical partners that I would try to go to Israel to help take care of the wounded. I was a practicing doctor, living in Forest Hills, New York, at the time. That night all soldiers were mobilized, the hospitals were emptied of all but critically ill patients, all trucks were requisitioned and all Israelis abroad were asked to return to Israel as soon as possible to rejoin their units. When the attack occurred, this small defense force was rapidly overrun and killed. Because of their religious dedication, many had volunteered to stay “in the field” on Yom Kippur to conduct services for their comrades. A great number of these soldiers were hesder boys - yeshivah students who volunteer to serve in the army for five years instead of three, combining army service with Talmud study.

Only a skeleton crew was left manning the Bar-Lev line along the Suez Canal, and only a few tank crews were left on the Golan Heights. Prime Minister Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan were not convinced, saying that Cairo and Damascus “saber rattle” to aggravate Israel, and that an invasion was unlikely and their opinion prevailed.Īccordingly, many Israeli soldiers, pilots and other essential military personnel were permitted home for Yom Tov. Many Israeli generals had warned that the Arabs were planning an attack, recommending that the country mobilize for war and not to permit soldiers to return home for the holidays. Planes had flown over the Sinai and Golan Heights and had met no resistance.

Syria had pushed into the Golan Heights with masses of tanks, and both forces were taking a fierce toll in Israeli lives. We learned that Egypt had crossed the Suez Canal on makeshift bridges and had attacked the Bar-Lev lines.

#YOM KIPPER WAR TV#

Before we even broke our fast, we tuned in to the news on TV that night. It was Yom Kippur, October 6th, 1973, when we first heard the news: Egypt and Syria had attacked Israel, unprovoked and without warning.