Yesterday in Israel was Memorial Day or officially known as Yom Hazikaron day. It commemorates Israel's fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism, and it precedes by one day Israel's independence day.
At dusk the day before, we were invited by my colleague to visit the Tel Nof Airbase, Israel's largest airbase with over 6000 soldiers and some large number of fighter jet and helicopter squadrons. Every year the air force base holds a commemoration on this day for all the fallen soldiers who were posted at the base. My colleague was the base commander 10 years back which afforded us practically unlimited access to the various areas of the base and front row seats to the ceremony.
Thousands of people attended the ceremony, and the mood was completely somber. Songs were sung in A-minor, there was no clapping, and over 250 fallen soldiers' names were called out. Side note: As the names were read in alphabetical order, a power-point slide with a photo and listing of the name, rank, and date of death where shown on the large screen. I used the occasion to brush up on my hebrew alphabet. I would say the hebrew letter מ for "m" is not intuitive.
The ceremony ended quite abruptly, at least to a non-hebrew speaking observer, and again with no claps. In fact, Jana turned around and said to me "Is it over or are we offering the sign of peace." People were shaking hands and hugging. No, they were simply saying goodbye.
My colleague continued the tour of the base, showing us the various figher jets (F-15 and F16s) where I got a close up of a laser guided missile. And we got our photo taken in front of a drone. Those things are huge!
We also visited the squadron offices, checking out the latest air force technology. But coolest of it all, we took a trip down memory lane. My colleague was one of the first aces in the Israeli air force, and he showed us photos of his first "MIG-kill." In the photo, one can see the missile right before impact and in a following photo, the resulting explosion. In total, he has 5 MIG-kills (all Syrian). What a completely different world.
Anyways...the following day, a siren goes off at 11 AM for two minutes, and everybody stops in their tracks to pay their respects including those that are driving on the road. Well everybody except for Jana.
Tomorrow is independence day, and we're scheduled to attend a bbq. Guess there's a universal way to celebrate independence days.
And one final note: Jana and I learned today that ultra-orthodox Jews do not celebrate or participate in Memorial Day nor Independence Day. They believe that the formation of a Jewish State can only be by God which will occur with the next coming of the Messiah. Israel on the other hand was a creation of man, and therefore the ultra-orthodox do not actually recognize the State of Israel. Guess they do have something in common with the Arabs.
At dusk the day before, we were invited by my colleague to visit the Tel Nof Airbase, Israel's largest airbase with over 6000 soldiers and some large number of fighter jet and helicopter squadrons. Every year the air force base holds a commemoration on this day for all the fallen soldiers who were posted at the base. My colleague was the base commander 10 years back which afforded us practically unlimited access to the various areas of the base and front row seats to the ceremony.
Thousands of people attended the ceremony, and the mood was completely somber. Songs were sung in A-minor, there was no clapping, and over 250 fallen soldiers' names were called out. Side note: As the names were read in alphabetical order, a power-point slide with a photo and listing of the name, rank, and date of death where shown on the large screen. I used the occasion to brush up on my hebrew alphabet. I would say the hebrew letter מ for "m" is not intuitive.
The ceremony ended quite abruptly, at least to a non-hebrew speaking observer, and again with no claps. In fact, Jana turned around and said to me "Is it over or are we offering the sign of peace." People were shaking hands and hugging. No, they were simply saying goodbye.
My colleague continued the tour of the base, showing us the various figher jets (F-15 and F16s) where I got a close up of a laser guided missile. And we got our photo taken in front of a drone. Those things are huge!
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We also visited the squadron offices, checking out the latest air force technology. But coolest of it all, we took a trip down memory lane. My colleague was one of the first aces in the Israeli air force, and he showed us photos of his first "MIG-kill." In the photo, one can see the missile right before impact and in a following photo, the resulting explosion. In total, he has 5 MIG-kills (all Syrian). What a completely different world.
Anyways...the following day, a siren goes off at 11 AM for two minutes, and everybody stops in their tracks to pay their respects including those that are driving on the road. Well everybody except for Jana.
Tomorrow is independence day, and we're scheduled to attend a bbq. Guess there's a universal way to celebrate independence days.
And one final note: Jana and I learned today that ultra-orthodox Jews do not celebrate or participate in Memorial Day nor Independence Day. They believe that the formation of a Jewish State can only be by God which will occur with the next coming of the Messiah. Israel on the other hand was a creation of man, and therefore the ultra-orthodox do not actually recognize the State of Israel. Guess they do have something in common with the Arabs.
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