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Opinion

Colonel Eisner: War Hero

April 17, 2012 12:35
1 min read

http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/outpouring-support-for-off...

Hagit Rein, grieving mother of the late Major B’naya Rein who was killed in the Second Lebanon War called the Army Radio to express her dismay at the way Eisner was being judged by the “media court.”
During that war, B’naya Rein assembled a special force to assist damaged tanks. He was killed on that mission for which he had volunteered, and his body remained in enemy territory. At the command level it was decided that rescuing the body was too dangerous, according to the reservists’ letter. Then it was decided they lacked the necessary resources for a rescue mission.

After three days, Shalom Eisner, who was then commander of an armoured battalion, heard about the abandoned body and said it was unacceptable that the body of an army officer would be lying on the ground while his parents were waiting for him at home. Eisner took a jeep, recall his fellow officers and soldiers, put on a flak jacket and went out to get B’naya. “Surrounded by burned-out tanks, missiles flying in every direction, he just went out into the field, loaded the body and brought it back.”

Lt. Col. Eisner’s supporters expressed their complete faith in him “as a man, as a friend and as a moral commander.”