Written by Ori Egoz
Translated by Juliana Brown
On the morning of Simchat Torah, Lt. Col. Yarden Shukrun woke up in her home in Ofakim to the sound of sirens. At that moment, Battalion Commander Yarden, the first female combat soldier in the Home Command's Search and Rescue Unit, entered the safe room at home with her three children.
"Terrorists have invaded the Urim base. Get your uniform on and come!", Yarden's commanding officer instructed her. Yarden, who in the past had commanded combat soldiers even when she was eight months pregnant, was ready as always. She grabbed her rifle and her gear, hugged her children and left them in her husband's trusty hands.
"We're going into battle", she roused her battalion's fighter. "There's no key? Break open the armory (weapons storage) and make sure everyone is armed".
While driving to the Urim base, Yarden reported over the radio: "Don't take Route 232; go around", she wisely instructed her soldiers, thus saving them from ambushes by terrorists.
When Yarden and her fighters reached the gates of Urim, they were hit by heavy fire. Yarden, whose role in the battalion was to break in and rescue, was trained to find advantages which could make better use of the area. She realized that if she reached a hiding place on the roof, she would be better able to identify where the terrorists were shooting from, and by adding in an observation drone, she would have a significant advantage. She led her soldiers up to the rooftop and working together smoothly, they fired at the terrorists until the base was free of them.
Yarden and her fighters then returned to Ofakim to rid the town of terrorists. They went from house to house, killing the terrorists and using their special equipment to rescue residents from homes which had been hit by rockets.
When the fighting began in Gaza, Yarden led her soldiers through the city of murderers. Using their special gear, they broke into the Hamas' highly-protected hideouts. Every commando unit knows the brave female battalion commander, and that she will fight alongside them until they achieve 'ippon' – a total victory normally won by Judo champions, and which Yarden herself won when she was the Israeli national champion.
If you ask her what gives her the strength to keep fighting, she'll tell you that she thinks of her grandparents who were Holocaust survivors, and for whom the establishment of the State of Israel was a miracle. For them, and for her children, she continues to fight to keep us a free people in our own land.
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