If before the war the only common denominator between Lieutenant Y’, Lieutenant Ay’ and Captain Y’ was the fact that all three were Golani reservists, today, after long months of fighting and injuries they sustained in battle, they found themselves in the exact same place, and not one that one immediately thinks of – Bahad 1.
“I opened the door – and within a moment the room was engulfed in flames before my eyes”
Lieutenant Y’ – Will enter the role of Company Commander in the Alexandroni Brigade
Lieutenant Y’ came to reserve duty after his regular service as a combatant in Battalion 51, but for the past two years he has been identified with Alexandroni – the reserve brigade in which he maneuvered in the north. “It was a very tense period,” he says, “a lot of anti-tank missiles, mortars – you are constantly under continuous threat, and with one goal in mind: to protect home.”
In September ’24, after many months on the border, and with the start of the maneuver in Lebanon, he was on the front line that entered. “We operated in two villages then, and as part of the mission, we moved between houses to clear them of terrorists,” he recalls those moments, which, although they started as routine, suddenly turned around.
“We reached another structure, as we had done more than ten times before. We started to clear room by room. Suddenly, as I passed by one of the doors, I saw something suspicious – and within seconds the place was engulfed in flames before my eyes.”
The incident could have ended very differently. “Thanks to a quick reaction, and also quite a bit of luck, I managed to get out on my own two feet,” he continues. Only when he rejoined the rest of the force did he realize his condition was serious and he was evacuated to the hospital – where it turned out he suffered severe burns all over his body.
From that moment on, a complex journey began that lasted several months until full recovery. And all this time, the question that hung in the air, ‘if he would return to reserve duty,’ was not relevant at all. “I had no doubt about it,” he states firmly, “I knew that as long as I could – I would report for duty.”
In May ’25, a week after his second daughter was born, he returned to the brigade, and from there continued directly to the officers’ course for reservists. Today, shortly after receiving his new rank, he turns his gaze south – and as you read these words, he is likely already commanding in the field as a Company Commander alongside his comrades in Alexandroni.
“The fighting taught me a lot – and the officer’s course filled the gaps”
Lieutenant Ay’ – Will enter the role of Company Commander in Brigade 300
Like his comrade in the “Brown Brigade,” Lieutenant Ay’ also started in Golani, but in Battalion 13. During the war, he was already on active reserve duty in Brigade 300, which operates in the north. “From the moment we were called up, within less than 12 hours we were already on the fence,” he recalls. His platoon descended to the community of Dolev, ready for combat at any given moment. “You are there knowing that something can erupt any day, and you are responsible. You need to be there.”
One night, he was injured during a sweep. “It was a rainy night, with mud, fog, and complete darkness, the kind where you can’t see a meter ahead. We were walking with all our equipment, and I was hit in the leg.” He limped back to the encampment, and from there he was evacuated, followed by several weeks of recovery and rehabilitation.
In parallel, the battalion continued its operations in the sector. “They fought for about another month after my injury, and I knew I had to go back to them.” But for him too, returning to the field was not the final stage – but a beginning. “Already during the fighting, I became a Company Commander in the field,” he describes how he realized that perhaps an officer’s course was the right decision for him. “The roles changed, someone needed to fill them – and I was chosen from the platoon. In the end, I felt that the fighting taught me a lot, but there was still a gap, and the course provided a solution.”
And all of this, according to him, could not have happened without one thing – the support of family and friends around him. “In the end, all my desire is worth nothing if life doesn’t allow it,” he admits, “we are at ages where there are families, children, work, and missions, and someone has to help so we can complete the process. In my case, it was my wife, who pushes me and holds the home front while working.”
“I told the Battalion Commander – I would have come even without a hand”
Captain Y’ – Will enter the role of Company Commander in Brigade 769
“From the beginning of the war, I enlisted for reserve duty in Brigade 300. We fought on the Lebanese border and deep within it, and also took part in operations in Syria,” says Captain Y’, the oldest of the three, who also served in Battalion 51 during his regular service.
In June ’24, during the fighting, he joined Alexandroni, where his original regular service comrades served. There, during an engagement in Gaza, he was hit by shrapnel from a grenade in his hand and was moderately wounded. “I was hospitalized for a long period,” he says. “After a few months, they scheduled surgery for me, and precisely then, another call-up arrived – and I joined my friends in the maneuver in Lebanon.” He returned with bandages and limited movement of his hand, but that didn’t stop him at all, quite the opposite.
The injury, he emphasizes, was not the reason for taking the officer’s course in the first place, but it certainly pushed him even further: “It came from the simplest place, of seeing the operational need, and understanding that this is the biggest thing I can do – despite the costs. To the point that I told the Battalion Commander that I would have come even without a hand, if God forbid that were the situation.”
“It’s something in our DNA,” he states with a smile, and provides a small piece of evidence from the field, which for him is worth more than any bombastic sentence. “When we were on reserve duty in the Mount Hermon area, we met one of the site managers, a Golani soldier from ’73,” he recalls. “I asked him: How did you succeed? How did you pick yourselves up the second and third time? He told me: They told you that you need to conquer the Hermon – so that’s the objective, and you will achieve it. That’s Golani, that’s the strength of the brigade, and perhaps of the entire IDF.”
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