“Suddenly it is like an earthquake. The sky is falling down on you and there’s a terrible bombing at the post…”  

 

 Uri: It’s Saturday afternoon. I am standing at the gate wearing sandals. Yes, like all the rest I acquired the local habits very quickly. You know, you pick up these kinds of habits in no time.

Not much effort is involved. So I stood there wearing my sandals, and it’s afternoon. And suddenly it is like an earthquake. The sky is falling down on you and there’s a terrible bombing at the post.

 

And I remember asking to be replaced because I was not properly equipped. I did not have my bulletproof vest on, my equipment belt was lying on the side, I did not have a helmet and I was wearing my sandals.

I asked to be replaced. So someone came to replace me. I ran to the bunker where all my equipment was and I was getting ready when I heard a message on the radio. I remember this. It was absurd, well, maybe not absurd, but something so strange. I think I heard someone on the radio asking if it was OK to drink water. We were in the middle of a bombing for some time now, and it was Yom Kippur and we were fasting. And it seemed to me so out of place, so unrealistic. If you want to drink, you can, you do not need any permission to do so. You are in the middle of a bombing, and people…
We considered that it was the first time we went through such a thing and people get panicked and scared and you don’t know what to do. It was the first time we were in a situation like this.

I did not go through it…I did not go through it, nor did the others.

And it seemed so pointless. Who do you ask permission from?
There is no Rabbi… if someone wants to drink. Most of the guys were religious. If someone wants to drink, then they can.

That’s it. I remember this one thing.

And then I went to the observation post again and I was there for a couple of days.
Therapist: Did someone send you there?
Uri: Someone sent me, I do not know who. I mean, everything was done through the radio. I arrived at the observation post and…
Therapist: What did you feel, what did you think at that time?
Uri: Look, I divide it. I think that to a certain extent I wasn’t really thinking. I mean, most of my actions during the war were very instinctive. I did not put too much thought into it, but to some extent my actions actually originated from the training I went through and from my capability and will to stay alive. But …I acted first and I only thought about it later.