The annual remembrance ceremony for the fallen soldiers of the Paratroopers Brigade was held last week (Thursday) at the Paratroopers Memorial, led by the Commander of the Central Command, Major General Avi Bluth, and in the presence of bereaved families, and past and present commanders and soldiers of the brigade.
“My name is Avner Cohen, a bereaved brother,” said the representative of the bereaved families, Avner Cohen, brother of Sergeant Adi Cohen, may he rest in peace. “Such an honorable title that no one wishes to earn. Adi fell in a difficult battle on the eve of Tisha B’Av, August 2, 2006, exactly one month before he would have celebrated his 19th birthday, and became the youngest casualty in the Second Lebanon War. Bereavement is something you are born into ‘by surprise’ – without pregnancy or labor pains, without prior preparation for the timing or the way. It’s one of those things in life that arrive uninvited, and without your ability to influence them.”
“My wonderful story begins with a call from my commander, who asked me to join a 100-day reserve duty in southern Lebanon. When I realized which brigade and on which dates the operation was taking place, I couldn’t refuse to close the circle that the place had presented to me, the same dates in the same sector with the exact same forces, only with a 20-year difference.”
“For 20 years I have been living Lebanon,” added the representative of the bereaved families, “the villages, the paths, and the names – all from fragments of stories and isolated pictures. For 20 years I have been trying to extract every piece of information that would create a sequence of memories for me from the last experiences in the very short life of my younger brother, Adi, may his memory be a blessing. Suddenly, after 20 years, I had the privilege of experiencing firsthand, not just through pictures and stories, the same landscapes and the same experiences. Truly an ordinary paratrooper. And it felt so natural to me.”
“But more than anything, I had the privilege of experiencing the Red Brigade up close in all its glory – the brigade that Adi loved so much.”
“Dear families,” said the Commander of the Paratroopers Brigade, Colonel Roi Zweig-Lavi, “for us, your loved ones are not names etched in stone, nor are they just pictures on memorial plaques. They are people with whom we shared the dust, the laughter in difficult moments, the fear, and the sense of mission. They are our brothers, friends, and subordinates who left an immense, irreplaceable void.”
“The past does not bind us backward – it gives meaning to the journey we are on today. Every young fighter who receives the red beret receives not just fabric and a symbol, but the legacy of those who fell for him. We renew ourselves – because we remember. We strengthen ourselves – because we learn from their path. And we continue to operate and win – because we owe them our lives. I salute the fallen, and embrace you from the bottom of my heart, dear families. May their memory be blessed.”
