Sassoon

Sassoon was a 19 year old paratrooper in October of 1973. While Israel was observing the fast of Yom Kippur, Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack in overwhelming numbers.

After being thrown back in the Sinai peninsula, General Arial Sharon proposed a counterattack which involved crossing the Suez Canal and encircling the Egyptians. In order for Sharon's plan to succeed, a narrow corridor through enemy lines to the canal had to be held open to allow the forces to cross over to the other side. The battle for the corridor to the canal came to be known as the "Chinese Farm", named after the Japanese letters mistaken for Chinese by soldiers at an experimental station that was at the center of the fighting.

Sassoon was in the brigade of paratroopers that was sent to the Chinese Farm. Unknown to them, opposing them was the Egyptian 21st Armored Division. Without armor, they held back vastly superior forces for over 48 hours at the cost of heavy casualties.

Something very wrong happened between the 15th and 18th of October; either out of callousness or incompetence, entire units were sacrificed. Soldiers don't like to tell tales of battles; if you weren't there, you will never understand, and if you were there is no need for words. Sassoon doesn't like to talk about the Chinese Farm, but when it's mentioned there is something hard and angry in his eyes.

After Sassoon was released from enlisted service, he got a job with the security services that protect Israeli missions abroad and El Al and was stationed in posts all over the world. Today he is married to Sarina and lives on a farm near Haifa. They have 3 children.

Sassoon served as a reservist with the men that survived the Chinese Farm with him in '73 until he was 45 years old. Sassoon and others like him, and the families of those who didn't return home, paid a price far above what a nation can reasonably request of her sons.