Translation by Yeshoshua Siskin
38-year-old Lt.-Col Erez Sachaini and 27-year-old Major Hen Fogel were brought to rest yesterday evening after being killed in a helicopter crash on Monday night. Here are some remembrances of them:
Yaron, the father of Hen, tells the following sotry: "We go to Canada for a two year stay. Hen misses Israel so much that after one year he wants to go home. However, my wife then receives an attractive offer to remain in Canada and so Hen says that, although he loves Israel and wants to go back, if my wife and I decide to stay in Canada, he will stay with us because he loves us. Those words brought us back, together with him, to Israel."
After it became known that Erez was killed, his friends looked for a picture to pass along to the media. They did not find a single picture in which he was not smiling, laughing, or just goofing around. There were also pictures of the wooden house that he built for his kids in the backyard during the corona lockdown. Someone Erez mentored in the Noar Ha'oved veHalomed youth movement wrote: "Erez was my mentor and I have one memory of him that stands out: There was a large gathering attended by the regional director of the movement. I have a picture of Erez in my mind. He's talking and smiling. His blue eyes are looking out and he is glowing. A memory full of light. This is not just information about him that is nice to recall after his death. Even before the tragic accident that took his life, he was forever glowing and radiant like that in my mind. This is the clearest, if not the only, picture of him that I possess. May his memory always be that clear, radiant, and blessed."
The above words are dedicated the ascent of the souls of Hen ben Aron and Erez ben David, and to the recovery of Ron ben Marina, the lone survivor of the crash.
