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Thanks, Pards, even those who wished me well in hell...

I just got back. Actually, I got back a few days ago and immediately went hunting (no luck) before really doing anything else.

Short version of the story is that I was in Israel over the Jew holidays of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Simchat Torah. I was staying at a friend's farm, about 25 miles from Gaza, and was planning on going to Jerusalem the day of the attack (Simchat Torah) because that's the third anniversary of my dad's passing and I wanted to pray for him at the Western Wall. Hamas sort of screwed up that plan.

Before the attack I was having a very nice time with my friend and his three sons, who I call my "fake sons" due to how close we all are.

This is the picture of them after the Yom Kippur break the fast. The three guys on the left are my fake sons and the guy on the right is their cousin.




All of them have finished their mandatory military service and all of them were combat soldiers who saw action (two in Golani, one in Kfir). My friend's farm is in rocket range from Gaza but the Hamas terrorists didn't get that far into Israel, so we didn't know what was happening until all the boys' cell phones went off with the "tzav shomnah" (order 8) alert, which is the emergency call up of all reservists. Then the sirens went off and everyone ran for bomb shelters, as Hamas started to hit the area with massive barrages all day. My friend's farm is right next to the tel Nof air force base, so things got pretty loud as the Iron Dome batteries fired at the missiles and the helicopters and jets took off.

One of the kids was immediately deployed to Gaza, where he had fought a few years ago and was seriously injured, another was sent up to the Lebanon border and the third was deployed outside of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is located.

Thankfully, while they all are seeing action, they have not been injured and the eldest, who was fighting near Ramallah, was even given a one day pass last week to come home, see his girlfriend and have a family meal before going back to fight. This is him with his girlfriend at my friend's house...we had a very interesting discussion as to why he picked the M4 rather than Tavor...it comes down to the fact that in this conflict it is not close quarters in buildings, and that is the only time he every preferred the Tavor.


Even one of my ex-employees, a young woman who is as tiny as tiny gets, was called back to duty from her job in tel Aviv. After she sent this picture I told her to put on some weight so the plate carrier fits better, but they didn't have enough supplies for reservists so this is the best she could get. She's very small but I told her that if she is still like she was when she worked for us, she better not get kidnapped because with her big mouth and attitude Hamas would kill her rather than hold her as a hostage.


When I got back to Montana and was hunting, I sent the kids' commanding officer the picture of my rifle and told him if I had to come back I'd be bringing it with me. He said the hunting for Hamas is obviously better than the hunting for elk...


And that's about it. Lots of guys are getting called up, but given my age and time away from active service I wasn't given the order 8. I did have a weapon with me for the first week or so after the attack but I ended up working on the legal aspects of fighting Hamas and stopped looking for someone to shoot.

It's far from over....

Why don't you volunteer for Hamas? Just fly to Montana and I'll make sure you are martyred post haste.

Brother Remsen,
Glad you and your family are safe... so far anyways... best of wishes

Thanks, Pards, even those who wished me well in hell...

I just got back. Actually, I got back a few days ago and immediately went hunting (no luck) before really doing anything else.

Short version of the story is that I was in Israel over the Jew holidays of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Simchat Torah. I was staying at a friend's farm, about 25 miles from Gaza, and was planning on going to Jerusalem the day of the attack (Simchat Torah) because that's the third anniversary of my dad's passing and I wanted to pray for him at the Western Wall. Hamas sort of screwed up that plan.

Before the attack I was having a very nice time with my friend and his three sons, who I call my "fake sons" due to how close we all are.

This is the picture of them after the Yom Kippur break the fast. The three guys on the left are my fake sons and the guy on the right is their cousin.




All of them have finished their mandatory military service and all of them were combat soldiers who saw action (two in Golani, one in Kfir). My friend's farm is in rocket range from Gaza but the Hamas terrorists didn't get that far into Israel, so we didn't know what was happening until all the boys' cell phones went off with the "tzav shomnah" (order 8) alert, which is the emergency call up of all reservists. Then the sirens went off and everyone ran for bomb shelters, as Hamas started to hit the area with massive barrages all day. My friend's farm is right next to the tel Nof air force base, so things got pretty loud as the Iron Dome batteries fired at the missiles and the helicopters and jets took off.

One of the kids was immediately deployed to Gaza, where he had fought a few years ago and was seriously injured, another was sent up to the Lebanon border and the third was deployed outside of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is located.

Thankfully, while they all are seeing action, they have not been injured and the eldest, who was fighting near Ramallah, was even given a one day pass last week to come home, see his girlfriend and have a family meal before going back to fight. This is him with his girlfriend at my friend's house...we had a very interesting discussion as to why he picked the M4 rather than Tavor...it comes down to the fact that in this conflict it is not close quarters in buildings, and that is the only time he every preferred the Tavor.


Even one of my ex-employees, a young woman who is as tiny as tiny gets, was called back to duty from her job in tel Aviv. After she sent this picture I told her to put on some weight so the plate carrier fits better, but they didn't have enough supplies for reservists so this is the best she could get. She's very small but I told her that if she is still like she was when she worked for us, she better not get kidnapped because with her big mouth and attitude Hamas would kill her rather than hold her as a hostage.


When I got back to Montana and was hunting, I sent the kids' commanding officer the picture of my rifle and told him if I had to come back I'd be bringing it with me. He said the hunting for Hamas is obviously better than the hunting for elk...


And that's about it. Lots of guys are getting called up, but given my age and time away from active service I wasn't given the order 8. I did have a weapon with me for the first week or so after the attack but I ended up working on the legal aspects of fighting Hamas and stopped looking for someone to shoot.

It's far from over....