Yoram Yair

Yoram Shmuel Yair (יורם יאיר; born 29 August 1944) is an Israeli retired soldier who served in the IDF for 35 years until his release with the rank of major general, in 1998.

After his release, he volunteers in the social, educational and business fields.

He serves as chairman and strategic advisor of several companies in Israel and abroad, and as chairman of "Yahad – United for Israel's Soldiers", chairman of the association "After Me!"

and chairman of an association that operates drug and alcohol rehab villages.

Yair built and heads the Rabin Leadership Program at the IDC Herzliya.

Yair was born in Kibbutz Ein Hanatziv, grew up in Tel Aviv and attended Ironi D. High School in the city, was a member of HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed youth movement.

His request was accepted and he served as a platoon commander and deputy company commander in the Parachuted Nahal Battalion, the 50th Battalion and eight months later was appointed company commander.

In the Six Day War, Yair was the Hod (Spearhead) company commander who were first to break into the Rafah tensions, at the head of the 50th Battalion which led the Paratroopers' Brigade, under the command of Raful.

Yair fought at the head of his company and managed with his one half-track with ten soldiers on, to break through about a mile and a half into the heart of the compound, fighting hundreds of enemy soldiers.

Their progress was halted when the half-track was hit and exploded and three of the ten soldiers killed and the rest wounded; Yair was severely wounded but fought along his soldiers in the Egyptian soldiers attacking them.

His rescue from the battlefield took place many hours later.

On the morning of Yom Kippur, he was asked by the commander of the Paratroopers Brigade to go back to the 50th Battalion, whose soldiers were manning the border outposts, in the southern half of the Golan Heights.

Yair was sent to serve as a Deputy Commander of the 50th Battalion.

The battalion commander was wounded in a parachute training two weeks earlier, and Menachem Zatursky the Deputy Commander took his place.

Yair arrived at the battalion headquarters at El Al, under the heavy Syrian shelling that opened the war.

There it became clear to him that the connection with Zatursky and the operations officer who had both gone out into the field had been lost.

Yair took command of the battalion.

The battalion took part in the difficult containment battle against the Syrian offensive in the southern Golan Heights.

Already on the evening of Yom Kippur, the southern sector was left without tanks in the face of the Syrian division's attack.

At dawn the next day – Sunday, after the Syrians occupied Tel Saki and Ramat Magshimim and reached a range of 3 km from the battalion's headquarters, Yair was ordered to retreat with all the fighters at headquarters to the Sea of Galilee.

Yair, orders his soldiers to retreat towards Ein Gev, while he decides to be left alone, at his observation post, located near the front line, watching the Syrian division preparing to resume its attack south-ways.

Yair kept in touch with his fighters trapped in outposts inside the territory occupied by the Syrians.

When the first reserve tanks arrived in the sector, Yair positioned them to stop the Syrian attack, which reached up to 700 meters from its position and was stopped.

The next day, Yair led the second rescue attempt of the Tel Saki and post 116 fighters, and managed to reach the besieged and wounded and rescue them.

Yair was able to recover the battalion that was badly damaged, with the help of his demand from the IDF High Command to allow the battalion to return and participate in the fighting.

Yair crossed the Suez Canal and led at the head of his battalion the advance of the three armoured brigades of the Baran Division, against the Egyptian commando and outposts in the agricultural buffer zone along the freshwater canal and lakes.

The battalion fought for more than a hundred miles, as far as the outskirts of the city of Suez.

Yair was careful to make use of the battalion's advantages and conducted all the fighting in the Egyptian complexes along the tens of kilometres in infantry fighting, which surprised the Egyptians who waited for Israeli tanks with anti-tank missiles.

He enlisted in the IDF in August 1963 as part of the Nahal Gar'in (Core Group).

At the end of his basic training, he was sent to his displeasure for a Squadron Commanders Course in Shivta, which he completed as an outstanding Company trainee and even remained as an instructor.

At the end of the Officers Academy which he then proceeded to, he returned to serve as a platoon commander at the Squadron Commanders Course and when asked to sign for permanent service, he asked for and even conditioned it on moving to the Paratroopers' Brigade.

In 1968 he began his academic studies and chose the psychology track.

In 1971, he completed his undergraduate studies and began his master's degree studies.

In the same year, he returned to active service and was an instructor in the IDF Officer Candidate School.

In this role, he identified the main issue of the Officers Academy and which was a dropout rate of over 50% of the cadets in the school and chose to serve as the Officers Academy psychologist.

As the school's psychologist, he invented and developed the system for the sorting and formation of the cadets at the entrance to the academy.

At a later stage, his method was transferred to the Paratroopers Brigade and the various patrols.

Since then, Yair's system has been used as the IDF's sorting system for admission to elite units.

In 1972 Yair returned to the Paratroopers' Brigade and was appointed Deputy Commander of the Parachuted Nahal Battalion until August 1973 when he left for the Inter-Armed College of Command and Staff.

In October 1973, with the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, Yair was a Major ranked student at The Inter-Armed College of Command and Staff.