"I guess I was wrong," said Joel to the guests "but there's no way I'm leaving before dinner. The food should be just about ready."

Nobody speculated about the possibilities. That's a part of life in Israel, everyone is prepared to spring into action. As a matter of fact Haim, one of the guests, was in the infantry and he got activated just a couple of hours later.

They all finished eating rather quickly and went back to their homes wishing Joel the best of luck. Kenzie, one of Joel's co-workers and a friend of Hannah's, decided to stay behind and keep Hannah company. Joel packed a little bag with a few pairs of socks, some underwear and a bottle of 60% J. A. Baczewski Vodka. He put on his military issue boots, kissed Hannah passionately, gave Kenzie a peck on the cheek and out the door he went. When telling the story later, Joel usually skipped right to the action part omitting the transit, equipment acquisition and other details. He summarized it thus:

"Less than 10 hours after I got to the pickup point. I was jumping out of a burning tank somewhere on the Golan Heights."

In a little more detail, what happened was that the bus took him to the camp of the 188th Armored Brigade. The 188th also known as the Barak (Lightning) Formation, was the last armor brigade, in the IDF, to use the Centurion tank. During the Yom Kippur war it was the first line of defense in the Southern Golan. Almost all of its officers were killed in action during the first few days. The 188th suffered its heaviest losses in the first 6 hours after the attack. A company of reservists that included Joel was hastily assembled and sent up to the Golan to help. As usual there were more commanders than tanks, so Joel ended up as the radio operator and cannon loader in a tank commanded by a Captain Moshe. During the ride, Sgan-Aluf (Lieutenant-Colonel) Baruch had issues with his radio so he switched tanks with Moshe.

Joel liked to sit up on the turret while the tank was in motion and he almost didn't make it to the war when Baruch decided to check the .50 caliber machine gun and let a couple of bullets fly just a couple of inches away from Joel's ear. Baruch liked to raise his seat to the max and stand up on it which was against regulations, but Joel was not going to fight a high-ranking officer over anything. Instead, he ducked into the turret and finding his little backpack, took out his bottle of vodka and helped himself to a big swig.