In the military everyone uses last names but somehow they shorten them all, so Joel was actually referred to as Lupo. Bialy's name was actually Bialystok, and he did show up later that morning. He had managed to run away from the firefight, but at some point he realized that he had actually ended up behind the enemy lines. He lay low for the whole day and eventually made it back. I also found out that we owed our lives to some guy named Zvika and his little force. The Zvika Force had circled around the Syrian tanks that had decimated us and he did the same to them. Later on, he actually got the Medal of Valor for his acts. Lieutenant-Colonel Baruch, did not fare that well. He had lost an arm and a leg as a result of his wounds, but at least he was still alive unlike many others.

They had one more day of r'n'r if you can call it that, after which, Joel got assigned to a new crew and a new tank. This time they made him the gunner, which was appropriate. He actually used to teach gunnery for a while and was a crack shot. His new/old commander was Captain Moshe, who had also managed to get through the Yom Kippur night Inferno unscathed. The driver was a guy named Gavrielov (Gavri) and the new radio guy was named Calderon (Caldo.) They were both Corporals so Joel who was a sergeant outranked them, not that it made a big difference. Early the next morning, they went to war again.

Somehow, it had apparently lost its intensity because they just drove for most of the day without getting into any fights. The Centurion, as much as it was a great warrior, was not quite built for the Middle East. It needed to stop every four hours for a half hour rest during which the crew would be doing some light maintenance. We had a leisurely first day of the next phase of the war and at some point we stopped for the night. We laid a large tarp on the ground, got our blankets out and went to sleep. Well, some of us went to sleep, but we all took 2 hour turns sitting in the commander's chair, keeping watch.

I had noticed a while ago, that Hannah had snuck a little jar of pickles into my bag. I would take it out once in a while and just hold it. On this night I decided that it had pickled enough and that perhaps I could just taste one. It was delicious so I had two. I screwed the top back on the jar and put it away.