Finding our way home thru the darkness, with the North Star in sight

Few things in this world are as beautiful as the night sky in the desert. Most people do not get to see this beauty, far away from the bright lights and cacophony of sounds in the city, the black velvet of a dark sky full of stars that seem so close you can reach out and touch them. It never fails to fill me with a deep sense of awe. 

In the army, no matter how challenging the particular situation, I would take comfort in the familiar constellations and quiet power that seem to emanate from the stars. A wave of relief would wash over me as the big dipper rose high in the night sky, making it easy to find the North Star, the most constant point of reference for navigation at night.

No matter where you are, if you can find that star, you can always find your way home. It was the beacon of the underground railroad used by the runaway slaves in the South, heading north to freedom, and it is and has always been the silent friend of every soldier who ever needed to find his way in the darkness.

When I became an officer, I was obsessed by the need to always know where I was, and where I needed to go, and my greatest fear was the prospect of losing my way; not so much that I would get lost, but because I dreaded the thought of getting an entire unit lost along with me. 

This fear emanated from the events that led to the capture of four Israeli soldiers, including a close friend, Zack Baumel, in the battle of Sultan Yaakob in the Lebanon war in June of 1982. In the middle of the night, going on three straight days of intense combat and little sleep, the men of Zack’s battalion were sent on a mission to capture and hold the Sultan Yaakov crossroads, deep in the Bekaa Valley in Eastern Lebanon.

Intelligence had it that there was as yet no serious enemy opposition in the area, so they drove full speed without the normal routine of night movement which demands no lights, radio silence, and slow speeds to reduce noise. Unfortunately, intelligence was wrong. Easily spotted by a Syrian battalion of T-62 tanks with anti-tank missile support, they drove into a perfect ambush, coming under heavy fire from the Syrian tanks above them.