Whatever Happened To…Israeli Soldier On The Cover Of Life June 1967

The Six Day War ended this day 48 years ago (!)

Some of you may be familiar with this Life Magazine cover from back then.

life magazine cover

The soldier pictured was Yossi Ben Hanan and in case you are wondering whatever became of him:

In 1973, while on his honeymoon in Nepal, then lieutenant colonel Ben Hanan learned of the start of the Yom Kippur War. Over the course of a few days, he returned to Israel and arrived on the Golan Heights on about October 8, 1973. Ben Hanan participated in fierce fighting with the Syrians in the holding defence of the Golan Heights along with then lieutenant colonel Avigdor Kahalani, and was wounded for the first time, but refused to be evacuated and continued fighting.

On October 9, 1973, Ben Hanan took command of a scratch force of Israeli tanks that had been put together by Shmuel Askarov, one of the survivors of the decimated 188th Armored Brigade. Leading his command in a desperate battle against overwhelming numbers of Syrian T-62s, Ben Hanan restored the tactical situation but at the cost of most of his command and his own Centurion tank. Blown out of the turret when his tank was hit by a Sagger anti-tank missile, Ben Hanan lay wounded on the battlefield until he was rescued from behind enemy lines by Yonatan Netanyahu, a legendary member of the IDF’s elite Sayeret Matkaland brother of future Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ben Hanan received the second highest decoration, the Medal of Courage for his part in the fierce battles of the Yom Kippur War.

Yossi Ben Hanan subsequently served in the IDF. He commanded the 7th Armored Brigade, the IDF R&D department, the Israeli National Security College, and the Armored Corps. As a reservist, he attained the rank of Major General (Aluf). He is currently the head of the Israeli Defense Ministry’s developing countries defense assistance division, SIBAT

Here he is speaking earlier this year.

Update June 2022: The end of this video represents the only existing footage of Yossi’s descent into the Suez Canal:

7 thoughts on “Whatever Happened To…Israeli Soldier On The Cover Of Life June 1967”

  1. Norman_In_New_York

    I feel honored that he fights for me and speaks for me even though I am far off in the Diaspora.

  2. Ah, the old days. When an American magazine would put an Israeli soldier on its cover portraying him in a positive light and no one would even whine about it.

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