'Medal of Valor' to be Awarded to Fallen Maj. Ro'i Klein
by Ezra HaLevi
(http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/123313
(IsraelNN.com) The IDF's highest honor, the Medal of Valor, is to
be granted to Maj. Roi Klein, who was killed after jumping on a
Hizbullah grenade to save his troops during the Second Lebanon War.
The IDF plans to award 142 citations of bravery to IDF soldiers,
officers and the families of those who fell in the Second Lebanon
War.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi authorized the final
list of soldiers and will be awarding 34 of the citations
personally. The special citations include six Medals of Courage, 12
Medals for Distinguished Service and 20 Chief of Staff Citations.
Four citations will be given to the families of soldiers who fell
in battle.
The IDF had waited to grant the citations until all inquiries into
the military aspects of the war had been completed.
In the fighting, we saw the brotherhood of the fighters in many
instances, COS Ashkenazi said. Everything connected to the rescue
and evacuation of the wounded is deserving of note. These events
will be spoken of in the future as well.
The awards will be distributed in a ceremony on September 2.
Maj. Roi Klein Awarded Medal of Valor
Being granted the supreme Medal of Valor is Roi Klein. Maj. Klein,
who volunteered to lead his Golani Brigade Battalion 51 into
battle, was killed in the line of duty on July 26, 2006.
While fighting for control of the hostile village of Bint Jbeil in
southern Lebanon, Klein and his men were ambushed by Hizbullah
terrorists. Maj. Klein led a group of soldiers and tried to attack
the terrorists from behind, but were obstructed by a wall. Klein
then began treating one of the wounded, at which point a terrorist
hurled a grenade at the group. Soldiers who survived the battle -
eight did not - reported that Ro'i yelled out "Shma Yisrael
" and
jumped upon the grenade, absorbing the brunt of the explosion and
saving the men around him. A stunned silence overtook the men, and
then one of them started shouting, "He jumped on the grenade! He
jumped on the grenade!" Though mortally wounded, Klein tried to
continue to communicate by radio to his superiors.
One of his fellow soldiers, Elad Ozeri, later said that shortly
afterwards, when it was thought that Roi was dead, Capt. Itamar
Katz, who took over the command, approached him. At that point,
Klein - in his last act on earth - raised his arm and gave his
coded radio device to Katz. "Maj. Klein always emphasized to us the
importance of finding the coded devices of soldiers who were hurt,"
Ozeri said, "so that they would not fall into the hands of the
enemy."
Klein actually saved his men twice in the same battle, Ozeri said:
"At the beginning of the encounter, he saw a grenade that had been
thrown, and was able to yell and warn the men in time."
The husband and father of two small boys and resident of the
hilltop community of Harisha, Klein was an acknowledged Torah
scholar, superb commander and an accomplished musician in civilian
life. He was buried in Eli, the Samaria community in which he grew
up, on what would have been his 31st birthday.
The Medal of Valor has been awarded only some 40 times in the
history of the State, and the award to Klein will be the first in
34 years. The last recipient was Brig.-Gen. (res.) Avigdor
Kahalani, who commanded Armored Battalion 77 during the 1973 Yom
Kippur War.
