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Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-824066
IDF Commando Reservists: "We Believe in What We Are Doing"
(Jerusalem Post) Seth J. Frantzman - IDF reservists in the Commando Brigade come from all walks of life; some are teachers or electricians, doctors or academics, hi-tech workers and students. An officer explained: "We left everything for a year, a whole year, and we left that because it's our country....We left our homes because, in the end, we believe in what we are doing." He spoke about the difficulty he has seen with soldiers who had to put studies on hold for a year. A soldier studying to be a doctor, for instance, may end up missing two years of schooling as the war continues. Another challenge is that many of them have children at home. He said in his own family his youngest child was only a few months old when the war began. He said his wife is supportive, and she has told him that the IDF must defeat the enemy so that this will be the "last" war, even if the war is long. Like many soldiers, he remembered the scenes from Oct. 7. "The things I saw...it reminds me what I'm doing here." One of the soldiers was in the U.S. and returned to his unit after Oct. 7. He has spent 270 days out of the past year with the unit. He said, "It is a lot of work, and you have a massive responsibility you owe to the country and people and parents. This is a responsibility to protect people who can't protect themselves, and you do it for them, and there is massive honor in that role."