Avni, David
David (Dudu), son of Sarah and Joseph, was born on July 15, 1940 in Giv’atayim, and studied at the elementary school in the Borochov neighborhood of Givatayim and at the kibbutz high school in Kibbutz Revivim. He was a member of the Hanoar Haoved Vehalomed movement and as a sports enthusiast was a member of the Hapoel Association, and since his childhood, David was full of security awareness, since he grew up in an atmosphere in which security matters stood at the center of his career. was drafted into the IDF in mid-October 1957 and assigned to the Engineering Corps. After completing basic training, and after completing his training course, he was placed in a bomb disposal unit as a bomb-breaker. At the end of his service in the Israel Defense Forces, he volunteered for the merchant marine as an electric officer and sailed in the sea, and spent a year in Hamburg, Germany, where he was employed as an electrician in the State Theater. In 1969 he volunteered for a regular army service and after completing a basic officer’s course, he took a course in engineering officers and was assigned to an IAF construction unit where he served as the commander of the bomb disposal department and was awarded the rank of lieutenant. Shortly before the Yom Kippur War, he stopped his vacation and returned to his base to dismantle a missile with his own hands His comrades-in-arms and subordinates told him that he embodied in his personality the slogan “after me,” which distinguishes IDF commanders. On October 9, 1973, David was called upon to remove bombs dropped by the Egyptians from airplanes on the landing strip at the Bir-Tamada airport in Sinai. After making sure that his subordinates were not hurt, he went to dismantle the bomb and during the course of the action was hit and fell. He was laid to rest in the military cemetery in Kiryat Shaul. He left behind a wife and two sons, parents, sisters and brother.
