Former subordinate of Sharon recalls his calm command

13 January 2014, 2:38 pm

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Zvi Aviram, of Ashkelon, first served under Sharon in the mid-’60s, when Sharon was the commander of the 11th Brigade, and stuck, in terms of promotion, in what he called the deep freeze.

“What he did to that old brigade in a matter of months was unbelievable,” he tells The Times of Israel at Sharon’s funeral. “As though he injected a hot pepper into us.”

Sharon, who both lived and fought in the desert often, was at home in forbidding climates (Photo credit: GPO/ Flash 90)

Aviram served under Sharon again, as deputy battalion commander of the 87th Recon Battalion, during the Yom Kippur War. “His voice over the radio, always calm, understood what you were saying immediately,” Aviram says.

“He was the greatest military leader we ever had.”

Aviram lost two battalion commanders during the war, he says, and was therefore in touch with Sharon often.

Mitch Ginsburg