Yossi Ben Hanan
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Major General (Aluf) Joseph (Yossi) Ben Hanan was born in Jerusalem 1945. His father, Michael Ben Hanan, was a famous public figure in Israel, known among other things- as one of the first live show broadcasters in Kol Israel (the voice of Israel). Michael Ben Hanan was nicknamed "Mar Hitamlut Haboker" (The master of morning excersises), after his daily early morning gym program. During the Six Days War Yossi Ben Hanan was a young Israeli officer, a Lieutenant, serving as the Operation Officer of the 7th Armored Brigade. He was featured on a famous cover of LIFE magazine after the war which showed him, as a young soldier, triumphantly clutching an AK-47 rifle while standing in the waters of the Suez Canal.
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, Lieutenant Colonel Ben Hanan returned to Israel and arrived on the Golan Heights on about October 8, 1973. Ben Hanan has participated in the fierce fightings 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 evacuted and continued fighting.
On October 9, 1973, Lieutenant Colonel 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 with 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 Matkal and 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 with great distinction in the IDF.He was the 7th Armored Brigade commander, the head of the IDF R&D and the commander in chief of the armored units achieving the rank of Major General.
He is currently the head of the Israeli Defense Ministry's developing countries defense assistance division, SIBAT.
