Zvi Greengold

Zvi 'Zvika' Greengold was born in 1952 on kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot and was a twenty-one-year-old lieutenant, home on leave, when Syrian and Egyptian forces attacked on 6 October 1973. He made his way to the Nafah base on the Golan Heights, took command of two repaired Centurion tanks and fought along the Tapline Route for roughly twenty hours under the radio call sign 'Force Zvika', changing tanks repeatedly as they were knocked out and being burned in one engagement. His delaying action helped slow the Syrian advance during the first night of the Yom Kippur War, when the Golan defences were desperately thin. He was awarded the Medal of Valor, Israel's highest decoration for bravery, and later worked in Israeli industry and served as mayor of Ofakim.