31 Facts About Yoram Yair

Yoram Shmuel Yair is an Israeli retired soldier who served in the IDF for 35 years until his release with the rank of major general, in 1998.

Yoram Yair enlisted in the IDF in August 1963 as part of the Nahal Gar'in.

Yoram Yair's request was accepted and he served as a platoon commander and deputy company commander in the Parachuted Nahal Battalion, the 50th Battalion and eight months later was appointed company commander.

Yoram Yair fought at the head of his company and managed with his one half-track with ten soldiers on, to break through about a mile and a half into the heart of the compound, fighting hundreds of enemy soldiers.

Since then, Yoram Yair's system has been used as the IDF's sorting system for admission to elite units.

In 1972 Yoram Yair returned to the Paratroopers' Brigade and was appointed Deputy Commander of the Parachuted Nahal Battalion until August 1973 when he left for the Inter-Armed College of Command and Staff.

In October 1973, with the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, Yoram Yair was a Major ranked student at The Inter-Armed College of Command and Staff.

Yoram Yair was sent to serve as a Deputy Commander of the 50th Battalion.

Yoram Yair arrived at the battalion headquarters at El Al, under the heavy Syrian shelling that opened the war.

Yoram Yair kept in touch with his fighters trapped in outposts inside the territory occupied by the Syrians.

The next day, Yoram Yair led the second rescue attempt of the Tel Saki and post 116 fighters, and managed to reach the besieged and wounded and rescue them.

Yoram Yair was able to recover the battalion that was badly damaged, with the help of his demand from the IDF High Command to allow the battalion to return and participate in the fighting.

Yoram Yair crossed the Suez Canal and led at the head of his battalion the advance of the three armoured brigades of the Baran Division, against the Egyptian commando and outposts in the agricultural buffer zone along the freshwater canal and lakes.

Yoram Yair was careful to make use of the battalion's advantages and conducted all the fighting in the Egyptian complexes along the tens of kilometres in infantry fighting, which surprised the Egyptians who waited for Israeli tanks with anti-tank missiles.

In 1975 Yoram Yair was appointed commander of the Company Commanders Course and was sent to the United States to attend a one-year Command and Staff course of the United States Army.

On his return from the United States Yoram Yair was promoted to the rank of colonel and served as head of Combat Theory at the Infantry and Paratroopers Chief Division.

In Operation Litani, Yoram Yair commanded a combined brigade battle team of two radar school battalions: the 906th and 17th Battalions and the 53rd Armoured Battalion, under the Infantry and Paratroopers Chief Division, Brigadier general Uri Simchoni.

In 1981 Yoram Yair was appointed commander of the Paratroopers Brigade.

That same year, as the Paratrooper Brigade Commander, Yoram Yair led two raid operations deep in Lebanon, in response to artillery fire between the PLO and the IDF.

Yoram Yair demanded that he take responsibility for what happened in Beirut, so that the blame would not fall on IDF fighters.

In 1988 Yoram Yair was promoted to the rank of major general and was appointed commander of the Northern Corps, which commanded five divisions whose mission was fighting on the Syrian front.

In 1992 Yoram Yair was appointed head of the Manpower Directorate at the General Staff of the IDF.

Yoram Yair made changes to improve the service conditions of the permanent servants and established the "Hever" club which was the first consumer club in the country.

In 1998 Yoram Yair was released and became involved in social and educational activities, he serves as chairman, on a purely voluntary basis, of a number of associations that operate in these areas.

Since 1982, while still in active service, Yoram Yair helped establish and promote the "Association for the Advancement of Education in Jaffa" in the most difficult area of mixed Jaffa, and he continues this activity to this day.

Yoram Yair, served for seven years as chairman of the board of directors of Hadassah Youth.

Yoram Yair stated that the soldier at the center is the organisations primary goal, the organisation's expenses were significantly reduced and the number of volunteers for the organisation increased.

The course, taught by Yoram Yair himself, is called "Practical Leadership," which expresses the unique concept of leadership that Yoram Yair developed about 40 years ago and which he teaches in the IDF and various civilian bodies.

Yoram Yair served and still is chairman and a strategic consultant to companies and business ventures in various fields.

Yoram Yair holds a bachelor's degree in psychology from Bar-Ilan University.

In 1990 he lost his daughter, Captain Shlomit Yoram Yair, who was the operations officer of the 113 Apache Squadron and was killed in a plane crash with four of her fellow pilots.