First Sergeant Major paul bibes
Paul’s room in his father, Yehuda’s, house in Ashdod has stayed as it was. The bed is made, the pictures are on the wall. Yehuda: It was important for me to leave his things as they were and preserve them. The memory from him is very tangible and I always see him in front of me. He was the one who helped me decide on buying this house and every chance he got when he was here, he would organize, clean and take care of the garden. He was a homebody and that’s how he will stay. Paul was a mechanic that was flown [to different places] and he signed on for extended service. When he moved to the Yisurim [helicopters], I remember that I was scared. It was a terrible winter and I was scared something would happen to him. Nine months before the tragedy Paul survived a Yisur crash. On the day of the tragedy, he left me a message that he wouldn’t be back that night because he had a flight and that I shouldn’t wait for him. That’s how I knew he was on that flight, but I refused to believe that something happened to him. Slowly, I began to digest what happened. Paul was one of the first to be identified. After a couple of months, I was told that the IDF Spokesperson [office] had pictures of that terrible night and that we could go see them. I went there and actually recognized pictures where they were trying to resuscitate Paul. A friend that saw the pictures knew to tell me the identity of the doctor that tried to treat him. I really wanted to meet him, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to. The doctor was killed later in the Shayetet [flotilla] tragedy. That was closure from my perspective.”