Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Marco Show on iHeartRadio.
My guest today is Guy M.
Guy is the semi anonymous author of The Rescue October seventh Through the Eyes of Israel's Power Rescue Commandos.
So nice to have you on, Guy.
Thank you for having me Carol on your amazing show.
Thank you.
I loved your book. I really found it so amazing. You know, a lot of the time, I think, especially Jews, like we tell and retell the stories. And I even you know, I got to where my kids, my teenager who reads a lot, would be like, no more Holocaust books. But it's important to retell the stories so that people know what really happened. And I feel like that was the point for you in writing this.
Book, right.
So originally it's kind of hard to really point out what was the purpose of writing the book, because we were in the middle of war, literally rescuing casualties from Aza from Lebanon after and in this mid war situation, and me and the guys that were together on October seventh on the first team to leave six six nine, which is Israel's special Forces rescue unit, we found ourselves on that day in the two or three days afterwards in the communities, we were witnessing the most horrible scenes
no one could even imagine. And then no closure, nothing like ceremony that kinds of wraps it up. One day we're just at base preparing for war, and then we're in war doing our jobs. I'm a paramedic, I was trained for three years to do this job. I'm in med school now. I haven't been on duty, like actual war duty since by mandatory service back then from twenty
thirteen to twenty eighteen, and there was no closure. And this is also the experience of so many soldiers talking to maybe thousands, because it's not like the whole Israeli army was there on October seventh, but for thousands of us that were there, we just continued into this full blown war. And you're absolutely right. There are so many events happening right after each other, and it's we're living in times that it's even hard to grasp the magnitude
of each event as itself. Remember, we're so shocked when the deeper operation that was our board as a rescue unit for the beginning of the war, of eliminating the threat from Lebanon from up North, and then we're still kind of trying to grasp that magnitude. And then we're at this point after one of the most brilliant operations I guess in modern war. The how President Trump call
it was they war with Iran. So for us, it's even hard to point out what was the purpose, But if I tried to kind of put it into an essence,
we needed to put a closure to that event. So we started writing it and it was amazing for me to see what the guys, with the soldiers that were worth me bolks from the things that we saw, from the gunshots with the terrorists, with treating casualties, mass casualty, incident horrors, the bodies and chunks of the timeline were missing, and it was putting it together was as itself an amazing, amazing act for me to witness this, and it broughtmotion
to the guys because for soldiers, rescue soldiers in general, for soldiers, we understand mission, we know missions, so when we need to do a mission, we know what to do. Emotions not really, that's part part of the equation is harder. If you ask a twenty one and wear a rescue soldier from six sixth night to jump out of the helicopter in the middle of the ocean. Doesn't even know it's waiting. While he's jumping into the water, you won't
even blink. If you can ask him to talk about how is he feeling, then you're going to see this torturous face on him. So even Dad for itself, to see the guys bringing it together, it was amazing. And until today, you know, I'm not a psychologist, but they think it's so clear. Why until today there's more than we're not even two years from Actober seventh. There's more than one hundred books in Hebrew about October seventh, one hundred and many maybe in English or not many, but
there will be. And still this is the rescue, and how it's called in Hebrew, it's called I'll say it in Hebrew, not waiting for call. So it's the only book written by soldiers who actually fought there and not by journalists or testimonies are victims.
It's such an interesting point.
I don't think people realize how much how little firsthand account is in the books.
Like a lot of people will.
Have takes we as we say, and they'll have perspective, but your story is actually the one from the ground. What do people not know about that day that they'll learn in your book.
One of the things that we did want to emphasize, not intentionally, but as we were talking and the guys were describing, is, for one, how little we knew. If I will tell you today Carol, that tomorrow there's going to be aliens land in Washington and President Trump talking to him about I don't know, life in another universe. You're gonna look at me like I smoked something or something. I don't know.
I might believe you after.
This, Okay, So I'm gonna try to think about it's something more bizarre, man, Okay, And this is from I guess that's what we're talking about. Most people they were like, well, most likely that's not going to happen, right. We couldn't imagine in our worst nightmares what happened on October seventh. It was so so far fetched. When we're going down and we're driving down south on October seventh morning in a pickup truck, we thought to ourselves, what we could imagine.
There's a group of terrorists dozen twenty that infiltrated through a tunnel to Israeli grounds and that they're holding hostages in one of the communities. We couldn't imagine three thousand people looking to butcher Israelis. It's not in our capability today looking back, as Israel's society is very critical of course on the army and intelligence in the government, as soldiers, as the ones and I'm civilian. It is not my daily job. And this is also some sort of thing
that is very hard to explain. We had no clue and we tried, you know, to emphasize that in the book. Through the story itself, we were just a group of guys going down, trying to do our best in the circumstances that are just just unreasonable to judge and also, if I may say, also are We didn't want it to be a testimony. We wanted the reader to get caught in the web of the book, not because he wants to know about October seventh, but rather he's reading a thriller that he has to know how it ends.
You want caught inside the web of the book. That was very important for us, right.
I felt like that like where you you know you're worrying about the protagonist, even though I know you know you live to write the book. But you were an active danger more than one time on that day.
What do you remember about it?
I think when I look back, and even for me, it's so hard to even imagine that it actually happened. And I remember that this is a mechanism that everyone, we all use it, but rescue soldiers in our mission, we always do that. We kind of downgrade the situation to gain back control, because if you're gonna actually try to grasp that you're in this situation, that your life is in danger, you're trying to rescue someone that won't survive, and the whole gratitude of responsibility is just so hard
to function. So we always do this degradation. And if to give an example, what guys after the pipeline, after they finished what year and a half training at the unit, the first rescue missions, when they go back and report and do the briefing, they say like they felt in a drill in the pipeline. They thought the casualty there was actually injured soldier or civilian or even a minitarian mission.
And still they say, we felt like we're in the simulator at the unit, treating a mannequin like a doll, like that's the feeling. So we're always doing this degradation. So I remember him driving down south on October seventh and Noga back then my fiance and now I won't tell the end of the story, and she's texting me, guy, this is serious, be careful, and they're like, yeah, yeah, she's always too serious. She always takes stuff too serious. She's you know, he's a lawyer. Of course he has
to be serious. I couldn't. It was just decordating until at some point, you know, we're driving down and someone there's open fire from from so many directions, and we're trying to what the heck is going on, and then.
It hits you, this is real.
It's not even real. It's just the beginning. And when we think, okay, we got to the most chaotic scene when we reached the Nova Festival and then we're sent to liberate a commute. Liberate it's like that's the word. It's under the control of an organization, terrorist organization, and we're trying to liberate it. These are terms that we've never we've never experienced, ever talked in the rescue unit. We're always preparing for the worst. We're always training ourself
to the worst scenario. Try to imagine the most worst scenario that could happen on this special operation or on this rescuation. That's why we're prepared. This was never, never, nothing we prepared for was even close to what we saw in witness or experienced there.
When you get to the kibbutz to liberate it, what do you see?
First thing that comes to my mind is how I feel because I grew up in a kibbutz and in a community in northern Israel, a rural community, and I feel it suddenly, I feel like I'm back home at the community where I grew up. It feels. And this is the second that I kind of give that emotion a place and it freaks me out. I mean, it looks like the houses of my neighbors and that no, you're not there. You're in a mission and they need to go back into the zone to gain that control.
And then the second thing I remember I see is there's so many bodies everywhere, mostly of terrorists. Emergency team which Kibuzz responder was there. That was the first keyboats we arrived, our squad or the three of us that were sent down south that day. First Keyboots. We arriveds and the guys there, the team, the first responders of the keyboats, guys for the Kibootz families. Not only guys, so girls, women that have rifles and our first responder
was there for an event like this. They gave a hell of a fight. They were ten maybe fifteen call by surprise, and there were dozens of terrorists storming well equipped. I see bodies of terrorists on the floor with immunition, like they're going to conquer the whole country, with food, with medicine, everything. And they gave a hell of a fight. That's the first thing that I saw, and it kind of gave me a boost of confidence to see that happening.
And then of course we were caught into a gun fight as terrorists open fired at us.
What was that like?
Like?
What did you what do you think in that moment?
You're you're there to liberate the Kibbutz and you're under fire. I mean, do you are you feeling like this is it for me? Or do you have the kind of training where you're like, oh no, I'm going to walk out of here.
This in some sort of a point of view, is the essence of being a soldier. If it's it doesn't matter even where. At some point you cannot think it's only about function. You do not think, because if you think there's nothing nothing logical about that situation, you gotta be functional. And for me, when I hear gunshots, when I see a situation that there are casualties, I'm all
may whole one hundred percent of my body. And I'm just one example of many combat paramedics in the army and very few or many rescue soldiers at the unit. It's all about where is a person who needs my help? Because there's always going to be that scream I need a paramedic. There's always going to be that scream of someone that is shot, and you're always your senses are just looking for that because that's your cart. That's where you get into action. So this is what you feel.
Of course, you look around if there's a threat, so you're with your rifle. That's the first thing you do. And dan you're alert to listen to where someone Where is that person that is screaming? And I need to do whatever it takes to get to him. So those are the animal instincts that are brought up in years of training and into active duty, and it's just an instinct. I was honestly, honestly, honestly, it was of course never imagined I'll be in a situation like that, But how it kicks in those.
Instance, it's amazing.
So when somebody reads the Rescue, what's the thing that you want them to take away from it?
I want them to understand and try to understand Fudhism, not through what the figures are saying, because we vote it from where a bunch of guys are sat together and revote it from the different angles. One of the stories that unfolds is of Ron that he wakes up at ky Boots with Tomorrow and they find themselves fighting over their homes. Their parents are in, their sister and their whole family and this is this is it. If they don't fight, everybody's slaughtered. They understand it at some point,
not at the beginning. And when there's Matan is on a helicopter on a way to a rescue mission and he doesn't know what's what he's going to find, and it hits him only after he lands at the hospital and he sees what's going on television. And for us, you know, I'm texting Nooga, Yes, the writ my helmet on and I'm like sitting there, you know what the heck?
You know what's the big deal? We didn't know. That's the first thing, and second of all for soldiers, And this is a very it's not a it's not a unique perspective as it's not as it's only for us. This is for thousands of soldiers that went down. We tried our best, we tried, we had no clue, and many of us didn't make it back. And history, as it remembers those days, it's going to remember it in
a critical point of view. It's going to judge all those who had responsibility that things like this don't happen. But we want history also to remember what those circumstances were as we tried our best to do whatever we can and the toll was so high. So those are the main messages that we tried to convey through the stories, not by saying it, but through the feelings, through the
guts of the reader. And also also also and even maybe the most important, we insisted on finishing the book with you know or optimistic, if they might say, that was crucial for us as we were working on the book.
So you are optimistic, yes.
Of course, definitely. Now if they might say, yeah.
It's a good time right now, it's a good recording. This shortly after the Iran operation and the ceasefire between Iran and Israel.
We managed, as me it was sorry, not we as a unit, we as a nation, as people on a multi front ward we're talking. I think it was eight fronts, including anti Semitism. Waring Rorying got sorry from my accent. This is a multi front of war. And in our best scenarios, the most optimistic scenarios, we haven't. We never imagined what we managed to do in northern Israelila. We were training for years for the day we start a war with them, and we were training for the consequences
to be huge. Thousands of Israelis will be killed. Right, going to be embassy is blowing up. In what we did, when we managed to do together with America and Iran, it's beyond the biggest, most optimistic scenarios. And here we are. So why won't the future be as well?
I like that, Yeah, what do you worry about?
I worry that at some point I'm going to look back and I'm gonna regret things they haven't done. It's not a good thing to be worried about because sometimes it drives are crazy in the good essence, it just makes you sometimes like you're jumping into a pool and it's you know it's going to be cold inside, and then you're kind of procrastinating. You're just never mean, yeah,
maybe it's not a good day. So it helps you not to dip a toe, but to just jump and just say, what the heck is gonna be freezing, but what the heck.
It's funny because you seem like you've done quite a lot. It doesn't seem like you've missed out on that much.
I hope, I hope not. Maybe that is the drive. So at the end of the day, I guess it helps accomplish more in less time because they're always afraid it's going to end soon. And this also, I guess, is all maybe part of a burden, that this the toll of being a rescue soldier or being with this responsibility from a young age from nineteen years old. It's maybe it's even an attitude, but I think that that is one of the things I kind of contemplate a lot.
If I'm not going to do it? Am I going to look back and regret not doing it?
So if yes, yeah, you just have to push my Well, speaking of looking back and maybe having any regrets, what would you tell your sixteen year old self?
What is sixteen year old guy I need to know?
Would tell guy sixteen years old in Israel? I think it's a not seniors even right, It's like freshman, what is it? It's a sophomore. So I would tell them everybody is struggling. I remember myself as a teenager. I didn't have the confidence. I had a lot. I was showing off with a lot of confidence, but inside I was terrified of my own shade. And he felt like everybody around me it's full of confidence. And they're like, you know, everybody's a peacock and I'm the only one
that is an impostor. And I will go back and say, look at them, they're all phonies. They're all like you're just you're just too young to talk about it.
Sixteen is pretty young to have imposter syndrome.
I feel like that's something that develops when you get older and you think that you know, you're the only one feeling like you can't do stuff, and everybody else seems to be, you know, powering up ahead.
I think that what changes to the imposter her syndrome that we have as we become grown ups. Once someone told me that the difference between child or a teenager to a grown up is when you become cynical about things. So I think it's that tipping point is when you you become an impostor of not who you think you are, but who others think you are. Because when you when you're sixteen, you're kind of this, You're like a gush of paintings that don't have like any color, and.
Then you evolvest a good way to put it.
You're not sure that your colors are bright. You're like, well everybody thinks the callors are bright, but they're not. So I think that point of cynical to become of sixteen seventeen and becoming eighteen and they're like everything likes like a party. We need to kind of see that moment and say, everybody is struggling.
We're going to take a quick break and be right back on the Carol Marcowitch Show. Well, I've enjoyed this conversation so much. I really think you're such an interesting person. I hope you write more books. I hope that we get to see more of your ideas and your writing, maybe outside of terrible events in our you know, shared history. But leave us here with your best tip for my listeners on how they can improve their lives.
When I was in ninth grade, I joined my father. He had a karate club in the rural, tiny community that we lived in, and he gave me this responsibility to be the main instructor. I was very young and there were four groups twice a week, and I hated it. I was I was like, I didn't hate the karate garden is great. I liked it and even paid me some penn you know, a few pennies. That was like makeshop. But the responsibility, because I was terrified, what if no
one shows up? You know, maybe they hate me, maybe they think the best the worst instructor ever. And the responsibility from week to week it was I was struggling with it. It was even so sometimes I was afraid. And
then at some point I was talking about evolving. I kind of got used to the to this feeling that there's no one else, Like if I don't do good enough, no one can help me, like no one's going to show up for the next lesson, And then it evolved those those feelings into the army and becoming a rescue soldier, and it was like a synergy because that's the whole essence. You're the lot last call when everybody failed, like all the civilian ems, police, everybody tried, so if they tried
and failed, they call you. And then if you failed, there's no one else to call. So I think at some point when when we all struggle with it, when we kind of well, if this goes wrong, when I'm who am I going to blame? What am I going to call it? But once you get used to that feeling and you kind of get not comfortable but less terrified of it, you can kind of find out that you're capable of so much more.
I love that be the last line of defense. That's really it's a great piece of advice. The book is called The Rescue October seventh, Through the Eyes of Israel's Para rescue Commandos. Get it on Amazon or anywhere you buy books. Thank you so much for coming on guy.
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