Batya Orni participated in Operation Kadesh and other operational activities • Her daughter told Israel Today: "Mother was a feminist and in fact opened the way for women who followed her"

• Batia in the wings

  Photo: 

  Courtesy of the family

Yarkon Cemetery was buried Monday afternoon, the late Batya Orni, the first Air Force navigator. She died yesterday at the age of 87, leaving behind four children, a dozen grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Orni, or Voronsky, who completed her course at the time, was born in Tel Aviv. Her childhood home was at 8 Yael Street, where the late Yair Stern placed a charge on two British police officers who tried to capture him. Years later, Orni revealed that she had witnessed the incident.

In her youth, Orni went to training and was a partner in establishing Hamadia and Ramat Yohanan. "My whole life I lived on a Zionist agenda and my life is interwoven in the country and events so it was important for me to get to where I came to the army," she later said. 

Photo Archive: IDF Spokesman

Orney completed the navigation course in 1954, a course lasting a year and four months. Among her graduates were David Ivri, later Air Force commander. She took part in operational operations including parachuting, and a sacred operation. Most of her service was done by Orni on Transport Squadron 103. In Operation Kadesh, she was the navigator of the late Squadron Yael Rom, and their job was to parade soldiers and collect casualties in combat. Against this background, a special permit from the then Chief of Staff needed to be allowed to fly and take part In operation. After her release, she worked for many years in the El Al navigation services and then in the field of travel.

"She blew everyone"

"Mom was a breakthrough, though she often said she would like to break into more roads. In her youth, she was a spectator and was attracted to the field of flying and built pilots. One day she witnessed a lecture by the Air Force and she was turned on by the idea of ​​joining a pilot course. There were many reasons and she was struggling with it, she was told she was not accepted, but she found out and appealed and fought until they accepted her.

"In the end she was accepted but sent for navigation because of her low stature. She received the pilot's degrees at a military ceremony from Moshe Dayan, then chief of staff, always said it was difficult and the men also complained about the difficulty, but she wanted to fulfill that dream and always grit her teeth," she told Israel. Today, "her daughter, Yael Orni.

"Mom was a feminist, all life, leading the way and in fact opened the way and glad that almost 40 years later the door opened for more and more squadrons and navigators in the Air Force. When they asked her incidentally how she felt about everything she did and what they said about her, she replied that she did her She didn't care much about everyone. She was a loved one of everyone who made many friends because of her good character, "the daughter concluded. 

Her first husband, incidentally, was Air Force pilot Jacob Voronsky. They served together at Sirkin Air Force Base. Her husband died of illness at an early age. Three and a half years ago, her second husband, Reuven Orni, was widowed. In recent years, one of her sons lived in Kiryat Sefer.