Technologists climb to heights and install classified equipment during wars and snowstorms • Commander of the field industry: "Are you facing Ninja Israel? Do not meet the requirements" • Watch
"Was I under fire? Certainly. More than once," recalled Sergeant Major A., commander of the climbing school of the 8200 technology unit, the only school of its kind in the IDF.
"It was during the Second Lebanon War. I found myself climbing to a height of more than 100 meters, with a shell stuck in the middle of the mast that did not explode, and continue to fall all around me."
Reporter: Hanan Greenwood // Photography: Gil Kramer // Editing: Sivan Schuster
Base 8200 in Glilot, a few kilometers from the center of Tel Aviv, is ironically one of the best-known classified bases in Israel.
Everyone knows the base, no one knows what's going on around it.
In an unusual move, the "Israel Today" team was allowed to enter the facility and join the training of a particularly intriguing unit - which includes vast knowledge of technology along with impressive climbing abilities.
"Half a ninja," Sergeant A. defines it as we stand at a "low" height of 25 meters, observing Tel Aviv on the one hand, and the classified buildings of the unit on the other.
For many justifiable reasons, Unit 8200, collecting signal intelligence (sigint) and deciphering ciphers, is considered a unit of people with great technological ability, but less field personnel, with an exaggerated example being the extreme character of Avinoam in the series "Lock Hour".
But even if it is an exaggeration, which may even arouse some anger among the members of the technology unit, there is no doubt that these are not gnarled fighters who are under enemy fire in the heart of Syria but soldiers who provide the quality intelligence that enables the IDF victory in the knowledge war.
Therefore, it is a little surprising to find that inside the 8200 there is a climbing unit, unique and different from anything seen in the landscape of the Glilot base.
The soldiers (and the female soldier, which we will get to later) of the 8200 area branch are the most operational end of the unit, developing and building technological means by which the enemy can be tracked and then climb to an average height of 100 meters and more to install and maintain them.
Under enemy fire if necessary, in blizzards, scorching heat and under enormous challenges they operate at enormous heights in order to preserve Israel's intelligence capability, which has already become a thing of the world.
Are not looking for climbers from Ninja Israel
"We are unique in the 8200 landscape," admits Lt. Col. K., head of the unit's field industry.
"On the one hand we build technological capabilities but we also have the ability to put them in place. First and foremost our industry is technological and knows how to take an idea and turn it into a product, the unit's arm of the unit that is at the forefront of providing frontal sensing solutions. "Climbing as a means of completing the overall task. We have the option to take a person and provide him with training he will never receive outside. Our people climb in snow, winds, extreme heat, non-hours and under fire."
Lt. Col. K. proves for himself how important the combination of technological quality and field capability is. He has been in the unit since 2001, as an electrical and electronics engineer and as a mast climber, and now he leads the field industry.
The climbing school was established in 2010, with the aim of giving soldiers the tools they need to work at an enormous height, with real danger to life, and return home safely.
Of the entire field industry about 30 percent are climbers, which makes clear how critical technological capability is, which is ultimately the core work.
"The uniqueness of our soldiers is that the mast climbers are not climbing in their profession," explains Sergeant Major A., the school's commander since its inception. "They hold the technological professions required for 8200 and climbing is another profession they must perform.
The requirements are twofold - they can be great technologists but if they are not great climbers the work will not be done - and vice versa.
We are not looking for guys from Ninja Israel, absolutely not, but we do need them to be half ninjas - who will climb to a huge height in extreme weather or under fire, so they are required to be physically strong and trained, along with their main ability - the face The technological. "
"I just need it, that I will get people from Ninja Israel, it will prevent me from locating the people I need," laughs Lt. Col. K. "My direction is technology, technology, technology.
I wish a climber who is also talented in electrical engineering would come to me, but that's not where I'm aiming.
You are exposed here to the end of the chain, to the coolest end, but the main task is technology.
It does not matter how much knowledge the climber has if he does not bring with him the required technological ability.
The climber is the person at the end, the one who touches the 'buzzer' (button), but only 30 percent of my industry are climbers. "
Rear soldiers - with the abilities of warriors
On a high-altitude mast hang four soldiers and officers, dealing with a problem in some classified facility, and then according to practice one of them was hit by gunfire.
The permit must be quickly lowered to the ground, saving their lives.
This is a practice that thankfully has not been tried in real time, but there have been other cases as well.
In the past, there were a number of fainting spells and the soldiers were required to function and help their comrades reach the ground safely.
Realizing that this is a huge danger to life, the cables to which the soldiers are connected operate so that if they are dropped they descend at a speed of 90 cm per second to the ground. No matter what their condition, they will reach the ground unharmed as a result of falling from a huge height.
"Operating under fire is not a simple challenge and requires a lot of composure, thinking and planning. This is an outline that must not be mistaken. It is not to climb in rolls in perfect weather but to operate under shells and firing, and while performing operations that require special abilities that must not be entered," explains Ras. "B. A." I went through several operations and wars, I climbed quite a few non-pastoral areas in tense times, and from there I drew the ability and understanding of what our needs are, for that we train our soldiers.
We are preparing for the next war. "
"It's important to understand, these are not guys from combat units, but they are exposed to gunfire and work under fire. Our soldiers do not have an M-16, they can not respond to gunfire, but disengage from its position in a very short time, know to disengage from duty as quickly as possible. "In the fall. We train 18-year-old soldiers who come as technologists and acquire the skills of warriors. They may not be warriors, but they have warrior abilities, much more than a soldier standing guard. They have to work on a mast when they are between two enemy intentions."
A father and daughter under enemy fire
The exercise continued.
Two men, Ranj A and Corporal Y, are on the mast, but they are not just ordinary soldiers, but a father and daughter, both soldiers in the field industry, who are practicing an extreme situation.
RNG A. closes his eyes and lowers his head, simulating the condition of a wounded man, and his daughter, Corporal Y., rescues him from the high mast.
A few moments later they sit down for a crowded conversation.
"My name is the father of the section," laughs RNG A. (52). "I have been in the unit for 33 years, of which 20 years in the climbing field." He says. His daughter, Corporal Y., grew up in the world classified from age zero but She arrived at the unit independently and without any protection.
"I did quite a few interviews and tests to get to where I am on the technological side," she says, and her father reinforces: "She came here on her own. One day she said she wanted to get to the unit, to do a climbing course. I told her there were no free ways and had to work for This".
Indeed, this was not an easy road.
Corporal Y. is the only woman in the field of climbing, who combines difficult physical challenges with not simple technological ability. "I was an only child with a sea of men in the course, and I am currently the only daughter in the field who climbs.
But there are no discounts or concessions, and if they had made me discounts along the way I probably would not have suited the field.
I did everything I could to get stronger and get in shape.
"No one would have raised me if there was the slightest fear that it would hurt me," she says. Her father proudly says that she was among the leaders in the course.
The two currently serve in the field industry, but not in the same section.
"We get to meet in the field," smiles Corporal Y. RNG A. admits that there is some concern that his daughter works in the field, when he knows how dangerous he can be.
"It's very scary that my daughter is in such a profession, but they are already big kids and make their own decisions," he says, adding that another of his sons serves as an air crew member in a helicopter.
"I can not stop them, even if I know what she's going to do. Every time a helicopter takes off or they go out to places I know are dangerous I have Dad's pick, but that's where we live."
What does mom say?
Corporal Y.: "Mother strengthens, she went through it with Dad and now she is going through it with me, but she is very proud." RNG A. laughs: "She does not know the whole truth."
To friends she can of course not tell the whole truth: "Even if you say climbing unit no one really knows what we are really doing."
RNG A. reinforces: “Climbing is the small part, a means to conquer the goal.
To those who ask I say I work in replacing light bulbs.
You can't explain things like that, there are things you can't brag about - but that's part of it. "
RAN A. is one of the oldest resistance fighters in the industry, and saw quite a bit of operational activity during his military service. "I happened to be in complex events several times - we worked under fire in the second Lebanon war on masts and I repaired a 100 meter high system that struck lightning in the middle of a snowstorm.
There were quite a few complex situations in all parts of the country. "
"A blizzard is crazy. In fact, it is more dangerous to work during a blizzard than under fire because in a storm no one cares about you, there are no ceasefires or breaks. You work in strong winds, when you do not hear a person 10 cm away from you, and in cumbersome clothes to Do not freeze.
Is it scary?
There is fear, but the mission sanctifies the means.
For the past 33 years, I have been educating my children and all the soldiers who come to the unit, the goal of which is to maintain national security. "
