LIFE IN ISRAEL hilsum misses & misses petites contemporary fashions FALL FASHIONS ARRIVING DAILY Some Old Soldiers Are Not Permitted To Just Fade Away 354 4650 - CARL ALPERT Special to The Jewish News H Northwestern Hwy. • Franklin Shopping Center 357-2030 COMMERCIAL • RESIDENTIAL • HOME • OFFICE In fashion...it's all a matter of taste. Don't conform - inform. Designer fashions as individual as you are. 31409 Southfield Rd. 642-3315 Also Inside • 29117 Northwestern Hwy 357-4771 Bellissima Hair Design • Inside Emile Salon Fare Ott S5990 logs • woe tiore Depart kup,.10,Sept.11 • kk kstv. lo w % • Oitt.116ES OR, WW1 /01110 Atil • I1Vic /Sul* ? atlkates From SAW ent or K cone italo . 10,04, sAenc.c., ca‘i tit 0,60 OST° Travel People ,03.1171\0 827 - 14010 Groups The "LOW C Spa Arratgernents for v.wirior (313) 36 FRIDAY, JULY 29, 1988 aifa — To prevent the Israeli military estab- lishment from becom- ing enslaved to the routine and the conventional, and to encourage constant renewal of outlook, procedures and strategies, army officers are usually retired at the age of 40. Priority is given to younger men who are not bound by tradition, and can create new and unique con- cepts for national defense. The system works, but there is one notable excep- tion. When David Laskov was 67 years old, all the newspapers carried stories about the oldest man still in active service in the army — but that was in 1970. lbday, at the age of 85, Brig. Gen. Laskov is still in uniform — and is perhaps the oldest man still in active ser- vice with any army anywhere in the world. Many legends have grown up around this man; the fact is that all these legends are solid truth. How much longer will he continue? "As long as I'm all right physically," he says, "and as long as the ar- my will have me." The authorities show no signs of letting him go, for Laskov continues to be remarkably productive, and is perhaps one of the single most valuable people in the entire defense forces. His assignment is as head of an engineering corps unit responsible for developing military devices. Put more simply, Laskov is an inventive genius. His brain churns out unique and original ideas, some of them daring, and he holds dozens of patents. Literally hundreds of his ideas have been put into effect and have become part of stan- dard operations or equipment with the military. Some of them are still top secret, and can't even be hinted at. Others include such items as sappers' san- dals, a special type of shoe, like a big snowshoe, which enables men to pick their way through anti-personnel mine fields with little risk; a por- table, light-weight, inflatable stretcher for battle casualties; a floating bridge; a method of laying mines from a moving vehicle; camouflage equip- ment; sophisticated rockets; flak-proof jackets; new types of smokescreens. age. I doubt that I would have There is hardly any area of had similar opportunity in Israel's military operations civilian life." which has not benefited from The fact that he continues ideas and improvements pro- to be productive, he says, duced from his fertile mind. ought to stimulate some David Laskov was born in thought with regard to pre- Russia in 1903, studied sent procedures of compulsory medicine, and was expelled retirement at 65 in the from school for Zionist ac- civilian world. tivities. He began the study of What would he do if peace architecture, but dropped out were to come, and there were in 1928 to go to Palestine, no longer need for his where he worked as a laborer. weapons? In such happy even- Two years later, he enrolled at tuality, he declares, he is the 'Thchnion, completed his prepared to retire and engage architectural studies and in his hobby, sculpture, and go practiced that profession. A on trips with his wife, Zip- number of buildings in the pora. But until then, there is Haifa area were designed by still much to be done. him. He joined the underground Haganah, and then U.S. Sixth Fleet volunteered to fight Nazism Trains In Israel as a soldier in the British ar- my. He was 38 at the time, Tel Aviv (JTA) — Israel will and because of his "advanced soon be a training ground for age," the British gave him U.S. Navy airmen and Ma- what was considered a soft job rines attached to the Sixth with the engineering corps. Fleet, said fleet commander, He served until 1945, and Rear Adm. Kendall Moran- went back to Haifa and to ar- vine, at the conclusion of joint chitecture, but with the exercises at sea with the establishment of the State of Israel Navy last week. Israel he donned the uniform Israeli defense establish- which he has now worn for ment sources refused to com- over 40 years. ment. A spokesman said it was not Israel Defense Force How does he do it? He policy to discuss joint operates on the simple theory maneuvers. that there is no problem The American vessels that without a solution. One must participated in the exercise analyze a problem,discard all with the Israel Navy were the routine and conventional ap- cruiser USS Belknap, flag- proaches, and then with ship of the Sixth Fleet; the understanding, logic and pa- 80,000-ton, 90-plane nuclear- tience continue the search un- powered aircraft carrier USS til the solution is found. Eisenhower; and three mis- Laskov believes that more sile-carrying destroyer than he has given to the ar- escorts. my, the army has given to The visit of the fleet to him. "I thank Zahal (Israel Israel brought shore leave for Defense Forces) for agreeing some 7,000 officers and crew. to keep me on even at this P. Tiktin e r/Me d ia HARVARD ROW MALL 11 Mile Road at Lahser A Kibbutz Ha'on member displays a record breaking ostrich egg as an inquisitive fowl looks on. The egg tipped the scales at 2.3 kilograms. The previous record holder weighed 1.78 kg.