metro » o n the cover

IDF Archives

Israeli and Jewish passengers on the Air France plane
hijacked by terrorists arrive home safely in Israel after a
now-historic rescue mission by the IDF on July 4, 1976.

Entebbe Memories

Forty years later, Huntington Woods man recalls role in rescue of hostages.

Don Cohen | Contributing Writer

Credit: Don Cohen

F

Arie Smargon of Huntington Woods
was with special forces units in both
the U.S. Army and the Israel Defense
Forces.

orty years ago, on July 4, 1976,
Israeli special forces flew more
than 2,500 miles to Entebbe
Airport in Uganda when an Air France
flight from Tel Aviv to Paris was
hijacked by Palestinian and German
terrorists who boarded in Greece. After
the terrorists released non-Jewish pas-
sengers, the Israeli unit rescued 102
hostages, mostly Israeli Jews.
It is an anniversary marked with
pride and sadness for Arie Smargon, 69,
of Huntington Woods, a special forces
veteran of both the U.S. Army and the
Israel Defense Forces. He took part in
the Entebbe operation, one of the most
celebrated rescues in military history,
but he lost his best friend Yonatan
Netanyahu — Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s older brother —
who commanded the operation and was
the only Israeli military fatality.
Smargon’s family were among the
first Jews to arrive in America. In the
mid-1700s, they moved from England
to what would become West Virginia.
The family became merchants and sur-
veyors, and later moonshiners. They
once employed Daniel Boone as a sur-
veyor, and family lore has it that Boone

would visit for Shabbat dinner.
Smargon’s father was a career U.S.
Army man who met American Lt. Col.
Mickey Marcus during WWII when
they parachuted onto the beach in
Normandy, France, in June 1944.
“Both being Jews, they connected,”
Smargon says. “They were together
throughout the end of the war and,
after liberation, they arrived at Dachau
together.”
Marcus’ zeal for action and Jewish
commitment took him to Israel where
he served as an Israeli general during
the War of Independence. After Marcus
was accidentally killed in 1948 by
friendly fire, Smargon’s family remained
close to Marcus’ widow, Emma. “We
would visit her every year in New York
and go to the annual memorial service
at West Point [where Marcus is buried].
“I knew how to say the words
‘Mickey Marcus’ before I knew how
to say ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’,” he says. “The
other two words were ‘West Point’.”
In 1963, with Emma Marcus’ help,
Arie Smargon got an appointment to
West Point. While he passed the entry
exams and the physical challenge, he
struggled academically. “I didn’t know

how to study,” he says, and he left to
join the Army, telling the recruiter,
“Give me the most dangerous thing you
have.” He recalls, “I loved the thrill and
smell of combat.”
Moving through infantry and Ranger
training, he joined the U.S. Army Airborne
and the 10th Special Forces Group. He was
in Cambodia when the U.S. was claiming
it had no forces there, and later served two
six-month tours in Vietnam.
“I was a very, very green Green Beret,”
he says. Though new to the role, he was
awarded a Bronze Star for heroism.
“After my second tour, I was called in
by my commanding officer, and told to
pack my bags,” Smargon says. He was
going to Israel. It was 1969, and the U.S
and Israeli militaries had grown closer
after Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-
Day War. Smargon spoke Hebrew, and
the Americans needed a liaison officer
to coordinate joint war games.

NETANYAHU CONNECTION
Smargon had met Yonatan “Yoni”
Netanyahu earlier that year. While
studying at Harvard, Netanyahu was
sent to Fort Bragg, N.C., for a short
course at the Special Warfare Center.

continued on page 12

10 June 30 • 2016

