An almost accidental Rambo
I was sat watching Rambo.
Now what the hell has Rambo got to do with you?
Because Rambo really happened. I want to tell as many people as I can about the ‘accidental’ Rambo I met.
I met Adi in October 1974. A tall almost emaciated Yeminite soldier. He was admitted into our Shell Shock Unit. He had been in a general Psychiatric hospital –where he had thrown the director into a decorative pool. To the directors credit he got out and threw Adi in the pool. Then he sent this misfit to our unit of complete misfits. The shell Shock Unit
Adi was almost mute. All he would say was incomprehensible.
So I gave him Pentothal. Until Adi we could always trace the cause of the trauma and recycle in a way that somehow made it ‘psyche-digestible’. But Adi just went berserk. In those awful long nights I was obsessed not by the mayhem that we were seeing. why was it not working? An injection then complete mayhem. Till then it had been the opposite.
I had to get Adi back…. and I could not.. Then one night I reasoned like this:-. Adi under Pentothal is virtually Psychotic. So why not give him an injection of antiPsychotic intra venously.
At midnight I phoned up my boss and asked permission. Tomorrow I would inject both Pentothal and an anti-Psychotic.
At eight in the morning we started. In went the Pentothal and we lost Adi again to his demons. In went the anti-Psychotc and Adi stated repeatedly ” How big he was –How small he is”.
That was it.
Nothing more.
Like all successful Pentothals Adi woke up. But this time I was at a loss as to what had happened. I asked him what ” How big he was –How small he is.” meant?
Adi simply looked amazed. “How do you know?” “Did I say that?” .
As in a very few other Pentothals we had gone to the wrong place in time. The ‘wrong trauma’.
With Ephraim we had blundered into Auschwitz.
With Mike, a hysterical blind victim we had found ourselves in a tank battle in 1971.
With Shalom we were in a Moroccan prison.
Adi had gone back to 1967— the six day war. …….
Adi had a son called Shai. Shai his only son had died before the 6 day war started. In the 6 day war Adi was a non combatant. He was a driver of the Burial Corps. He was present when the Clergy tried to piece enough body parts to bury. Some times there was not enough. What there was they put in ammunition caskets and nailed that in the coffin and filled the rest was earth to make up the weight. Carole was Adi neighbour. There was barely enough of Carole, a very tall guy to put in the ammunition box. Adi sat by his neighbour, Carole’s, coffin all night. He asked Carole to look out for his dead son Shai when they met. He muttered to himself — well you know what….After all Carole was very tall and now there was not enough to fill the ammunition box.
Adi and all his unit had sworn to keep the secret of what happened when preparing the dead that week. The Chief Military Rabbi then asked them made them swear an oath never to tell. Honour the dead and their memory. But Adi had told. Under Pentothal. Six years had passed. Inadvertently he had told us. This in his eyes was unforgivable.
I want to jump forward a month.
We worked a lot in Adi and made real progress. The Chief Military Rabbi in the Yom Kippur War visited us. It was a warm spring afternoon. We sat on thee grass and the Rabbi answered questions.
Adi asked if what he had done was excusable? Adi was well known and respected. So there was a very heavy silence. The Rabbi turned to his two assistance.
“I now declare this a Rabbinical Court and we are in session. Adi Chatuka cover your head.” The rabbi then placed his hand on on Adi’s head. ” Tis court absolves you from all your oaths that you took in 1967. This court absolves you from all guilt”
Adi said. ” Rabbi, these guys have fought hard for me , to help me but no injection helped like this”.
We were all in tears.
But I have still to explain why Rambo?
What happened in 1973?
First a bit of history and a brief explanation.
The Egyptian were helped by the Sudanese commando brigade as they crossed the Canal. In accordance with Soviet doctrine they were doped to their eyeballs with Ritalin. The Sudanese were the bane of our soldiers existence . They were big, fearless with bulging ferocious eyes. They were unstoppable. Well almost unstoppable. Adi stopped one. But at what a price
Here’s how. ….
Adi was a tank driver. They were trying to stop the Egyptian advance. They were surrounded by Sudanese. The Sudanese were unstoppable. They were like a swarm of locusts. They were everywhere.
Adi’s tank commander was a greenhorn. This irritated Adi who felt he had a liability and responsibility. Adi wanted to get everyone home safely. He drove over Sudanese. He mowed them down. Adi was doing well. He was getting out of the mess. Then it went awfully wrong.
The tank commander was sat half out of the tank. A Sudani killed him. Adi went after the Sudani. Adi got out of the tank and fired a machine gun at the Sudani. The Sudani kept coming . Adi was screaming at him “Die — you are already dead.” More rounds and still the Sudani is running. So with one long burst Adi cut the Sudani into two. But still the legs of the Sudani kept running. Adi past out and was mute.
Months went by.The treatment was working.
Adi then did something that no other soldier of mine did. He went back into reserve duty. My mistake maybe but also fate played a hand.
Adi was posted to almost the exact spot where he had fought his Sudani. Then it was the demarcation line between the Israelis and Egyptians.
Adi dissociated. He saw the Sudani and Adi attacked. Adi was running , weaving and firing as he advance on the now docile Egyptians. There was only one way to stop him. We ran Adi over with a command car. In the turmoil Adi was shot in the leg.
There was an enquiry. There always is. This one was fair. The investigators told me that Adi was a few yards from starting the war all over again. There was grudging admiration for Adi’s soldirers craftmanship. My mistake was generously overlooked. The authorities let it pass.
I went to see Adi in hospital. The Orthopedic Surgeon asked me if this was another faked malingerers suicide. I told him that it was not.
No this was a real genuine fucking hero.
Adi almost started another war. But his own never ended. The Sudani never left him. He drifted. Adi was in and out of trouble. Often they wanted to put Adi in a closed ward. I stopped them. But it was getting harder. Adi’s wife and neighbours were all suffering outbursts and wild behaviour. Then one day the Police phoned. It was three in the morning. They were laughing at this lunatic that admitted to a murder.
“Did he murder someone?” I asked, a bit nervously. The reply was negative ” Only some Sudani” .Accompanied by more laughter. I said OK — tomorrow we’ll put him into the closed ward and I put the phone down.
Then it hit me. So I phoned back to the Police. ” Are you sure that he said a Sudani?”—” Yes very sure” was the answer.
At three thirty in the morning I got Adi out of the holding cells. ” You realise that the Sudani is dead — no more night mares”. I took him home. Nothing sensational. We were both very tired –of everything.
Things got reasonably manageable but never any where like normal. Adi made a living as a Taxi driver. Very rarely I saw him.
One day a journalist came to my clinic. She asked if what she had heard was true? —- A taxi driver had told her his story without identifying himself. He had picked her up as a fare by the clinic. How did she find me? Adi had said that whenever he felt bad he would drive by the clinic. He knew if things got really bad he always go in. That was enough for him.
Adi’ s wife died of cancer. So did Adi. They are all together with Shai, Carole and the two Rabbis.
Wars are fought and payed for by heroes. But heroes who did not ask to be heroes. Adi was an accidental hero and a great guy.
I don’t know what this did to you. If you think on Adi for a minute —Â that is good.
I sent this to people I know well, people I don’t know well, people that will understand and people that will not. If anyone is offended — well I am sorry.
I simply wanted to share and honour Adi. I hope that you do too.