By CPT ROBERT SCHAPIRO, USAR
‘Twas the Chanukah of 2019. CH Andrew Shulman, Renee Favor, Ray Rudd, Dorit Attias, and I were partying it up in Camp Arifjan. We were spinning dreidels and lighting chanukiahs that Sara Fuerst had sent us from Kosher Troops. After we finished eating all the latkes that Renee had made, I announced that I needed to take three boxes of supplies for “field trips” that I was taking the next few days.
Rabbi Shulman, like myself, was a battlefield tourist. I announced that over the next three days, I would be visiting Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. At each location, I needed an excuse to justify getting on the C-12 and/or Blackhawk. I told my boss that I would be delivering Chanukah supplies to Jews across the AO.
On the third day, when I visited Saudi Arabia, we landed at an undisclosed FOB. I got off the helicopter (of which I was part of the flight crew) and walked up to the first Soldier I saw. It was a Major. “Good afternoon, sir. Can you point me in the direction of the Chaplain?” He told me, “There isn’t one on this small FOB.” I asked, “Do you know of any Jews on this FOB?” Then I looked at his name—and voila! Let’s just say, it had “stein” in it. It was Hashem’s will. I got off the helicopter and just happened to find the only other Jew in the entire kingdom! He and I lit Chanukah candles together—probably the first time Chanukah candles were lit there since Operation Flying Carpet.
A few minutes later I got back on the helicopter. As we were about to take off, I heard over the radio that due to a paperwork mixup, we were not authorized to fly back across the border into Kuwait. This was a problem because I hadn’t finished my battle handoff with my replacement (still at Camp AJ) and if I didn’t make it back that evening, I was going to have some explaining to do when I got back. I said Shema and asked Hashem to get us back to Kuwait safely that night. A few minutes later, I heard over the radio that we were cleared for departure.
We made it back to Camp AJ with no issues that night… other than the fact that Chaplain Shulman was very jealous that he couldn’t tag along for the adventure.
Originally published in the Chanukah/Purim 5784 issue of the Jewish American Warrior.
