Dan Shomron

Dan Shomron was born in 1937 in Ashdot Ya'akov

Dan Shomron was born in 1937 at Kibbutz Ashdot Ya'akov, the eldest of three children of Tova and Eliyahu Dozorets-Shimron. His father was a carpenter and his mother an educator.

He joined the IDF in 1955 as a paratrooper, and his surname was recorded by mistake as Shomron. He fought as a squad commander in the Sinai campaign. He left the army in 1959 and drove a truck on his kibbutz until he returned to service in 1962.

In the Six-Day War he was the first paratrooper to reach the Suez Canal. He commanded Brigade 401 in the Yom Kippur War and later became chief infantry and paratroopers officer. He planned and led Operation Entebbe in 1976 and headed Southern Command from 1978.

In 1983 he set up the ground forces command and was its first commander. As Chief of Staff from 1987 to 1991, he dealt with the first intifada and the Gulf War, and he supported Israeli restraint during that war.

After leaving the army he chaired Israel Military Industries. In 2006 he reviewed the General Staff's conduct in the Second Lebanon War. He died in 2008, three weeks after a stroke.