CAIRO: For most people, the day will go unnoticed. Most will sleep in, some will watch war movies and a few will hold military commemorations acknowledging soldiers sacrifices.
For Maj. Gen. Adel Hegab, a commanding officer of the Engineering Battalion in the Ramadan War, the 6th of October represents a noble spirit, now lost.
In 33 years, in English and in Arabic, and [other languages], everything tells about how we crossed the Suez and how we entered Israel and [all the details] . but the personal stories, he says, are maybe not written about at all.
How I, as an engineer decided to defend my country – this is something very important to me.
Hegab joined the military right after graduating from Alexandria University s Faculty of Engineering, though he is ambivalent about how he joined: Is it God s will or man s will? I don t know, but it wasn t my plan.
After [I joined], I felt this was something very big . from the first day, I decided to succeed.
With the defeat of 67, he said I had to defend my country, to return our land.
Hegab was determined to progress and wanted to understand everything about the army. He was selected to be a fighting engineer, specialized in explosives.
After 67, Hegab says he sensed that Egypt would go back to war. Trainings were intense, simulations were built and vacations were few.
Hegab crossed into Israel more than 10 times before the war to retrieve mines for research purposes. Sometimes he had to belly-crawl as much as a kilometer inland.
One time I had a 40-degree fever but I insisted on going. A friend of mine who was an officer, he wasn t supposed to go. He went to protect me. His friend took off his star, saying I m a soldier, not an officer.
We were going to die. We were going to be discovered because I was so tired that he carried me and ran back to the boat.
Then at 1 p.m. October 6, 1973, Hegab received the order to act, a single hour before the start of the war. However, he says he knew that war was coming when he was told to take a brief vacation on October 3, the first he had received in months.
Getting emotional, he recalls the day. I looked at my children and wife and I loved them. But they saw in my eyes that something was wrong. He left at 6 a.m. the next morning.
Still, Hegab was never supposed to be in the 73 war. He was in the middle of training and entrance or exit from the fighting army was strictly forbidden. Hegab was the single exception made.
Upon receiving the orders, Hegab says he can t express the feelings inside – courage, love, fear . [the feelings of a] human being.
Did he ever feel hesitancy about going to war? Never, never, absolutely never.
After the 67 defeat, he says, society blamed the military for the loss. I wouldn t wear the uniform out of embarrassment, says Hegab.
We had to win. It was planned very well and we trained very well . Faith increased our trust that we ll win . We put out of our heads the word lose .
The first to cross the Suez Canal were the engineers to clear the path, and as Battalion Commander, Hegab was amongst the first to reach Israel. There, he says, he released fear. My heart became like a stone . When I would see a friend die, I d bury a hole; I wasn t thinking if I was going to end up like him.
Even his fellow military men nicknamed him The Crazy Officer for his stoicism and fearlessness in the midst of shellings and corpses. Hegab says he did think of his family sometimes but then he looked up to God. It was for God. It s written for us when we ll die, after all.
A few times, Hegab barely escaped death. In one incident he was on a mission with a driver when suddenly, for no apparent reason, I told the driver to stop. Jump. We jumped behind a hill and a second after, the car exploded.
When asked if Egypt won the war, Hegab thinks carefully about his response. Whether we won the war, the battle, part of the battle – we got what we wanted. Partly by war and partly by peace. If we d continued with the war we would have lost everything, he says, referring to immense U.S. support for Israel.
Hegab is very proud of 73. In previous wars, Egypt suffered from damaged weapons, a triple invasion and lack of organization. But in the October War, we had accurate plans, a strong will, and a purpose. Hegab also commends Sadat s peace treaty.
Not all the gains were political, however. Before 73, I wasn t sure of my personality. After I knew what s inside of me. Because of the war, he said, I know who I am.
Hegab laments the fact that youth don t know more about Egypt s past. Whoever doesn t know their country s history, can t love their country.
You should know how to protect your country – not just by war, but work harder, read more, not always be upset from your country . What you want to take from your country, give to it.
He wishes people would return this spirit to our youth. Tell them about it, ask anyone from the generation of 6 October, they don t have to be [military], take from this experience, take this spirit and apply it to our time.
Egypt will be better for its children when we return to the spirit of Oct. 6.
