"This is Cod-cod, my love, over": Battalion Commander Dor Ben-Simhon fell in Lebanon, his wife Ariel sets out on his path

"Dor, my love, you were a commander who was a people person. I would walk around with my chest puffed out saying I am Davash's wife. My love, I promise you that I will be strong because that is how we were built. I promise you that the girls will know you. So for the last time, Cod-cod, my love, this is Cod-cod, my love - I love you and will love you forever. Over." With these words, in the military radio communication that so characterized their shared life, Lieutenant Colonel Ariel Ben-Simhon said goodbye to her husband, Lieutenant Colonel Dor Ben-Simhon. Davash, as everyone knew him, fell in Lebanon as the commander of the 52nd Armored Battalion.

Their story is not just a story of bereavement and heroism, but a story of a partnership built between tanks and command centers, of healthy competition for ranks, and of one fateful choice that changed the course of their lives forever.

The race for the rank of Lieutenant Colonel

Ariel and Dor's partnership was always in uniform. They met in the army eight years ago and became a couple of career officers who shared not only a home but also a common professional language. "The truth is I won most of the time," Ariel smiles as she recalls the competition for ranks. "When we got married, I was a major and he was only a captain. In the end, he agreed to do wedding photos in uniform." The wheel turned when Dor received the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before Ariel. "I had the privilege of awarding him the rank, at least that. But now jealousy is eating me - not about the rank, but about the time lost."

In the army, everyone knew Battalion Commander Davash and Deputy Battalion Commander Ariel. Ariel served as the deputy commander of a combat intelligence battalion, a demanding field role. "She is like the mother of the battalion," testifies one of the company commanders. "Everything is on her, she closes everything for us. Professionally, she is a hundred out of a hundred."

Dor, stay a little longer

One of the sensitive and complex points in the story is Dor's decision to continue his service. Dor Ben-Simhon wanted to be discharged. He dreamed of working in informal education, of a calmer life. In their conversations, Ariel was the one who urged him to stay. "At the end of every role, Dor said it was his last role," she says. "And I told him: Dor, a little more, we need to stay."

That year, Dor was studying at the Command and Staff College, a role with daily commutes that allowed him to be a full-time father to Ayala (3) and Gaia (a year and a half). He fell in love with it. "He called me and said: Ariel, this arrangement suits me. I will be at home and you will be in the field, I am ready for this all my life." Ariel was frightened by the possibility of him being discharged and told him: "Stay, be a battalion commander." Today, despite everything, she does not regret it. "I am at peace with it. These were the two most beautiful months of his service. He shone, he felt significant, he was in it a million percent. He fell at his peak."

The fall of the fourth battalion commander

The 52nd Armored Battalion has undergone severe upheavals since October 7. Three battalion commanders were wounded one after another, and Dor was called up from his studies to be the fourth battalion commander to step under the stretcher. He led the battalion for two months in Lebanon, including crossing the Litani, until the terrible moment when his tank was hit by an explosive drone. Dor was killed instantly along with his three crew members.

Dor grew up in Kibbutz Beit HaShita, one of six brothers - all combat fighters, five of them tankers. On his chest, he tattooed the landscape of the Harod Valley fields. In Beit HaShita, bereavement is part of the local DNA since the Yom Kippur War. Dor's mother, Iris, said that the preoccupation with the army was always there and that they had a dark humor that perhaps they would not return from battle. This dark humor that accompanied Dor's life was also in his WhatsApp group with friends from his class. The group was called "Soon we will become a grove" - when a kibbutz member falls in battle, his family members plant a grove in his memory. "Dor knew it could happen," says Ariel. "He even wrote that he already knows where he wants his grove."

The knock on the door and the decision to continue

The news reached Ariel in the middle of the night. Strong knocks on the door while she was alone at home with the girls. When she opened the door, she was asked if she was Dor's wife, and then she received the heaviest news of all. "At first I didn't understand if I was in a dream or if it was really happening." When Major General Ori Gordin asked to enter, she already understood it was real.

Dealing with the girls was no less difficult. Ariel received instructions to speak to them explicitly. "I told them: Daddy died and he will not return anymore. Ayala, who is three, understood immediately. She told me - but I want him to return. I told her that I do too, but it will not happen." Despite the fresh bereavement, Ariel chose not to stop. She is now going to the battalion commander course, continuing the path that Dor did not get to finish. "I know he would be proud of me for this choice. He would tell me: go for it, go fulfill yourself."

As she gets on the tractor in the kibbutz, in the same place where she took wedding photos in a wedding dress, Ariel looks at the landscape. "This was the place of our dates, the place where Dor tried to impress me for the first time. It worked with me," she says, "and since then I stayed." She stays in the kibbutz, stays in uniform, and continues forward - for herself, for the girls, and for her beloved Cod-cod, who will not return from the field anymore.