JPost.com
Nov. 25, 2004 20:53
Naked navy men left out in the cold
By DAVID RUDGE
Six veteran members of the Naval Commandos who posed naked on Mount Hermon for a memento photograph to mark their imminent demobilization have been barred from taking part in any operational missions for an unspecified period.
The decision was taken by the commander of the elite unit after he spoke with the soldiers on Thursday – two days after the photograph of them stripped of their clothes in the snow appeared in the Hebrew daily Yedioth Aharonot. The soldiers had apparently thought they were alone on the mountaintop and were unaware that while they posed for their own picture, a newspaper photographer had also snapped them au naturel.
According to reports, taking naked photos is a tradition among members of the unit, who then leave them behind on the walls of their barracks.
The publication of the photographs in Yedioth on Wednesday was followed by reports in the press that the six had been discharged from the army. Reports of the discharge evoked a storm of protest from the commandos' parents, who said the six may have been guilty of silly behavior but not of a serious breach of discipline or of the IDF's code of conduct.
The IDF appeared to have backtracked the next day, issuing a statement saying that the head of the Naval Commandos unit had met and spoken with the six. The Navy views the matter very seriously, the statement said, and had barred the commandos from participating in operational missions for "a limited period" – presumably while it makes up its mind about the discharge.
Senior military sources noted that the fact that such a ban is considered a severe punishment was an indication of the extremely high motivation of soldiers serving in the unit.