It is not often that an Israel Air Force base sees such a delegation as the one which visited the Tel Nof base in southern Israel a couple of weeks ago. The heads of a Beit Yaakov Seminary in Jerusalem, the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, and the head of the citys religion education department spent a morning as guests of the bases Unit 669 Rescue Squad.

The reason for the visit was to express the appreciation of the school and the city for the magnificent job which members of the unit did a couple of months earlier in rescuing girls from a bus threatened with flooding. A few busloads of girls had left for a tour of Ein Gedi one morning after receiving a go-ahead from the responsible authorities who assured them that weather conditions permitted such a trip. An unexpected thunderstorm sent a torrent of water, which derailed one of the buses and threatened to flood it. The Air Force was summoned and it was decided to evacuate the girls from the bus by pulling them up rope ladders to helicopters above.

The solders involved in the rescue were full of praise for the levelheaded cooperation of the girls and the girls paid tribute to the consideration of the soldiers for their sensitivities of modesty. It was on their behalf that the delegation came to say thanks.