Unit 669

I'm Bayruven.

I served as an officer and a team leader in Unit 669.

I'm a social and business entrepreneur.

I founded three startup companies, and I'm the co-founder of the CAT669 Alumni Association and the American Friends of Unit 669.

And I'm Dr. Jonathan Pfeffer.

I work with executives and founders to integrate innovation into how they think, decide, and lead across startups, leadership teams, and places like Harvard's Innovation Lab.

Our guest today is Orr.

Orr served as a combat soldier in Team 40 in Unit 669.

But, you know, growing up in the Israeli state school system, his trajectory was remarkably secular.

By the early 1970s, he enters the Israel Defense Forces, specifically serving in Unit 669.

And that is an intense unit.

Oh, serving in Unit 669 meant he was constantly executing elite airborne rescues.

I mean, the psychological tension of this role is just unimaginable.

You are the one descending from a helicopter into hostile territory or active battlefields to pull wounded soldiers to safety.

In early December, I traveled home to Israel for the first of two solidarity visits this year.

On one of the two days we were on the ground, we traveled to the southern border, less than two kilometers from Gaza, and had lunch with IDF Unit 669.

669 is a helleborn combat search and rescue extraction unit.

These are warrior medics, heroes.