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2nd Lt., U.S. Army Air Corps

In October 1942, at the age of 19, Paul Canin enlisted in the Army Air Corps and attended basic training at Randolph Field in San Antonio, Texas.  At his gunnery school, Canin learned how to shoot .50 caliber machine guns from various types of gun turrets.  Following his gunnery training he attended tech school at Ellington Field in Houston and navigation school in Austin.  After this training he received his wings and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant.  Lt Canin was later selected for additional training as a radar navigator at Langley Field, Virginia where he honed his flight crew skills before shipping off to Europe.

Lt Canin started his combat tour at Cerignola Airfield, Italy as a radar navigator in the 485th Bomb Group - 828th Bomb Squadron - 15th Air Force.

In the bombing missions over Europe, a “lead” plane, with the most experienced crew, would be flanked on each side by equally experienced “deputy lead” planes.  These three planes were responsible for leading an entire armada of bombers to their specific target and determining when they would drop their bombs.  As a radar navigator, Canin would fly with one of the lead planes and play a major role in the missions.

Read more about Paul Canin...

Sergeant, U.S. Army

SGT Popkin enlisted in the Army in 1999.  Following his initial training, he was stationed at Fort Riley, KS.  There he served as the commo chief of tank company in 1/13th Armor, which included an NTC rotation at Fort Irwin, CA.  From April of 2002 to December of 2003, SGT Popkin was stationed at Camp Carrole (Waegwan, Korea) where he served as the Team Chief of retrans member in Charlie 307th Signal Battalion.  He was then selected over his peers through an intense screening process to serve at his current position with the United Nation Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC).

In Korea there are two roadways that connect the Korean peninsula (one in the east and one in the west), SGT Popkin is currently located in the Western Transportation Corridor.  His mission includes serving as the eyes and ears for the Commander of UNC, assisting in processing requests for entrance into the DMZ and any crossings that occur between North or South Korea, and also monitoring the compliance of the Armistice and other Agreements. 

SGT Popkin said that:

I have been proud to have the chance to serve my country as well as help other countries.  I began working for UNCMAC in December 2003 and since then I have had the chance to work with it’s diversified members consisting of 16 other countries.  Since working for UNCMAC I have monitored the crossing of over 20,000 personnel and 13,000 vehicles through the DMZ either going to the north or returning to the south.

In addition to his regular duties, SGT Popkin has also participated in monitoring and facilitating 4 Joint Recovery Operations (JRO) Missions of returning US remains from the Korean War, briefed numerous Distinguished Visitiors inlcuding 16 UNC Ambassadors and the UNC Commander.

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First Lieutenant, U.S. Air Force

Lt Dan Minkow is a logistics readiness officer and currently serves as the flight commander for his unit’s Management and Systems Flight.  He has served at his current duty station at Travis Air Force Base in California for 2 1/2 years.  Service in the Air Force is a family tradition for the Minkows.  Both of his parents are retired Air Force officers.

His other job in the Air Force (which he proudly declares is his most important) is serving as the Jewish lay leader on base.  As the lay leader, he assists other Jewish airmen with their religious needs.  He leads Friday night Shabbat services, “Lunch’n learns” and even planned a Travis Sukkah Project.

One of Lt Minkow’s proudest moments as the lay leader at Travis is when he and reserve Chaplain Jon Sommer were asked to be keynote speakers for the Holocaust Center of Northern California.

Read more about Daniel E. Minkow...

Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps

Joshua Mandel seems to have a knack for service.  He served two terms as the Ohio State University undergraduate president before he joined the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves in 2000. After his initial training, he returned home to Cleveland and began law school at Case Western Reserve University. While at Case, the young Republican worked for his state representative for three years in charge of community outreach.

At only 26 years of age, Cpl Mandel ran for the office of city councilman of his hometown of Lyndhurst, Ohio.  Mandel physically went door-to-door campaigning and listening to the people.  His sincere concern for the individual voters seemed to have a big effect on the people of Lyndhurst; he won his first race for public office with 4700 of the 5000 votes cast. 

Read more about Joshua A. Mandel...

Major General, U.S. Army (Ret.)

Major General Sidney Shachnow is most known for his 32 years of service with the U.S. Army Special Forces which culminated in his position as commander of the U.S. Army Special Forces Command.  General Shachnow served two tours in Vietnam and earned two Silver Stars and three Bronze Stars with V for Valor.

General Shachnow’s story would be an impressive tale based on his military service alone, but there is another story that makes his accomlishments all the more amazing.  He was born and raised in Lithuania until he was 17.  At ten years old Shachnowski escaped the notorious Kovno concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Lithuania.  Courage must run in his family, because both of his parents escaped the ghetto and were partisan fighters as well.  His father hid him and his younger brother with a Christian family just before the ghetto was cleared and the inhabitants sent to extermination camps.  Through some miracle, both his parents survived as did the future General and his brother.  He made his way across Europe where he made a living by smuggling contraband.  He was impressed by American soldiers during the war and remembered them after he and his family were eventually admitted to the U.S.

Read more about Sidney Shachnow...

Private First Class, U.S. Army

PFC Levinson was 23 when he was drafted in 1960 and was stationed at Fort Ord for 2 years.  He served as a Chaplain’s Assistant and Supply Clerk.

In the third week of Basic Training at Ft. Ord, Levinson was called out of class and told that a sergeant would be his driver and that he was to put on his Class A’s and report ot the Jewish Chapel.  The base Jewish chaplain, Rabbi Livazer, was ill and Levinson was chosen to conduct services and preside over the Shabbat meal!  This was no small service either.  At least 40 to 50 attendees were at services since they served the Naval Post graduate School and the Army Language School in Monterey.  Levinson described it as,

a very heady experience for a lowly recruit.  From then on the Sgts in my unit were a little more circumspect in their language and would ask me all sorts of questions about Judasim.  I was the only Jew in the Company.  Yeshivah and Hebrew School paid off.

Read more about Jon S. Levinson...

Captain, U.S. Army

Captain Lev was born in Moscow in 1976.  While the Soviet Union was not the most welcoming environment for Jews at the time, she was able to have an active Jewish childhood.

I was lucky enough to attend Hebrew school and Youth Zionist camp while over there. I also participated in the Bat Mitzvah twin program and corresponded with Bat Mitzvah girls from the US and Great Britain. Talk about Jewish solidarity in action.

Her family moved to the US in 1990 and she enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1995 with only a green card. Her first MOS was Medical Supply, but she soon reclassed to Civil Affairs.  After completing Fordham University School of Law and passing the New York State Bar Exam she went on active duty in the JAG corps.
Capt. Lev’s present duty station is Baumholder, Germany.  However, as a part of 1st Armored Division she deployed to Iraq from May to December 2003 where she provded legal assistance to soldiers in the Baghdad area.

Many of my cleints downrange were immigrants like myself. In an effort to complete their naturalization we encountered numerous obstacles.  It was always my firm conviction that American citizenship is a privelege, but I believed GI’s in Iraq earned that privelege more than anyone.  During the visit of the Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee I brought my clients’ plight to his attention (and got a coin out of it).  Staring October 1 this year, our embassy in Baghdad will begin conducting naturalization ceremonies for soldiers.

As if that didn’t keep Captain Lev busy enough, she managed to work on a website between assisting clients.  She affectionately calls it her “Baghdad Baby.” It is a Jewish feminist website in Russian (the first of its’ kind).  You can see it at www.womenofvalor.net (if you speak Russian).

Technical Sergeant, U.S. Air Force

Mikhail Ekshtut was born in Kiev, Ukraine. In 1976, when he was 5, his family immigrated to the United States and settled in Seattle. He grew up mostly nonobservant, but maintained some connection to Judaism during the summers when he would attend a Chabad day camp.

As a child, I always wanted to serve my country. By nature I was machmir (strict) and never did anything in a half-hearted way, so I decided that I would join the best fighting force in the world, the U.S. Marine Corps.  My parents, who escaped the USSR to keep me from having to serve in the Soviet military, thought I was crazy. On Feb. 8, 1989, four days after my 18th birthday, I shipped off to Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego.

TSgt. Ekshtut went on to serve overseas in Okinawa, Korea, the Philippines and Bangladesh. During the first Gulf War, he was deployed for seven months on a Navy ship in the Middle East. That winter, he lit Chanukah candles in the middle of the Persian Gulf.

After four years of active duty, he continued to serve in the Marine Reserves. After graduating college as a civil engineer, he spent a few months in Israel where he decided he needed to learn more about what it means to be a Jew.

After several years of learning, I was going to synagogue every Shabbat, putting on tefillin every morning and trying to keep kosher. The only time I could not keep the Sabbath was when I was doing my monthly weekend duty in the Reserves. It was not that I wasnt allowed on the contrary, the more observant I became, the more supportive everyone was. I lit candles and made “Kiddush” in the barracks on Friday night, and my friends would even do the “labors” that were prohibited for me on the Sabbath. But in the Reserves, Saturday is the main training day. 

It was time for me to make a decision: leave my beloved Marine Corps or stay in the Marines and not be so machmir one weekend a month. After nearly 13 years of service, I left the military to keep Shabbat.

But it wasn’t long before he came back…

Read more about Mikhail Ekshtut...

Specialist, U.S. Army

SPC Kashnow, raised in Baltimore, is a fourth generation American whose grandfather fought in World War II and whose father volunteered for the Vietnam War. His dream, ever since he was a young child was to join the military.  In February of 2002 Joe Kashnow went to Army Basic Training and Advanced Individual Training at Fort Knox, Kentucky where he was trained as a cavalry scout.

In April of 2003, SPC Kashnow left his wife Sarai (of less than three months) in Fort Carson, Colorado when his unit, the 4th Infantry Division, was deployed in support Operation Iraqi Freedom.  After landing in Kuwait, SPC Kashnnow was part of the 4th IDs push to Baghdad and to airfields north of the city.

Read more about Joe Kashnow...

Sergeant, U.S. Air Force
from Sgt. Levitow’s Medal of Honor citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his own life above and beyond the call of duty.  Sergeant John L. Levitow (then Airman First Class), U.S. Air Force, distinguished himself by exceptional heroism on 24 February, 1969, while assigned as a loadmaster aboard a AC-47 aircraft flying a night mission.  On that date, Sgt. Levitow’s aircraft was struck by a hostile mortar round.  The resulting explosion ripped a hole through the wing and fragments mad over 3,500 holes in the fuselage.  All occupants of the cargo compartment were helplessly slammed against the floor and fuselage.  The explosion tore an activated flare from the grasp of a crewmember, who had been launching flares to provide illumination for Army ground troops engaged in combat.

Read more about John L. Levitow...