While combat reporting usually focuses on infantry, tanks, or pilots, this article highlights the often unseen women of the IDF’s technology and maintenance corps, known as TNA. These officers and fighters repair heavy vehicles in active combat zones, often all night and under constant threat. One officer said, “When a vehicle gets stuck, there is no garage to take it to. There is no such privilege. You solve it in the field to complete the mission.”
Second Lt. A, deputy maintenance officer for the Benjamin regional brigade in the West Bank, was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, moved to Kiryat Bialik at 12, and says she overcame a difficult youth marked by drugs, alcohol, violence, and even arrests as a troubled teenager. At 16 she changed course, studied mechanics at the “Otzma” high school, went on to electronics systems technician studies, and enlisted in TNA. She now covers the largest sector in Judea and Samaria, working around the clock to keep armored “David,” “Tiger,” and “Panther” vehicles ready for roughly four regular and reserve battalions. She recalled that in one incident a driver dismissed her, saying, “What do you know?”, and she simply rescued him.
She also described the distinct challenges in southern Lebanon, where steep terrain, wadis, rivers, mud, and enemy fire regularly strand engineering and armor vehicles. After a 603rd battalion bulldozer was hit directly by a Hezbollah explosive drone in the Litani area, TNA teams entered at night with technicians and even outside bulldozer company experts, repaired the vehicle, and then had to conduct another rescue when a track came off about 200 meters from the border. In another case, a heavy vehicle had to be extracted near Beaufort on narrow routes, under drone threats, and driven 30 kilometers out.
Second Lt. D, commander of a TNA platoon in the 53rd Armored Battalion, said tanks are the soldiers’ home and that if one is not operational, the entire unit can be paralyzed. Her battalion took part in the encirclement of Bint Jbeil and crossed the Litani in harsh winter and mud. She said one complex malfunction stopped the battalion’s missions for two days until TNA crews arrived with cranes and restored the vehicles within hours. The work often runs from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m., under gunfire or explosive drones, but she said, “When you go in to repair, you do not feel fear. You feel only the mission.”
