Aluf (Major-General) Mordechai (Motti) Hod (1926 - 2003); Commander of the Israeli Air Force during the 1967 Six-Day War. Hod was born in the British Mandate of Palestine in Kibbutz Degania in 1926. Enlisted in the British Army in 1944, where he served as a driver. With the end of the Second World War Hod joined the Haganah's Palmach ground force. In this capacity he assisted Aliyah Bet, illegal Jewish immigration from Europe to Palestine. In 1966, when Hod became Commander of the IAF. In April 1973, Hod stepped down, just 6 months prior to the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Because of the war he was quickly recalled to act as the Air Force advisor to Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Hofi, who was then in charge of Israeli Northern Command.