Obits: Shomron and Bravo

Two names from the past died in the last couple of days...


From CNN

Former Israeli military chief Dan Shomron, the paratrooper who commanded the famed 1976 hostage rescue at Entebbe airport in Uganda, died Tuesday from the effects of a stroke. He was 70. Promoted to brigadier general in 1974, he was put in command of Israel's paratroopers and infantry. It was in that post that he oversaw the daring Entebbe mission in 1976. His commandos landed at the Ugandan airport under cover of darkness and freed more than 100 airline passengers who had been held hostage by Palestinian and German hijackers for a week.

From the Jamaica Gleaner

MARION Bravo, regarded as one the pioneering women of Jamaica's trade union movement has died at the age of 96.

"She was a jovial, hard-working and loyal person," said former BITU senior vice-president and current minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Senator Dwight Nelson.

"She was the epitome of the ideal support staff for trade unionists; she was well respected and she contributed immensely to the trade union movement," Nelson added.
BITU general secretary, George Fyffe, recalled Bravo as "a warm and kind" staff member "who was devoted to the trade union movement".

Bravo along with Gladys Longbridge (Lady Bustamante) and Edith Nelson were once regarded as the most powerful women in the BITU, all serving the union for more than 50 years, mainly in charge of financial and secretarial affairs.

Longbridge later married the union's founder, the late national hero Sir Alexander Bustamante, while Nelson rose to become the general secretary prior to her retirement.

Bravo will be buried on Saturday, March 1, following a thanksgiving service at the Holy Cross Church, Half-Way-Tree Road.