Dr. Ruth was an IDF sniper!

[jar]

http://doubletapper.blogspot.com/2009/08/idf-women-spotlight.html

Ruth was 17 with no home, family or country when WW II ended. Like many other Jewish Holocaust refugees, she moved to Israel (the Palestine). Ruth, dedicated to the building of a Jewish homeland, joined Haganah, an underground Jewish military organization. She served as a sniper. Says Dr. Ruth of that interval:


"When I was in my routine training for the Israeli army as a teenager, they discovered completely by chance that I was a lethal sniper. I could hit the target smack in the center further away than anyone could believe. Not just that, even though I was tiny and not even much of an athlete, I was incredibly accurate throwing hand grenades too. Even today I can load a Sten automatic rifle in a single minute, blindfolded."

 

[jenlynn724]

Good for her!!!

 

[lupis42]

I wonder if she keeps in practice?

 

[T3andme]

New respect for that woman. Cool info.

 

[HoseHead]

I thought for sure this was going to be a myth but according to snopes ( ) it is true !

http://www.snopes.com/medical/doctor/drruth.asp

 

[atilla]

amazing.

i would like her to come load my sten mags.

seriously. no innuendo. my 9mm AR takes modified sten mags.

 

[JRyan]

that is interesting.

 

[yanici]

WOW! That old saying, "Never judge a book by its cover," is so true. Maybe get her to come to a NES shoot. That would be great.

 

[Plural of Mongoose]

I can hear her now...
"First prep your rifle and make sure it is well lubricated. Open the bolt gently to make sure it is clear and ready for you to insert the magazine with a firm, forceful thrust. Then stroke the trigger gently until the the gun shoots off in a wonderful explosion of pleasure and passion."

 

[calsdad]

I can hear her now...
"First prep your rifle and make sure it is well lubricated. Open the bolt gently to make sure it is clear and ready for you to insert the magazine with a firm, forceful thrust. Then stroke the trigger gently until the the gun shoots off in a wonderful explosion of pleasure and passion."

Back in the 80's when she was on the radio I used to listen to her show.

 

[MassMark]

Dr. Ruth....My second favorite IDF Sniper...

 

[Bob P]

Dr. Ruth rocks!

 

[tele_mark]

Wonder if she JFK'd anyone?

 

[vellnueve]

It turns out that a lot of famous people are/were combat vets. The most surprising to me was that Gene Roddenberry was a decorated bomber pilot in the Pacific theater.

 

[RFWAVELENGTH]

http://doubletapper.blogspot.com/2009/08/idf-women-spotlight.html

First of all, a Sten is an SMG, not a rifle. She can load it in under a minute? In combat, she had better hone that skill to under 10 seconds or she would be dead before she even knew what hit her. During WW II, Allied soldiers would wait until the barrel change before charging a MG 42 positon. They had between 7 and 10 seconds to do so, because that is how long the barrel change took and the MG was temporarily out of action. Sounds like Dr. Ruth spent some time on the range with a Sten and maybe a 7.92x57mm K98K Mauser but not much else.

 

[Navy Moose]

Good for her. I didn't know she served in the Haganah. I also have new found respect for her.

 

[TheWookie]

Maybe she IS an expert at reaching out and touching someone!

I took a look at the Snopes site and must admit to being a little sceptical about the information on Dr. Ruth. While women tend to be better students with firearms than men, I've yet to encounter someone who has been "discovered completely by chance" to be a sniper -- it's just not an instinctive skill.

Her own website says nothing about sniper training, merely that she was a member of the Haganah, while the Snopes site claims she was "a lookout and a sniper."

Dr Ruth may or may not have been a member of the Haganah, given that written records of these sort of organizations are rare; it's not unknown for people to have claimed membership after the event. Look at how the majority of the French were in "resistance groups" only after they had been liberated by the Allies. I can imagine she may have been bartered as a dicker, (that may have influenced her later career ) many women were, but the "lethal sniper" term seems odd to say the least.

For someone of Dr. Ruth's obvious intelligence and education to use the phrase, "lethal sniper" to which Snopes then adds, "but never killed anyone" says more about the site than anything else.