Uziel Gal

Uziel Gal
Uziel Gal, 1953
Born	December 15, 1923 Weimar, Germany
Died	September 7, 2002 (Age 78) Philadelphia PA, United States
Nationality	German, Israeli
Occupation	weapon designer, IDF Colonel
Known for	Inventor of the Uzi submachine gun

Uziel "Uzi" Gal (עוזיאל "עוזי" גל), born Gotthard Glas (December 15, 1923–September 7, 2002), was a German-born Israeli gun designer best remembered as the designer and namesake of the Uzi submachine gun.

Gal was born to Erich and Miele Glas in Weimar, Germany. His parents divorced when he was young and he grew up mostly with his mother, in a farmhouse filled with antiques, including some old weapons. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, his Jewish school moved to England with all its students. In 1936, at the age of 13, Gal would join his father, who had earlier emigrated from Germany and settled in Kibbutz Yagur in the British Mandate of Palestine, where he changed his name to Uziel Gal.

After graduation, he joined the Palmach (underground infantry forces of the Hagana) and specialized in weapons maintenance. In 1943 he was arrested by British forces (who ruled Israel until 1948) for illegally carrying a gun and sentenced to six years in prison. He was pardoned and released in 1946, after serving more than two years of his sentence, and returned to Yagur.

The UZI

Gal participated in several battles in northern Palestine during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the War of Israeli Independence, and was sent to an officer training course after the state of Israel was established in May 1948. While there, demonstrated the submachine gun prototype he had developed on his own while living in Yagur. Having impressed his superiors with the performance and simplicity of his prototype, Gal was promptly sent to work at the Israel Military Industries to continue developing the gun.

In 1951, after more than two years of development and modifications, The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) adopted the new weapon as its official submachine gun and named it UZI, after its developer, despite the unassuming Gal's repeated (and ignored by his superiors) protests that the new weapon should not be named after him. Despite the worldwide success of his invention, Gal never once received any royalties for his work on the original UZI — as a career officer, he felt that he should not receive such royalties because his creative work was part of his normal duties and his contribution to the country's security.

Gal was decorated with Tzalash HaRamatkal (Israel Chief Of Staff Citation) in 1955 and became the first person to receive the Israel Security Award, when it was presented to him by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion in 1958, in recognition of his work on the Uzi.

He married his second wife, Ahuva Frankel, in 1956 and their daughter Tamar was born in 1961. Ahuva devoted most of her time to caring for Tamar, who suffered from serious brain damage and needed special treatment and attention in order to benefit from regular schooling.

Gal retired from the IDF in 1975 at the rank of Lt. Colonel, following a 27-year service wherein he worked on various projects for the Israeli government. The following year he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, so that Tamar could participate in a specialized treatment program for her ongoing condition. Tamar died in 1984 from a brain tumor, and was buried in Kibbutz Yagur, Israel.

While in the United States, Gal continued to work as an independent developer on various designs and projects, including assisting in the creation of the Ruger MP9 submachine gun in the early 1980s, until he passed away on September 7, 2002, after a year-long battle with cancer.

Uziel Gal was laid to rest in Kibbutz Yagur nearby to Tamar and Ahuva, just at the foot of Mt Carmel, and surrounded by three generations of the Gal family.

External links

• Uziel Gal biography by his son, Iddo Gal
• BBC obituary