"The many acts of terror perpetrated in Israel are strengthening my conviction that the sooner I come back, the better," he wrote.

Ironically, Netanyahu was not killed in the heat of battle, according Malin. Rather, Netanyahu was shot after the danger point of the Entebbe raid had passed and it appeared that the troops would escape the airport without any fatalities.

Because Netanyahu survived the more life-threatening parts of the raid--as well as countless other dangerous battles--Malin likens his almost avoidable death to a senseless accident.

"[His death] made me feel a terrible sense of loss," Malin says.

The story of Netanyahu's life is one of adventure, determination and change.

He was 17 in 1963 when his family moved from Israel to the U.S., where his father, Benzion, planned to do research on Jewish history. After graduation from high school in Philadelphia. Netanyahu enlisted in the Israeli army. He remained in the army until he entered Harvard in 1967.

Netanyahu was seriously wounded shortly before the conclusion of the Six-Day War in 1967.

Soon after the Israeli victory in the war, a recovered Netanyahu entered Harvard, where he demonstrated a great interest in math and the natural sciences.

Returning to the army in 1969, Netanyahu defended the Jordan Valley, the Golan Heights and the Lebanese border. By 1972, he had been promoted to the rank of major.

Netanyahu took a leave of absence from the army in June 1973, during which he enrolled in Harvard Summer School. He returned in time to fight in the Yom Kippur War. In 1975, a little more than a year before his death at Entebbe, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

Netanyahu's legacy of national service lives on through his family. His brother, Benjamin, was granted a permanent appointment as the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in September 1984. Benjamin served in the Israeli army from 1967 to 1972 and was executive director of the Jonathan Institute, a terrorism research foundation, from 1978 to 1980