His friend Ben recounted sadly: “I was on his reserve duty team, a reservist buddy and a friend for life. He volunteered for the reserves at the age of 467. About two weeks ago we were together, we had an incredible bar mitzvah with a military rabbi, the commander approved and Daniel was called to the Torah. He hesitated about whether to have the bar mitzvah and where, but in the end, he decided not to miss out and have the bar mitzvah at the place he loved the most – the army, and his family and son came. Everyone in the unit loved Roman. Three weeks ago, he entered the Gaza Strip and asked me to watch over his wife and children. For the first time, he was in a war without me, I enlisted with him, got injured, and left there. Roman was the salt of the earth, a true Zionist, and loved the IDF. For him, the army was beyond debate, a sacred cow.”