Trom Tironut

I would love to say that in my first week of the army I did something really cool. But its quite the opposite.
Despite being Purim on Sunday, we were told to arrive at a base in Baer Sheva where we met up with our unit and mefaked. From there we took a bus for n amount of time to our training base (bach).
I've heard the base was nice but I didn't realize how true it was. Tzanchanim is an American funded unit so they built us a beautiful modern base. Each plugah, or group of about 100 soldiers has their own building, a central courtyard plus a building for the mefakdim. Unlike other bases where soldiers sleep in tents, we sleep in rooms with closets and air conditioners. The other facilities are also new and top of the line. The food is amazing too which is really important.
On Sunday we heard speeches from the Mefaked of the base and other Mefakdim about Tzanchanim and about the main event of the week: the gibushim. The gibushim that took place were for gadsar and maglan and a separate one for duvdevan. Hundreds tried it but I decided not to.
On Monday, everyone, even those not trying the gibush, had to prepare two bags with borrowed equipment from the army, so that of course took all day.
We woke up on Tuesday at about 3 am to organize for the gibush that I wasn't doing. Then we were separated into groups and they left. Those not going cleaned our building for a few minutes but then we went back to bed for an hour or two. And then for the next three days all I did was pick weeds. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. There are just too many of them. It's impossible to get kill them all.
On Thursday, I got to do the coolest thing I had done all week. After picking weeds in the morning, I painted boxes for Maglan and Duvdevan. I'm no Picasso, but I think I did a pretty solid job.
And then on Friday we were sent home.
Our Mefaked was awesome, didn't yell at us and laughed at all the jokes we made. But the week that I am entering will most definitely not be like that. This week things will get serious. And I'm pretty sure we will start shooting. And running. But probably not at the same time.

First Days

If this is what the army is like, then so far I love it.
My Giyus was this past Wednesday which means I went to Bakum again to complete the becoming-a-soldier process. But for some reason, getting a shot, filling in a few papers, eating lunch and changing into a uniform takes about 10 hours.
I got to the lishkat hagiyus at about 10am where there were hundreds of teary eyed parents and soon to be soldiers dancing (mostly the religious ones). Then we signed in and loaded buses to a different part of the base. And we waited, and waited, and waited some more. Finally we made it to the part where we got all our stuff and uniforms and tried them on. When we were sure that everything fit nicely, we left that area and waited. And waited and waited. While waiting we did a few attention calls. But in the end all the waiting was worth it because unlike Nachal, who also had their Giyus that day, we went home. Fast days in the army are like sick days on base plus the first shabbat is almost always free, so they just let us go. Since then I've just been enjoying walking around Jerusalem, despite the random people on the street who yell "tzair" at me. "Tzair" means young and in the army it is the nickname for new soldiers.
A few words about our uniform: because we are tzanchanim, we get a different uniform. Our boots are red, the pants are the same but our shirts are totally different. They have four pockets on the front and we wear a second belt over the shirt which is not tucked in. One of the things people say to make fun of us tzanchanim is pointing out that we wear "skirts".
On Sunday, I actually start the army when I report to a base in Baer Sheva where there are buses to my base.

Golan Tiyul

This past Thursday, Friday and Shabbat, my class in yeshiva went on a trip to the Golan to have some fun before the army.
A few highlights:
- A high ranking commander spoke to us. Not only did he serve in Shayetet 13 (water-based unit similar to the navy seals), he was also a commander in Egoz (an elite recon unit), Sayeret Golani, and completed the ship captain course. Imagine how many pins he wears on his uniform!
- We visited the site where Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser were kidnapped after their Humvees were ambushed. On a nearby hill right across the border we were able to see a Hezbollah base. We were told they were watching us and probably listening to us.
- We went to see an outpost right on the Lebanon border. Very cool place. It looked exactly like a level in a video game. Rav Ashi's grave was right there. Just across the border was a UN base.
- On Friday night we heard from a rabbi who is now doing his miluim in Shaldag, the air force's elite unit. But the most impressive thing was that he served in Hayechida, Sayeret Matkal, which is the best unit in the IDF and possibly in the world. Apparently it runs in the family because he has sons in Shaldag and Duvdevan (the counterterrorism unit).

Less than 10 days left!!


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