Oh how I love the shetach. I love they thorns. Love sleeping in the heat of the day. Love carrying half my weight on my back.
Okay, so I hate the shetach. But this time actually wasn't so bad. This week was based on chulyot, or one third of a kitah, 4 people. It is made up of a variety of soldiers, for example, a mefaked chulyah, a sharpshooter, a negevist (the negev is the light machine gun), and a regular soldier. The last time we were in the shetach we conquered hills in pairs. That was just to get used to it. This was a step closer to the real thing. But, it was also much more complex and dangerous. Instead of 2 people it was four. Instead of regular M16s, some people had machine guns to spray the area in front of us. Instead of being careful not to shoot one of your friends in the back, you now have people on both your sides. In total we did the exercise 5 times, 3 times during the day and twice at night. During the day is pretty straight forward because you can see everything. The night is a different story. Forget about seeing the terrorists, just seeing your friends beside you can be problematic. Ideally, everyone would be given night vision, but that's way too expensive. The mefaked has night vision goggles, sharpshooters have a night vision scope, and thank G-d the machine gunner has a one eyed scope. The machine gunner in my opinion has the coolest one because he has a laser on his gun that only people with night vision can see. In fact he shoots better at night than during the day. The rest of us can't really see much. We do have a small red dot in our scopes, but if the targets didn't have sticklights on them, there is no way we would see them further than 5-7 meters away. So safety is number one. There is a saying in the army, "Safety rules are written in blood" and it's true. I actually had an interesting thing happen to me. As I was getting up and running forward to find my next cover, I slipped on some rocks and the barrel of my gun dug into the ground. When I got down, I looked at my barrel and saw that there was a rock stuck inside. I gave the gun a few hits but it didn't come out, so I stopped the exercise and the mefaked came and carefully took it out. Then we continued normally. After the exercise, the mefaked told us that a few years ago the same thing happened to his friend but he actually put his finger in front of the barrel. That finger is no longer with him. Enough said.
Our sleeping pattern this week was changed to more accurately simulate wartime. Most fighting in wars is done at night when you are least likely to be seen, so sleep takes place during the day. Now remember that we are in the desert. It's really not easy at all to sleep in that kind of heat even though there was a tent-like thing over us. We were given about 6 hours between 1 and 7 and an hour or two at 2am. It seems like a lot of time but with guarding and the heat it ends up being nothing.
Near our camp were soldiers from Chavat Hashomer, the base where problematic soldiers are put through basic training, who were using our shetach. There's a show on TV here about what happens there and it gets pretty intense. So while we were doing our night exercises, we were told that we had to stop everything until further notice. At first I thought, maybe somebody got injured G-d forbid. Nope. Apparently, two soldiers from Chavat Hashomer ran away from their mefakdim. Seriously? They decided to run away into the pitch black night in a live shooting area? It's kind of serious but I couldn't help but laugh at the stupidity.
We were supposed to have a masa of 14+3km a few weeks ago but with scheduling difficulities it was pushed off to this past week. And this masa was different. It would be led by our mefaked hasamal who is in charge of our discipline and let's just say he takes his job very, very seriously. It was also after minimum sleep and shetach food, except for the meal right before the masa. I was both nervous and excited. Excited for the beret pin that I would receive and that great accomplishment feeling after a masa and nervous because it was our mefaked hasamal. We saw the machalacka in front of us start of with a sprint and knew it was only a matter of minutes until we would start. Then we started walking fast until we hear our mefaked hasamal yelling about how he is waiting for this masa. Oh great. Then he shot a few empty bullets into the air and broke out into a sprint into darkness. Thank G-d the sprint only lasted about 30 seconds and then we slowed down to a standard masa pace which we walked to most of the time. Every once in a while though we ran. After an hour, as is army law, we had a fifteen minute break to drink and switch packs. And then again off into a sprint for the second leg. An hour later, during the break, we opened up the stretchers and put sandbags on them. That means we had completed 14km and had 3 left, right? Well, it never goes exactly like we think. We reached our plugah drenched in sweat and exhausted, and the mefaked hasamal yells "You think it ends here? It ain't over till I say its over!" So we walk around the base a little and reach the plugah once again. He pulls out a sticklight and bends it to make it light up, and says, " Just like I break this sticklight, I'm going to break you". And we continue again, but this time we go back out into the shetach! No! Not again! I had a feeling that we would go a few hundred meters and turn back which is exactly what we did. We got to the plugah, did some much needed stretches, and then recieved our beret pins.
The next day my machlacka went to the ranges to check that their guns were zeroed, but I went with another machlacka to do something I've been waiting to do since the beginning. Throw a grenade. The truth is I was half excited and half scared out of my mind. You're going to give me a live grenade to throw? Okay. After a few classes about a bunch of different grenades and a couple quizzes we left the base and walked to the grenade range. The range is basically a thick concrete structure and a large pit with a target in the middle.
Soon after we got there I was called up to throw. I went to get my live grenade, carefully put it in my vest and ran up to the range to meet the Mem mem . The first exercise was a simulation of a situation where I pull the pin and accidentally drop it into the concrete structure. 4.5 seconds. 21! 22! 23! Next thing I know this Mem Mem is lying on top of me outside the structure. 24! Putzatz! (Exploded, by the way, this has happened in the past, miraculously, no injuries) The next exercise was throwing a fake grenade with a string attached into the range. And then he told me to take out the real one. Really? But I've hardly practiced?! So I'm standing there and say to myself "Oh my G-d. I have a live grenade in my hand. I've got to get as far away from this thing as possible." And then he tells me to pull the pin. "Do what!?!?!?" So I pull it, reach back, look back, look forward and throw it into the pit. Then I quickly duck down but he pulls me up to watch the thing fall and roll. Seriously? 21! 22! 23! We duck. 24! Putzatz! Then we rise and I point my gun at the dead terrorist to confirm death. He told me that I threw it well so I definitely killed the target and all his terrorist friends.
That shabbat just my kitah went home because we stayed in the week before when everyone else went home for a chamshush which is when you go home on Thursday. It would have made sense to let us out on Thursday. But they didn't. Not only that, but they made us come back on Saturday night instead of Sunday. Totally illogical. Instead of going back to the base we went to a park in Ramat Gan to guard the spot where the Yom Sport for Tzanchanim would take place. The shifts were a few too many but between we were allowed to do most anything we wanted plus there was a concert at night. One of my shifts was filtering entrance into a parking lot, allowing only really high ranking officers in. Had this been Toronto for example, people in cars who would see a blockade in front of a parking lot with two soldiers standing in front of it would run for their lives. But this is Israel. "What do you mean I can't park here? I park here everyday!!?" We heard every reason in the world. It seemed like people thought they were the most important people on Earth. "No sir, entry is forbidden". " So who are you letting in?" Only high ranking generals." Usually that shut them up. It was just a really frustrating job especially with my imperfect Hebrew. It was a really important job but it was so hard to make people turn away. Luckily the other soldier with me was Israeli so he dealt with them better than I did. There is no doubt that chutzpah was essential in building this amazing country and still is necessary to keep developing it. But there is a line. This time I felt the vast majority were disrespectful of the situation.
Sunday night we got back to the base late and woke up early the next morning to work in the kitchen. You guessed it. Once again our plugah had shavua Hagnam, guarding and cleaning. No complaints from me though. Except that we were working through the week on less sleep than usual. People got pretty fed up by the end. But no need to be down. That week we finished basic training with a very generous barbecue. And on Friday we went home. For 9 days!!! This is our first regila, or 5 day break that is supposed to happen every 4 months. We also got the shabbat before and after off to make a total of 9 days out of the army!!! In my opinion, it is well earned.
One thing I forgot to mention is that my mefaked throughout basic left to another job with the battalion commander. Many people including myself were sorry to see him go. He was an amazing commander who taught me never to give up. It's going to be odd at first with the new commander but hopefully in the end it will be okay.
Okay, so I hate the shetach. But this time actually wasn't so bad. This week was based on chulyot, or one third of a kitah, 4 people. It is made up of a variety of soldiers, for example, a mefaked chulyah, a sharpshooter, a negevist (the negev is the light machine gun), and a regular soldier. The last time we were in the shetach we conquered hills in pairs. That was just to get used to it. This was a step closer to the real thing. But, it was also much more complex and dangerous. Instead of 2 people it was four. Instead of regular M16s, some people had machine guns to spray the area in front of us. Instead of being careful not to shoot one of your friends in the back, you now have people on both your sides. In total we did the exercise 5 times, 3 times during the day and twice at night. During the day is pretty straight forward because you can see everything. The night is a different story. Forget about seeing the terrorists, just seeing your friends beside you can be problematic. Ideally, everyone would be given night vision, but that's way too expensive. The mefaked has night vision goggles, sharpshooters have a night vision scope, and thank G-d the machine gunner has a one eyed scope. The machine gunner in my opinion has the coolest one because he has a laser on his gun that only people with night vision can see. In fact he shoots better at night than during the day. The rest of us can't really see much. We do have a small red dot in our scopes, but if the targets didn't have sticklights on them, there is no way we would see them further than 5-7 meters away. So safety is number one. There is a saying in the army, "Safety rules are written in blood" and it's true. I actually had an interesting thing happen to me. As I was getting up and running forward to find my next cover, I slipped on some rocks and the barrel of my gun dug into the ground. When I got down, I looked at my barrel and saw that there was a rock stuck inside. I gave the gun a few hits but it didn't come out, so I stopped the exercise and the mefaked came and carefully took it out. Then we continued normally. After the exercise, the mefaked told us that a few years ago the same thing happened to his friend but he actually put his finger in front of the barrel. That finger is no longer with him. Enough said.
Our sleeping pattern this week was changed to more accurately simulate wartime. Most fighting in wars is done at night when you are least likely to be seen, so sleep takes place during the day. Now remember that we are in the desert. It's really not easy at all to sleep in that kind of heat even though there was a tent-like thing over us. We were given about 6 hours between 1 and 7 and an hour or two at 2am. It seems like a lot of time but with guarding and the heat it ends up being nothing.
Near our camp were soldiers from Chavat Hashomer, the base where problematic soldiers are put through basic training, who were using our shetach. There's a show on TV here about what happens there and it gets pretty intense. So while we were doing our night exercises, we were told that we had to stop everything until further notice. At first I thought, maybe somebody got injured G-d forbid. Nope. Apparently, two soldiers from Chavat Hashomer ran away from their mefakdim. Seriously? They decided to run away into the pitch black night in a live shooting area? It's kind of serious but I couldn't help but laugh at the stupidity.
We were supposed to have a masa of 14+3km a few weeks ago but with scheduling difficulities it was pushed off to this past week. And this masa was different. It would be led by our mefaked hasamal who is in charge of our discipline and let's just say he takes his job very, very seriously. It was also after minimum sleep and shetach food, except for the meal right before the masa. I was both nervous and excited. Excited for the beret pin that I would receive and that great accomplishment feeling after a masa and nervous because it was our mefaked hasamal. We saw the machalacka in front of us start of with a sprint and knew it was only a matter of minutes until we would start. Then we started walking fast until we hear our mefaked hasamal yelling about how he is waiting for this masa. Oh great. Then he shot a few empty bullets into the air and broke out into a sprint into darkness. Thank G-d the sprint only lasted about 30 seconds and then we slowed down to a standard masa pace which we walked to most of the time. Every once in a while though we ran. After an hour, as is army law, we had a fifteen minute break to drink and switch packs. And then again off into a sprint for the second leg. An hour later, during the break, we opened up the stretchers and put sandbags on them. That means we had completed 14km and had 3 left, right? Well, it never goes exactly like we think. We reached our plugah drenched in sweat and exhausted, and the mefaked hasamal yells "You think it ends here? It ain't over till I say its over!" So we walk around the base a little and reach the plugah once again. He pulls out a sticklight and bends it to make it light up, and says, " Just like I break this sticklight, I'm going to break you". And we continue again, but this time we go back out into the shetach! No! Not again! I had a feeling that we would go a few hundred meters and turn back which is exactly what we did. We got to the plugah, did some much needed stretches, and then recieved our beret pins.
The next day my machlacka went to the ranges to check that their guns were zeroed, but I went with another machlacka to do something I've been waiting to do since the beginning. Throw a grenade. The truth is I was half excited and half scared out of my mind. You're going to give me a live grenade to throw? Okay. After a few classes about a bunch of different grenades and a couple quizzes we left the base and walked to the grenade range. The range is basically a thick concrete structure and a large pit with a target in the middle.
Soon after we got there I was called up to throw. I went to get my live grenade, carefully put it in my vest and ran up to the range to meet the Mem mem . The first exercise was a simulation of a situation where I pull the pin and accidentally drop it into the concrete structure. 4.5 seconds. 21! 22! 23! Next thing I know this Mem Mem is lying on top of me outside the structure. 24! Putzatz! (Exploded, by the way, this has happened in the past, miraculously, no injuries) The next exercise was throwing a fake grenade with a string attached into the range. And then he told me to take out the real one. Really? But I've hardly practiced?! So I'm standing there and say to myself "Oh my G-d. I have a live grenade in my hand. I've got to get as far away from this thing as possible." And then he tells me to pull the pin. "Do what!?!?!?" So I pull it, reach back, look back, look forward and throw it into the pit. Then I quickly duck down but he pulls me up to watch the thing fall and roll. Seriously? 21! 22! 23! We duck. 24! Putzatz! Then we rise and I point my gun at the dead terrorist to confirm death. He told me that I threw it well so I definitely killed the target and all his terrorist friends.
That shabbat just my kitah went home because we stayed in the week before when everyone else went home for a chamshush which is when you go home on Thursday. It would have made sense to let us out on Thursday. But they didn't. Not only that, but they made us come back on Saturday night instead of Sunday. Totally illogical. Instead of going back to the base we went to a park in Ramat Gan to guard the spot where the Yom Sport for Tzanchanim would take place. The shifts were a few too many but between we were allowed to do most anything we wanted plus there was a concert at night. One of my shifts was filtering entrance into a parking lot, allowing only really high ranking officers in. Had this been Toronto for example, people in cars who would see a blockade in front of a parking lot with two soldiers standing in front of it would run for their lives. But this is Israel. "What do you mean I can't park here? I park here everyday!!?" We heard every reason in the world. It seemed like people thought they were the most important people on Earth. "No sir, entry is forbidden". " So who are you letting in?" Only high ranking generals." Usually that shut them up. It was just a really frustrating job especially with my imperfect Hebrew. It was a really important job but it was so hard to make people turn away. Luckily the other soldier with me was Israeli so he dealt with them better than I did. There is no doubt that chutzpah was essential in building this amazing country and still is necessary to keep developing it. But there is a line. This time I felt the vast majority were disrespectful of the situation.
Sunday night we got back to the base late and woke up early the next morning to work in the kitchen. You guessed it. Once again our plugah had shavua Hagnam, guarding and cleaning. No complaints from me though. Except that we were working through the week on less sleep than usual. People got pretty fed up by the end. But no need to be down. That week we finished basic training with a very generous barbecue. And on Friday we went home. For 9 days!!! This is our first regila, or 5 day break that is supposed to happen every 4 months. We also got the shabbat before and after off to make a total of 9 days out of the army!!! In my opinion, it is well earned.
One thing I forgot to mention is that my mefaked throughout basic left to another job with the battalion commander. Many people including myself were sorry to see him go. He was an amazing commander who taught me never to give up. It's going to be odd at first with the new commander but hopefully in the end it will be okay.
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