The rain, the cold, the mud. It's now all a thing of the past. I find that in the army combat soldiers quickly forget all the exertion they've been through once they get some rest. And lately, we've gotten that rest. The past weeks weren't that difficult.
After our regilah, we returned to our base in the Golan for a few final weeks of winter training. Here are some of the things we did. The first week we got back was a week of misdarim, where we mostly work on our equipment and shoot a bit. The next week we did a joint exercise with tanks. This was very exciting as it was our first exercise in close combat with tanks. Before it began, I was able to get into one of the tanks and see what it was like inside. All I can say is thank G-d that I am not in tanks. This was the Merkava 2 and I couldn't believe how tiny it was. I was feeling clausterphobic within minutes, and they sometimes spend days inside. Suddenly walking kilometers with heavy bags isn't so bad! At least we get to breathe fresh air. In the past, tanks that worked with us only shot their machine guns. This time they shot their cannons, a mere 100 meters from us. Then we climbed a really tall and steep hill to finish the exercise. Because we were secondary in this week, meaning it was the tanks week to train and we were just there to help, it wasn't as exerting as our training usually is. We also worked a bit on urban warfare.
The next week was test week. Tzanchanim wanted to put all the plugot against each other to see who is best. It consisted of an exercise at night, a walk through the night, a short urban combat exercise in the morning and a few kilometers of walking with stretchers. Nothing too serious. We actually won in our category against the other Palchod plugot. We were informed of this at the Tzanchanim conference that happens every few years. They brought the entire brigade to a concert hall for some speeches and a great concert by Rami Kleinstein, a famous Israeli singer. The army magazine even dedicated an entire issue to the brigade which they handed out there.
Although we closed that Shabbat on base, everyone left on Sunday afternoon for the army vacation village in Ashkelon. Six of us though were stuck guarding for an extra day when Nachal decided at the last minute not to take over command for the base. Thanks a lot! Eventually we made it though and enjoyed a few relaxing days of sports, a pool, a run on the beach, and some serious relaxation. We were supposed to go home that Thursday early morning but in preparation for Land Day, we were kept on a different base for a night and left for home early afternoon on Friday. Thanks a bunch Arabs! Then instead of returning with everyone else late Sunday afternoon to Eliyakim for training before kav, I and three others reporting to a different base in the morning for a week of cleaning and kashering all the utensils for our gdud. It was hard work but it was kind of fun. We joined everyone else on Wednesday night and went home on Thursday afternoon for Pesach.
Release Date: June 1!!!!
