A Red Beret At Last

Every lone soldier in Tzahal is entitled to take a month break once a year. The first of these trips is paid for by a sponsor who donated money to the FIDF. So for that reason, I am writing this post from my hometown of Toronto where I am spending the month with my family and friends. <br></p>
<p>Two months ago, not only was I excited about going home, but things on our training base were winding down. We started to give back the equipment that belonged to the base and clean our plugah building so it would be spotless for the November draft. Everyone who had not yet completed the killer obstacle course, including me, was given another chance, which this time was successful. Because of the holiday of Sukkot, we didn't spend much time on base in the final weeks of our training. We also spent about a day and a half on another base to learn about some of the types of missions we would be doing after training. It wasn't  really that useful. All of that stuff could have been done on our own base. I imagine a lot of it will be on-the-job training. <br></p>
<p>Where do you go after training? As you know, I have been a part of the 202nd Airborne Battalion. But until you finish the training, you're not 100% part of the battalion. A few weeks before the final masa, some people traded their guns from the base for the guns owned by 202. Guys who had regular guns didn't trade. Only sharpshooters, grenade launchers, and machine gunners traded. I had a regular M-16 and expected to hold onto my gun until the switch later. But then something totally unexpected happened. Remember the sharpshooter training, where two guys in my kitah got the job and I didn't? Well now it was their turn to be disappointed because I became the one and only sharpshooter in the kitah, until at least, some more guns come in. My commander even told me that I had had excellent shooting results in that week of training. This whole thing was a nice surprise not only because I enjoy being a sharpshooter, but because it allows me to walk around with a really cool gun. I know it sounds a bit barbaric, but in the IDF soldiers show off by having enhanced parts and accessories on their guns. In army slang, that's called wassach.<br></p>
<p>Now that we had finished everything we had to do in training, it was time for the most dreaded but also the most rewarding event of all: the masa kumta. This would be our last march. I remember at the very beginning of basic training we had our first masa of 4km. Man was it hard!! 45 minutes long!! Compare that to the masa kumta which is 15 hours long. Sure, the pace is lowered, but not by much. We set out from our base in buses towards the Beit Shemesh area. I'm not exactly sure where we started from but it was in that area. Our destination? Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem. In a car, that route is about 35 kilometers. Our masa was 60 so we took a major detour. The terrain of the route was very hilly, either on a road, a walking trail, or rocky hiking trails. Jerusalem is built on a mountain of sorts so their were a lot of ascents. We usually took breaks every hour for 10 minutes but we were forbidden from sitting. If we did, there was a chance our muscles would seize up. Not long into the hike my right achilles tendon started to hurt. It felt like my boot was digging into it every step I took. I tried to push through the pain for a few hours, but there was no way I could continue like this for 10 more hours! I took my boot off and tied an extra sock I brought around it to separate the boot from my foot. It didn't totally ease the pain, but it would get me through the masa. Because I was now limping, I guess I favored my left foot and sprained it. It still hurts to walk on it.</p>
<p>Everyone took lots of snacks to help pass the time but it was mostly pretty boring. They also put out meals for us to eat along the way. At least we weren't on the base. After about 10 hours of walking and limping we caught a glimpse of the lights of Jerusalem. I couldn't believe it! There were still another few hours of walking, but it was within reach. We were almost there. Just as the sun was peeking from the horizon, we opened the stretchers and loaded them up with the water packs we carry. We are used to carrying people on them, so this was quite easy in comparison. The sun was coming up and it was starting to warm up. We were freezing so that helped. Finally we reached the city and got a few minutes to rest. But it wasn't over yet. Everyone who had done this masa gathered and we walked (or limped) another kilometer or two through the city to Ammunition Hill. This was the best part of the whole march. Most of the cars that passed us honked in support. As we neared the finish line, a lot of parents were there waiting for their sons, including mine. It was such a relief to see them and I'm sure they were even more relieved to see that I had survived.
<p>Soon after arriving, our company commander gave us a speech telling us how proud he was. Then we did some extremely important stretches and put our vests on a truck heading to our new base. The rest of the day we got off so we davened and caught some shut-eye. But there was much more important stuff happening in Israel that day. Gilad Schalit was freed!! There was a point where he was still in Egypt and even with the pictures, it was so hard for me to believe that this day had come. I am often asked as a soldier what I think of the trade, but like most Israeli citizens and Jews, I am split. Obviously though I am thrilled that we have him back. We'll easily catch the terrorists they freed.

A few hours later the tekes started. We were obviously exhausted from the march so it wasn't very long, just 40 minutes. There were a couple speeches, a little music, we sang Hatikva and arrived at the main event: the distribution of the red berets. It's a hugely symbolic event when you trade your basic green beret for your unit's beret, especially when it is red. I'm pretty sure I saw our Mem - Pay( company commander)  shed a few tears as this went on. The whole tekes ended shortly thereafter.

You can find a video of the tekes in the video page of this blog.

In short, after the tekes I went back to our apartment with my family and cousins for a little dinner. Four days later, after Succot had ended, I went to pick up my plane tickets and to return all my army equipment to our new base in Shechem. After that, I packed a bag and within 24 hours I was on a plane heading home! I spent just over a month at home. I didn't do anything overly exciting but it was just amazing to see my family and friends after being in Israel for so long. The day before my flight home I received a frantic call from the airline telling me that my flight was cancelled. The next flight wouldn't be for another 5 days! So I got a bit of an extended break. Then I flew back to Israel and the next day I was on a new base in Shechem for kav.

War Week + Rosh Hashanah

Once again it has been a while since my last post. I'll try to summarize everything I've done since the jumps.

We jumped for the fifth and final time on a Sunday and in a very informal ceremony, we received our wings. From there we traveled to our base to get ready for War Week. Sounds kind of scary doesn't it? Well that's exactly how we all felt. We were really nervous. Instead of just a few weeks in the shetach, we were about to do 6 days, including Shabbat. Was this going to be Hell Week #2?

We spent Monday and Tuesday morning getting ready for the week ahead. Late afternoon on Tuesday we walked with all our gear to the area where we once flew in Black Hawks. That is how this week started as well. Once it was dark and it was our turn to fly, about 15 of us were led to a landing spot and within a few minutes, a Black Hawk touched down in a storm of dust in front of us. We ran towards it, jumped in and it took off. We only flew for about 5 minutes and then landed somewhere nobody recognized. Because this was war week, a war simulation, we just landed deep in enemy territory and had to meet up with the other groups and get out of the area before the enemy fires artillery to the place where the helicopter was spotted. If I remember correctly, we walked all night, about 10km to the place where we would do our exercise in the morning. We arrived at the place before first light, so we lay down in "ambush", which when you haven't slept all night, means resting your helmet on your gun and nodding off.  Not long after though we woke up, davened and did an exercise as a plugah. When we finished that, we walked about 2km to a shady area to sleep for the day. That is basically what we repeated for the next few days. Walk about 10km. Do a plugah exercise. Sleep, or attempt to fall asleep during the hot part of the day. Do a plugah exercise before dark and repeat it at night. And again and again. It was actually kind of boring, but the lack of sleep was starting to take a toll on us so we started counting down to Shabbat. On Thursday night we did an exercise alongside tanks, but they just shot their machine guns, not the cannons - a little disappointing. Once again we walked all night, but this time to capture the fake arab village from our rivals, the 890 battalion. Unfortunately we didn't use paintball, just empty rounds that make the noise of a bullet but don't shoot. It could have been very cool, but honestly it was a mess. There's no way of knowing who won.

Shabbat was like finding an oasis in the desert. After all, we had been walking for days and would finally be able to sleep like we needed to. This was also the first time we were allowed to take off our vests. Needless to say, all we did was daven, eat, and sleep, a lot. And then on Saturday night we walked to a "mission", where part of the plugah blocked a road and we were supposed to ambush the terrorists. What was supposed to happen was that we would come down from a hill on one side and another machlacka would come from the other side and we would complete the mission. However, they came too early and killed them before we got down. So it didn't go as planned. We walked through the night again but we knew that soon the week would end. On Sunday morning we did another exercise and then we were given time to sleep. But the most unlikely thing happened. It poured for about a half hour. So no sleep. Then helicopters picked us up and we flew back to the place where we started the week. Although the base was visible, it was just a tease. But it wouldn't be long till the week would finally end. After we landed we walked away from the landing spot and rested for a while. Then once it started getting dark we walked to the arab village and did an exercise till the early morning and walked towards the base. Would we be going back there today was the question on everyone's mind. We waited for the light in ambush. The guy beside me actually got stung twice by a scorpion as we were waiting but he's fine. After resting until about noon, we put on all our gear and put on gas masks. This was how we would walk back to the base. As we were walking, gas grenades were thrown at us, but because of the wind and the large spaces between soldiers it didn't affect us. Soon we took off the masks and opened stretchers for the final walk to the base. This time I was on the stretcher. It was only about 3 kilometers to the base but it was the heat of the day. The feeling back on base was one of accomplishment. We had survived war week!!

There was supposed to be a really big festive meal for everyone, but we were called to Chevron to strengthen the area in light of the recent events surrounding the Palestinian state. That weekend was Rosh Hashanah- Wednesday night, Thursday, Friday, and Shabbat. We were disappointed that we weren't going home but we would be protecting small Jewish towns. You sort of walk around a bit, daven at the shul, but you eat the meals at their homes. We were on our way to a town but then the driver turned off the highway near the town and pulled into a base, the same base we were at for Shavuot. We were 5 people and 2 places to guard. In the end, a miluimnik (reserve soldier) helped us out and we guarded 3 on 6 off for those 3 days. Not the most fun. Davening was sometimes done individually as there was hardly a minyan on base and the food really sucked. Instead of hearing Unetaneh Tokef, I was hearing Allah a-u-akbar But often when things are looking pretty down, there is light at the end of the tunnel. For me, that light was a Day of Fun for chayalim bodedim.

As a general rule, when you are told the night before to wake up and stand for the commanders on the dress uniform, you know it's going to be a good day. This time though, we were told to wake up in civilian clothing. Almost unheard of in the army. We boarded buses while the sun was still just below the horizon and drove off to Dor Beach which is in the north. My expectations were high, but I had no idea just how incredible a day the FIDF (Friends of the IDF) had planned for us. This wasn't just a day at the beach. There was tons of great food being served all day. They gave out lots of little gifts like towels and bags. There were massages being given throughout the day. Koby Peretz, a famous Israeli singer gave us a memorable concert. This event was so amazing that even Miss Israel was there for the day. We could use this more often!! Thanks FIDF!!

As training was coming to an end, we had only two masaot left. The one to prepare you for the masa kumta and the masa kumta itself. The preparation one started at about 7pm and once again we did it on the base, which, if the walking doesn't kill you, the boredom will. The pace wasn't too fast and everything up to about 20-25 kilometers felt pretty normal. But after that, your feet just start to sting and there is nothing you can do about it. You just have to continue. A number of times throughout the masa I fell asleep. No, not during the breaks. While walking. That's possible?!? Apparently it is. Even the commanders were sleepwalking. You nod off, walk a few steps, suddenly wake up and try to continue walking while awake. Then it repeats. One time I started sleepwalking and the whole group stopped for a break while I just crashed right into the guy in front of me. This masa was literally neverending. It just went on and on. After 10.5 hours and 48 kilometers, it came to an end. At least we got gun straps with our logo on it at the end. Despite the pain and the major chaffing (sorry), we went to sleep for the day and at about  sundown we got on buses and limped home.    

Just one more to go!! (which at the time of writing this, I've already done)

Regila!! And then 21

     In the army, every soldier is supposed to get a 5 day break about every 4 months. This break is called a regila. After finishing our 4 month basic training, we received our first regila which as it turned out, gave us a shabbat, the week, and the shabbat afterwards. A week sounds like too short a break and it is. But since that is the most we'll get, it is a precious week in which time must not be wasted. The first shabbat I spent with a guy in my kitah at his house in Beit Gamliel. After that I spent the next week in Jerusalem with a family friend but every day from Sunday to Thursday I managed to go to some body of water. On Sunday I met up randomly with a friend from my kitah and we drove to a natural spring just outside Jerusalem. The next two days I went to the beach with the lone soldiers from my plugah and a friend from Toronto. We had heard that the water was filled with jellyfish, but being the brave soldiers we are, we didn't let it stop us from going in. The next day two friends from my kitah invited me to go with them on a hike in the desert outside of Jerusalem. You'd think I'd be sick of walking in the desert, but this trail, every 15 minutes had a bigger and better spring. About a half hour into the hike you get to a place called Ein Tamar, an oasis, where they have built a pool for the water to fill up. It was pretty busy but it was still a ton of fun. On Thursday, my kitah had planned a barbeque at my friend's house in Beit Gamliel. Unfortunately, not the whole kitah was able to make it. But the best part was that someone there called up his cousins who live on that yishuv to ask them if we can use their pool. They said yes so we drove over and swam for a while in a beautiful pool. A great way to end a regila! Shabbat I spent at the same place in Jerusalem and prepared for my Sunday return to base. The fun was over but I'm ready to finish training already.
     Surprisingly, unlike most Sundays, everyone including myself was in a good mood and ready to go back to base. And this time we would be doing three weeks straight on base, known as "21". On top of that, all three weeks were in the shetach, as is most of advanced training. The first week was a step beyond Chulyah, namely Kitah, in which we learned how to work as a whole kitah. A few week ago, someone in Givati was shot accidentally in the back by his friend while doing this exact exercise. The shabbat after that we were sent to Chevron to guard. Normally the hours there are crazy, but luckily I was sent somewhere near Chevron where we slept a lot and guarded just 8 hours each the whole shabbat. We returned to the base late on Saturday night and the next two days we spent preparing for a competition between all the units. The events were shooting, fitness, and knowledge of the weapons and stuff. For some reason though, on the day of the contest I was told to put on my nice uniform and be ready to leave with a few other people from my machlakah. We knew we were going to Jerusalem but we had no idea why. First we stopped at the president's house but from there we were told to go to the Knesset, the main government building. We found out that we were going to sit in the audience of a ceremony to honor the fighters in the Warsaw Uprising. Before that though, we were taken on a tour of the Knesset. We sat in a conference room and watched a short movie about the place, saw some works of Mark Chagall, and walked around the new and old buildings. But the best part? Going into the main hall. Yeah, that place where all the arguing takes place. We didn't go down into where all the ministers sit, but we did sit on the balcony where important people sit. Laura Bush for example sat where we sat.  Unfortunately, they were not in session at the time, but if they were, anybody is allowed to sit and listen. As a side note, there is someone in my kitah who always feels the need to snack on something. Always. No matter what, where, and when. However, it is very against the rules. Get caught and you could stay in for shabbat. Nonetheless, he manages to always snack. So not surprisingly he brought jelly bellies into the main hall and carefully ate them. That's courage!!
The next week thing we did was something I had been looking forward to for a while: urban combat. We learned just the very basics of fighting in an urban environment but it was a ton of fun. While in most of the army, shooting live rounds into these buildings is forbidden, on our base there are special walls which allow us to shoot live. Hopefully next time we learn this kind of stuff we will use paintball.
Another shabbat in, this time with kitchen duty and guarding the base. We could have used more rest because the we knew the week ahead would not be easy. Instead of kitah, this was kitah mitkadem, or advanced kitah. And as opposed to being a more chilled couple of days on the shetach, this was going to be more war-like, something like hell week (see Hell Week post). It began with a masa of 5+5, but we were carrying all our stuff for the week. This is the start of our new type of masa. The masa to get the beret has always been 80km, but it has been changed to 40+10. Sounds a lot easier right? Well, not exactly. Each person will be loaded up with 40% of weight in relation to his weight. That makes the masa a lot harder in my opinion. And this past masa is starting to prove that. As usual after a masa we were all drenched in sweat and for risk of hypothermia, we all put on dry uniforms and went to sleep for a couple hours. The next day we did a kitah exercise, walked a lot, carried "wounded" on us and on stretchers. Again we slept during the day while it was too hot. That night was rumoured to be a layla lavan, or white night, where you go through the night without sleep. In the end we slept for an hour and did some more exercises in the night and day. By 11am we were on a bus heading back to the base. And then before we knew it we were home the next morning.

The End of the Beginning

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.