I'll never fly with this company ever again!!

We had been given our main and reserve chutes already. We had loaded the buses and driven to the runway. We had already put on our gear and had it checked. And then we waited. Okay. Delayed an hour. So we waited. And then an announcement "We are sorry to inform you but the jump has been canceled. Yes, we are serious. Take off your parachutes." I couldn't believe it. Nobody could. We were so ready to do it. But it happens. Better to push off a jump than fly on a plane with technical difficulties.
There should be a jump tomorrow but they are not 100% sure. Either way, next week on Sunday we will make up this jump. The only downside is that when we leave the base this weekend, it won't be with wings.

Ape!!

Unless you've been through the IDF Airborne School you have no idea why the title of this post is ape. I will explain shortly.
Right now I am near an air force base in the center of Israel at the school for paratrooping. Once upon a time paratroopers actually used to fall into battle. 1956 was the only time we used that method but luckily for me the tradition of still training paratroopers continues. We arrived on this new base on Friday morning before going home for shabbat after absorption day. All we did was sign in and put our stuff in the tents before hearing a few speeches. Now where does the ape come in. So Israel learned its paratroop skills from some country in Europe and has adopted some of its traditions. One if them is that before any class or speech everyone lines up and when an instructor says "Ape", everyone straightens to attention. After three days of this it still cracks me up.
We got back to the base on Sunday morning where we met up with our cluster instructor. A cluster is basically a unit of paratroopers. When we train and jump we do it in these clusters. Ours is 13 people. The first thing we did was have a class on the main and reserve chutes we would be using. It's the classic circular parachute but what you will probably be surprised to find out is that it weighs about 14kg and only slows your fall to a speedy 6 meters per second. If you were to try to land without the method we are taught you would most likely get injured. Therefore we started our lessons in a giant sandbox doing rolls. The most important thing that must be done for a safe landing is to keep your feet together. Then depending on which direction the wind is taking you, you roll in that direction. First we just rolled from a standing position. Then we did it from a ramp about 3/4 of a meter from the ground. Next we took runs up the to the top of the ramp and jumped off. The technique for this roll seems simple but performing it perfectly takes a lot of practice. My cluster has told me that I roll the best, but some of them, well, they're lucky we do it on sand. Often we, including the person on the ground who just landed on their backside die of laughter at the mistakes.
The next exercise is the small pendulum. Basically you strap into a harness and jump about a meter where it catches you. Then you check your canopy and the instructor will tell you to fix a problem likes twists in the ropes. More severe problems like rips in the canvas or a candle, which is when the chute fails to open, cause you to open the reserve which is on your abs. By the way, the jumps are from 400 meters. If your chute opens, you have about a minute until you reach the ground. If it doesn't, it would only take about 12 seconds. The main canopy opens in 3, until you realize could take another 2. That leaves about 7 seconds to open the reserve. Not a lot of time. Luckily the last time someone got a candle was in the 90s, so the chances are extremely low.
There are also replicas of the plane we will be jumping from, the C-130 Hercules. Before and on them we rehearse the procedure of putting on the parachutes, loading, in air safety checks and finally the jumps. There is a hilarious method to walking on the plane from your seat to the door but it is only for our safety. The commands we call out also have a funny tune to them, which in my opinion are used to calm people down.
Another exercise we do is the tower. Its about 9 meters in height and replicates the jump and jolt of the chute opening. This is the jumping procedure: Both hands on the outside of the plane with feet in a staggered position ready to kick out. With the command "Kfotz!!" and a slap on the back, (which on the plane will turn into a push) you throw yourself out of the plane, put your feet together, head down, hands on the reserve and count 21, 22, 23 and the chute opens. Then you look up and check the canopy. After enjoying for a bit you get into the landing position: head down, arms on the helmet, hand grasping the straps, back and knees bent. And then once you hit the ground you roll. Now back to the tower. You jump and fall about 4 meters before the zipline catches you and you slide for 50 meters to a hill where you should already be in landing position. We also practice opening the reserve and releasing the chest bag. What's a chest bag? That's where we secure all our equipment, gun and vest for me. It's strapped to our harness and is dropped 4.5 meters after the chute opens. It's annoying but that's what's necessary to become a full fledged paratrooper.
Another simulator we use is the Omega. It is basically a low zipline where you zip, jump off and perform a roll. It replicates a fast forward wind so you fall pretty hard.
The last simulator we use is the big pendulum. It is the same thing as the small one but much taller and much more painful for two reasons. First because you fall farther and second because after swinging around for about half a minute a meter above the ground, the instructor pulls a lever and you come crashing to the sand, hopefully with the roll. I hate this thing. Every time I get up there I just imagine my instructor dropping me when I'm not ready and face-planting into the sand. I'm glad I'm finished with it.
And then there is the Eichmann. The instructors deny its existence but we have seen it. A while back they canceled it. I wonder why.
So that's what we did the first week of the course plus Sunday and part of Monday. Right now we are waiting till our first jump at about 4pm. It still hasn't fully hit me bit I imagine once we board the plane it will.
There are two videos of the tower and pendulum that I will post soon. Wish me luck and stay tuned!

Black Hawk Down (but back up)

This past Sunday (by now a few weeks ago) is a day I'll never forget. I knew we would be doing this sometime but I wasn't sure exactly when. Well it was time.
Each general infantry brigade (Tzanchanim, Givati, Kfir, Nachal, and Golani)  has two ways of getting into battle. Tzanchanim either walk in, hence the extremely long masaot we do, or we are flown in by helicopter. Now was the time where we practice on helicopters.
We walked out the base onto a huge field and waited for a few hours. Then finally three desert-camo painted helicopters land a few hundred meters from us. We were given a speech about it and told how to get on and off it. Ideally, loading is supposed to take 20 seconds and unloading 30, but we obviously took it a bit slower when we tried. We walked back to base for dinner and then at night went once again to this field for the exercise. After seeing other classes go up, it was our turn. We all crouched in a line near a light where the Black Hawk would land. A few more minutes passed and then we saw some lights in the air flying towards us. When it was a few meters off the ground, a huge storm of dirt flew up around it making the helicopter invisible and blinding all of us. After it died down though we ran towards the door and piled in just like we were taught. It's hard to describe what it's like to lift off in a helicopter.  I guess the closest comparison would be to a magic carpet. You don't really feel yourself being lifted up until you look outside and see how fast you've risen. By the way, it's REALLY loud inside. We flew for about 7 minutes and then landed somewhere far from the base. Luckily, a few minutes later a bus came to drive us back to base. I can probably say that that was the most fun I've had so far in the army.
Yesterday, we all were taught the very basics of how to shoot a MAG machine gun. This is a really big gun (it fires 7.62mm rounds) that is carried by one person in each machlacka. Unfortunately we only got five rounds to fire but it was fun for that half a second.
Since about a month ago, after the regila, we made the transition into advanced training. The new August draft has come to the base so now they are the babies. The relation between the soldiers and commanders is a bit different now because we call them by just their names. No need for mefaked. We also no longer salute to commanders in the plugah. In the future, we are supposed to be able to be friends with our commanders but not yet.
So what have we been doing the past month? Mostly we have been in the shetach, doing even more advanced exercises with an entire machlakah. We had a week of certifications, where, since I already have one, I worked in the kitchen most of the time. Last week we had a week called machlakah mitkadem plus nagmash. It was more or less like the other weeks in the shetach except for two things. The first was the nagmashim. A Nagmash is an APC or armored personnel carrier. The week before a few people took courses and became drivers, so we drove around a bit and practiced some drills. For example, these things can flip over pretty easily, so if it does, you sort of grab something and hang on for dear life. Two days later we had our first tarpal, or targil plugah. This time we were going to conquer a monster of a hill with an entire plugah!! That's about 100 people. It all started with a bang. They simulated breaching a wall with an explosive called Boogaloo or something like that. The ground shook underneath us. Then we ran through a smoke screen ( seriously, just like in the movies) towards the hill that was being thrown up in dust by the machine gunners from another hill. And then with thousands of bullets we captured the hill.
This past week was advanced shooting. I thought it was going to be really cool and advanced but it was more of just a reminder of how to shoot, and believe me, you get pretty rusty.
This past Friday we traveled to Tel Nof, an air force base. Yeah, you guessed it. It's time for Jump School!! We just dropped our stuff off, met our instructors, and left. The course isn't supposed to be overly hard, but it has some of the toughest discipline in any course in the army for obvious reasons. So in two weeks I should be walking around with silver wings on my uniform.
In other news, we only have two masaot left, 40km and then the final 50km masa kumta on Succot.

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.

The Ultimate Freedom

Over the last few months, the army has physically turned me into a soldier. But the most important difference between the IDF and all other armies in the world, is that the IDF is the most moral army in the world. This past week was all about educating us about our identities, why we are fighting, who we are fighting against, and what kind of moral issues we might have to deal with.
The best part of the week was definitely being off the base. This was the closest to freedom we would get in the army without going home. On Sunday I had a yom siddurim so I went to see my parents one last time until they fly back to Toronto. Then I joined my plugah in Ramot Shapira, a guest house in Beit Meir about 20 minutes from Jerusalem.
The first day, Monday, was about our, or their identities as Israelis and as Jews. We answered questions and discussed some issues like "Who is an Israeli?", which isn't as simple a question as it sounds. My favorite part of this day was hearing everyone's reasons for why they are in the army because I and the other lone soldiers have the strongest reasons. Yes, there is conscription, but it's so easy to get out of the army these days. Plus it's Tzanchanim so everyone here wants to give more.
We talked about our machlacka and how much we think we know about each other versus how much we actually know. I learned some extremely vital pieces of information about people this week.
One of the more heated discussions was that on Nohal Shachen. In Operation Cast Lead, two Givati soldiers were found guilty of using an Arab boy they found on the street to open a bag in which they suspected there was a bomb. It is illegal in the army now but hasn't always been. Very interesting dilemma. On one hand, we must protect our own soldiers. On the other hand, we are incredibly moral and don't ever put innocent civilians in danger.
Another hot topic was the disengagement. Not whether it should have happened or not. I think it was a total disaster. But if you were commanded to pull somebody out of their house, would you do it or not? Before we talked about it, my opinion was that I would never do it. I still would try my very hardest to get out of it, but the fact is that we are part of an army. If everyone has their own opinion about things and lets their emotions get involved, the army simply wouldn't function properly.
On Thursday we left the guest house and headed to Castel, a very strategic hill near Jerusalem that we conquered in 1948 and discussed what happened there. From there we went to Yad Vashem which is really the reason why we are doing what we are doing. Had you asked anyone in the Holocaust if they thought there would be a Jewish army within a few years, they would have called you crazy. But it is because of the Holocaust that we have a state and an army. Never again will it happen. Although it may not always seem like freedom, it is the ultimate freedom to be serving in the IDF.

And Basic Drags On

There are a lot of very frustrating things about the army. Let me give you an example. Last week was Shavuot and my machlakah is going to Chevron. However, because I'm not Israeli (yet), I am keeping 2 days of chag. So I didn't go with them. I was told a couple days before that I would likely be going home. But instead, it was decided to keep me here. I and a few other Americans did absolutely nothing on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and we went home on Friday for Shabbat. Does that make any sense at all? Not only that, but there was no minyan here for us the second day. We tried speaking to everybody about it but to no avail. Even some of the mefakdim agreed with us. Finally we got the reason: everyone else is staying, so you have to stay. That makes sense, but we aren't like everybody else. We need that second day. But no. That's not how the army works. So frustrating!!!
Now I'll try to sum up what I've been doing the last month or two because I have a bit of time. I don't remember the exact order of events but its something like this.
Luckily, after Shavua Sada'ut, or what I called hell week, we were able to rest a bit during our extended weekend. We were let out for Shabbat, Sunday we had a culture day, Monday was Yom Hazikaron, and Tuesday was Yom Haatzmaut. Yom Hazikaron is always a very solemn and special day, but never like this past one. It is the promise of Tzanchanim to send a current Tzanchan to stand at every single grave of any Tzanchan during the tekes. I personally stood at a grave and felt a deep connection to a fellow Tzanchan. It was also extremely important because this particular Tzanchan died in the 50s and I was the only person standing by his grave. That night, things take a total 180 and turn happy. Every year that Israel survives is a complete miracle and it can really be seen in the way we celebrate. My parents and I went to the center of town in Jerusalem where there were a bunch of different concerts, huge crowds of people and of course that string that the kids spray at everyone. We also walked over to Kikar Safra where there was folk dancing. Who knew that macho Israeli men enjoy folk dancing? And then of course, like all Israelis, during the daytime, we made a BBQ. Classic. Then sooner than it should have been we were back on the base. At least all we did was learn first aid. Mostly we listened to classes and practiced bandaging up our friends. After successfully completing the course, we now carry around an "Israeli Bandage" and a rubber rope type thing that stops blood flow to a limb.
Remember when I complained about cleaning and picking weeds? Well ever since the army started actually being like the army, these menial work weeks are actually kind of a relief. You either get put in the kitchen, on guard duty, or clean and stuff. The kitchen is pretty fun because even though I don't think its allowed, you often sneak some food. My friend and I even made ourselves some pasta.
The next week was a shetach (wilderness) week. But unlike sadaut, this was a much easier week. We took the same heavy bags but also our sleeping bags, which would at least provide a little comfort. Luckily, instead of carrying that ridiculous bag, I was the radio guy. Kind of funny that the non-Hebrew speaker is chosen but maybe that's a sign that my Hebrew has improved. This week was called Tzemed and it was the first time we would be using live ammunition outside a proper shooting range. Tzemed means pair and this week was all about learning how to conquer a hill with a partner. I can't say the exact movements, but we learned when to provide cover fire, when to run, what to say, when to throw a grenade, and finally when to make the last move the terrorists will ever see. In reality, two people, or even a whole class would never risk taking a hill, but we learned the basics then. In the future we will start conquering land with more people and with more of a variety of weapons.
Sometime after that week was the week where we did our masa for the Hashba'a or swearing in. It was 7+1 kilometers. The +1 means that that kilometer was done carrying a stretcher. After we finished, the staff lit a huge fire sign of my battalion. We were finally starting to feel a sense of belonging. Especially because we received tags with the Tzanchanim logo to put on our shoulders. On the day of the Hashba'a we had a culture day. This one was special because we retraced the steps of our heroes who fought gloriously through the narrow streets of Jerusalem. And of course it was the Tzanchanim who captured it. We walked through Sha'ar Arayot, the gate of the old city where they broke through the walls until we reached the Kotel where we would be sworn in. Before it began there was a light dinner for lone soldiers which was nice. And do you know the tunnel to the left of the Kotel? Well as we were getting in formation, like every year, each battalion started singing their cheers. But it definitely wasn't singing. It was absolutely deafening that tunnel. But the pride really showed. And of course competition between the battalions. At 8:00 pm sharp we started marching to the square. I saw the ceremony last year but it was totally different participating in it. You just get this feeling of pride that can't be found anywhere besides in Tzahal. Here you are about to embark on a journey that could lead you to fight for the lives of your people. It's a bit frightening but also inspiring. Of course the most exciting part of the ceremony was definitely receiving our Tanachs and guns. From then on, the guns were ours to take with us and protect everywhere we go. Then we swore in, sang Hatikva which still sends chills through my body, and that was it. By the way, thank you to all my friends who came to see it. Your support is appreciated beyond your understanding.
One of the next things we did was a week of shooting. Nothing too crazy but we became a lot more professional in that week. We shot a lot further and better and practiced shooting on moving targets. You might be asking how these targets move. Well at 200 meters there is a 4 meter deep reinforced concrete ditch that runs the width of the range. Half of us were in there with big targets moving back and forth or lifting up the targets. It was a lot of fun.
After that, another week of cleaning and stuff. Fine with me.
This past week was probably one of my favorite weeks but unfortunately it didn't end as quite as I had planned. Aside from our regular guns, most soldiers are given either a new gun or an additional weapon. There is a gun for sharpshooting, a gun with an attachment for shooting grenades, an anti-tank missile, a Matador missile, a light machine gun, and a heavy machine gun. I requested to be a sharpshooter and luckily it was given to me. So this past week I trained with an M4 with a Trijicon scope during the day and a Lior night vision scope at night. I've heard the Lior costs about $10 000 dollars and its believable because what it does is just the opposite. Shooting with the night scope makes you feel exactly like you are in a movie or playing a video game. Same thing with the day scope. So accurate and simple to use. We did a lot of shooting up to a distance of 300 meters, shooting on moving targets, shooting from uncomfortable positions, shooting after physical exertion and of course the famous static position. Each weapon has its own "thing". For example the machine gunners have to crawl with their guns to 300 meters. Sharpshooters have to stay in the kriyah position for over an hour. Kriyah is basically sitting on your heel while the knee of that leg is on the ground. The other leg is at a 90 degree angle facing the target with the foot flat on the ground. In the past we did it for 25 minutes but we knew this was going to take a lot longer. We had 5 bullets loaded and at any time they could say fire and we would have to shoot. So we always had to be in the sights. After about 10 minutes, my foot fell asleep. After 15, I couldn't feel it at all, although we were told that that was supposed to happen and be most comfortable. Its the weirdest feeling not being able to move a body part. After 30 minutes and 2 bullets, I thought it would help to adjust my position. BAD IDEA!!! OH THE PAIN!!! Seriously it killed. And we had another 40 minutes go. Great. When we finished the 5 bullets everyone let out a sigh. But the mefakdim had a little surprise for us. Instead of ending there, they told us to switch magazines. More time? No way. I was dying at this point. Everyone was. Luckily we only shot one bullet from the new magazine. Then we stood up. Or we tried to stand up. But one of my legs just didn't work for a few minutes. So odd.
When I said the week didn't go as planned, it means that in the end I had less hits than the people I was competing against and was not chosen to be a sharpshooter now. However, I am now a certified sharpshooter and will probably get the gun in the future.
There are so many details to fill in but these are the main events. I'll try to write some more in the next couple weeks as I spend 21 days on base, the longest ever for me so far.
3 weeks left of basic training and then my regila, a week break. Can't wait!!
Shabbat Shalom!