Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Video of Tower
Once you get over the fact that it looks exactly like a person being hanged, its pretty harmless. It looks more painful than it is.
Watch in HD for better quality.
Watch "מגדל קפיצה" on YouTube
Watch in HD for better quality.
Watch "מגדל קפיצה" on YouTube
Monday, September 12, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
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!
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!
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
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.
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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