Guard week and learning to take over a mountain

Last week my group was put on guard duty at the base. That means that my group had learn and then spend time guarding strategic areas around the base, such as the front door and guard towers. Each guard shift lasted for three hours (10-1,1-4,4-7,7-10...etc) The shifts lasted all day and night and only a few people were on at a time.

If we weren't guarding during the day, we were spending time learning about grenades and Abach (atomic, biological and chemical warfare.)

At night, if we weren't guarding, we were on Kita Conenut (ready team.) That means that we slept with our boots on and with our uniforms. If anything went wrong, such as an attack on the base, we would have to run out and grab our equipment (either a stretcher, radio or water bag (the water bag is used to carry water which can be thrown on a person who is having a heat stroke.))

As i said before, during the day we spent time learning about grenades and chemical warfare. We learned that there are 5 types of grenades and we also got a chance to see the chemical warfare suits and got to put them on. We also learned what to do in the event of a chemical break out and how to respond (not hinting at anything but you never know what may happen in the NEAR future...)

At the end of the week, we all got a chance to throw a grenade and are now grenade and chemical warfare ready.

On the weekend, i got a chance to go back home to my kibbutz for a garin tzabar seminar. It was great seeing everyone again. Everyone couldn't stop talking about their army service and what they have done.

On Sunday i went back to base and spent the week learning how to respond to an attack, while out on petrol and by your self or with a group of four people. The first thing you do is jump behind cover, then yell that you've been attack. You then state how far away if your enemy, how many and what direction they are in. You then continue to work with your group up the mountain or on the path until you reach the enemy. While the physical tasks are easy, the Hebrew that you need to say is hard to learn. But after a few times i got it down and i can now say the orders easily and clearly for everyone.

The other interesting thing i did during the week was take an Arabic course and driving course.

The Arabic course was interesting because we learned how to say different phrases that we will need to use out in the field.

The driving course however was the definite high light of the week. We spent the morning learning all about anti-lock breaking system, drunk driving, driving while sleep deprived and other various things. in the afternoon, we went out in cars and drove for a while, on a course and got a first-hand experience at anti-lock braking. The course included driving at full speed and then slamming on the brake, slaloms (driving in and out of cones) and then driving on the shoulder and slamming on the brake.

I hope next week will be as fun as this week was.

War week and Swearing in

These past two weeks have been one of the hardest weeks in all of my army service so far. (in fact most soldiers say that war week (or field week) is the hardest week in all of basic training.)

On Sunday (January 10)

WE spent the day cleaning up the base and getting ready for field week. Basically, we spent the day making shifsoriem (or ties) that connected all of our gear to us. for example, we had to make a special shifsor to connect our water bottles to our vests. WE also made a shifsor for our shovels and our tents to us.

On Monday - Thursday

We left the base early in the morning and went on a 6k march to our "camp site". Once there, we set up camp and quickly got down to business. The whole purpose of field week is to learn new maneuvers (such as marching placements (where to be in a march based on our weapons, how far out we should be from one another, new hand sighs), how to live in a field and what we should expect if we are called out to war.) Most of the days were spent practicing marching in formations and reviewing sights.

Some of the interesting things that happened to me on my "outing":

At night, we would either dig holes to sleep in or set up our tent. Of course there is no such thing as a great nights sleep in the army and this was more then true for me during this week because every night we would have a hakpasa or attack. Since the commanders took away our watches before we left, we never knew how long we slept for. One night, the commanders put fake bullets that make a sound when shot and started shooting up in the air screaming in Arabic. The immediate response was all of us getting out of bed and running to our coverage position. By this i mean we were assigned areas to cover if we were attack. Mine was the south side, along with some other people. Immediately after, the commanders said that our position has been taken over and we need to pack everything up and move to a new area. Of course, no attack goes without injury, so we pretended that some of us were injured. We always carry around a stretcher and quickly put the injured people on the stretcher and moved to our new camp site a few kilometers away.

Crawling up the side of a mountain. from the very bottom to the very top. This took us a little over 2 hours since everyone had to do it.

Eating meals also took on a new meaning. Since we were in the field, no one could eat a meal without protection over the site. This meant that only 10 people were able to eat at a time (out of 21) because 10 people needed to guard the site in a full 360 degree circle. Also, there is no just walking up to get a meal. Our commanders would always have us lined up and crawl 30 meters to our food and then make us guard. Also we were only given 20 min to do all this. Basically it came down to us reaching the food with 10 min left. By the time we opened up all the cans there was only 8 min left to eat and then switching between guarding and eating left us all with only 2 min to eat.

On the last day we had a test where every kita (or small group of soldiers) had to show what they learned throughout the week. Basically the test included building tents, running with the stretcher, injured people on our back, camouflage and of course crawling.

Then to finish everything up, we had a march called masa samal or sergeants march. this means that instead of our commanders leading us, the samal or our third in command leads the march. Basically it means walking at a faster pace, running up and down mountains and more of an intensive march. The march lasted 8k (or close to two hours with a break in the middle). When it ended, we found ourselves back at base, near the shooting range.

Wednesday - Thursday:

WE spent the rest of the night pitching our tents for one more night and then spent the next day shooting.

Friday - Saturday:

Shabbat - we spent most of the day sleeping and relaxing and getting ready for a great weekend.

Sunday - Monday:

Sunday and Monday were relaxing days so to speak. we spent the days shooting again in the range at different positions, from standing to sitting to kneeling.

Tuesday:

On Tuesday, i spent the day out of the base. On the sergeants march, i badly twisted my ankle. As a result, i had spent the past few days (Thursday - Monday) on Betiem or on the injured list. This means that i never had to run anywhere and had to walk from place to place. On Monday i was sent to the doctor to make sure that my ankle want broken. She had decided that i should go to a real hospital and get my ankle x-rayed to make sure.

For this reason i got to go to Harrap or the army hospital located in Be'er Sheva. Most of the day was spent finding the x-ray room and the pharmacy. The hospital is so big and covers so many needs that it take forever to find the rooms i needed. Since i was also out of the base, i got a chance to eat some real food. its was finally a really great break from the army that i needed. The sad part was that I want able to join my group for the 11k march that we do to earn our Nahal tags. It just means that I will have to do it some time in the future with all the other soldiers on Beitiem.

Wednesday:

Wednesday we spent the day practicing for our swearing in ceremony. We learned how to stand, how to move to our spots. how to receive our guns from our MM (2nd in command) and what to say.

Thursday:

We got up very early and dressed in our A uniforms. We then quickly cleaned up the base and went to Jerusalem. Once we reached the old city, we spent the day touring around. Our first stop was a mountain that you can see and look out into all of Jerusalem. It was a great view and a great way to start off the day. The next stop was Har Hertzle or the military cemetery. There we walked around and go to hear of some of the brave soldiers who lost their lives. One of the graves that we passed by was that of Michael Levine's. The soldier who came from Philly and died in the second Lebanon war. From there we went to the Kotel, or the wall, where we practiced the ceremony a few more times. An hour before the ceremony, all the Chayaliem Bodediem were called for a special ceremony where we got gifts and heard a great speech from different high officials and Tzvika levi (the father of all Lone soldiers in Israel)

From there we had the teckes. It was a very nice ceremony and it means a lot to a lot of people.

from there i went to Mamila street to have a great diner with family and then i went home.

While the week was hard, it was a lot of fun and there is such a great feeling among us that we've done something imposable and passed and now we can take on anything.

Next week, according to our schedule, is going to be grenade and chemical weapons week. Cant wait.

First Shabbot in the army

So i know its been a while since i wrote on the blog. The reason for this was because i had to close base for the first time.

Last week (December 28 - January 1) Monday:

We spent the week shooting with our M16. This was going to be the last week we spent at the advanced base we were in because on that Friday, we moved back to bach Nachal Tov (our original home base)

The other great thing that happened this week, was that we got our Pacal (or specialty) weapon. The options were: sharp shooter (or Cala in Hebrew), negavist (light machine gun), Magist (heavy machine gun), law (anti tank), and a Matador (also a rocket).

It turns out that the reason why we've been shooting so much (for a month strait) was not only for us to get to become acquainted with our rifles, but so that our commanders can best gadget us on what weapon we should get. For example, the ones who shot the best on the M16, were sent to sharpshooter school. For me, since i am a big guy, good looking and never giving up, i was sent to be a magist.

On Friday:

We were sent back to the original base and given time to go to the store on the base and buy some goodies for the week. After that (at around 2 or so) we were given Shabbat time. basically it is all the rest of Friday and Saturday to do what we want (mostly sleeping or going to shul to pray.) The only rules that apply to Shabbat on base is that we must either be in our uniform or civilian clothing, we must have our gun on us at all times (this i found a little bit annoying because Shabbat is a time of rest and we shouldn't have to walk around with guns on a restful day.) we had to attend certain meals (lunch and dinner) and that was pretty much it. There were also some rules regarding meals, such as we weren't allowed to leave the dinning hall, until our MP (highest official lest, and we weren't allowed to start until he started. There was also a rule that we cant write on Shabbat, so all our pre and post meal reports (a report on how many people are in our group, how many are with us at the present moment, how many are missing and where they are.) all had to be given by word of mouth.

While the time to our selves was great and relaxing, the moment Shabbat ended, our commanders took full advantage of us not running all day.

Saturday night: we went for a quick (35 min.) run around the base. Then we did some pushups, sit ups and went to bed.

Sunday:

we spent the day learning about our new weapons. For me this meant having a class about everything relating to the mag, including history, specifications, and other technical things. We then spent of the rest of the day getting ready to shoot the guns at the shooting range.

Monday-Wednesday

We spent the next few days at the shooting range. On Monday we were led out of the base and marched to the shooting range. The first few hours, we spent the time setting up tents. That right, we were going to be sleeping in the field, even though the base was only a few hundred meters away. After setting up the tents, we went to the shooting range and finally got to see our new "toy" in action. There is nothing more impressive, then seeing this giant gun shoot a tiny target 300 meters away. We also spent the rest of the time learning how to shoot from the sitting, standing and lying down position. WE were also given many time test (such as shooting three targets in 1 min., setting up the gun on a stand and shooting three more targets 3min. and finally a running, crawling, shooting test in 2 min.)

Thursday:
Today was parents day at the base. Basically, the base is open up to all parents of soldiers and they can come by and see what the base is like, get to meet the commanders and the higher officials. For me , and other lone-soldiers, we were taken to a spa, pool club in Rananah. from there, I went to Jerusalem to see the swearing in ceremony for my friends in Tzanchaniem. IT was a quick ceremony, only 30 min., but it means that now these guys are sworn soldiers of the state. They receive a bible and a gun and our now proud Israeli soldiers.

My swear in Ceremony will be January 21, so if anyone is in Israel and near the Jerusalem area, please feel free to come.