Kicking it up a notch

Lately, training has been slow. We have spent most of advanced training either learning about the country, guard duty or learning about new weapons. The last two weeks however have really kicked it up a notch...or 10.

When I first got back to the army, (April 19-24) it was still going slowly. The reason was because it was Yom Hazikaron (Israeli Remembrance Day for the soldiers) and Yom Haatzmaut (Israel’s birthday.) On Yom Hazikaron, we spent the day talking about fallen soldiers. We watched two video clips on Roi Clien and another soldier who sacrificed their lives for the country they loved.

On Yom HaAtzmaut, we spent the day celebrating, by having a bbq and having a talent show. While everyone said they would have rather been at home for the holiday, they said the army did a pretty good job of entertaining us.

Then the knob got turned and things become harder and more fun. The next few days were spent out in the field learning Lasha"v or house clearing. We learned how to enter a house and clear it of bad guys. The highlight of the week was defiantly playing paint-ball against the commanders. At the end of the week, the commanders go into the house and pretend to be terrorist. We (as the soldiers) work in teams to clear them out. It’s a lot of fun, as well as a great learning exercise.

Then we went back to the base for a little R&R before the next week.

Week two was spent back in the field learning to work as a kita (11 man team.) We learned how to work together to conquer a mountain or move in an open field. It was hard work, but a very important week in the army. It is during this week that our commanders get tested to see if they can lead their group into war and how effective they are. The week went by fast and there were a bunch of highlights that I will probably never forget for the rest of my life:

Highlight list:

1) We are no longer allowed to call our commander "commander". Instead we must now call them by their first name. My commanders’ name is Yani and from now on I have to call him Yani or I get punished (funny how things change so fast.)

2) I was placed on the radio for the week and as such I got to work right next to Yani and had to repeat all his orders over the mic and to the group. Because I was so well and “a siren" during the drills, I received Chayal Mitzdayen again and got off on Thursday. Also, the MP (1st in command) said that while I need to improve on my Hebrew, I was a great radio man and that my commander should be happy to have me.

3) When we were waiting to get tested at the end of the week by the MP, as a helicopter flew over head and hit a bird. As a result, the helicopter had to land and our kita was tasked with guarding the helicopter. As we did a 360 defensive circle, the pilots called us up one at a time to look into the helicopter and see inside.

4) We won the right to bring a pakal musica (speakers and iPods) and food on our masa cumta. The masa cumta is a 54k march, where at the end we receive our green berets. It is the culmination of our training and will take place in two weeks (can't wait.) The reason why this is a highlight is because up to now we have never been allowed to eat or talk on the masas that we did and soon well be able to.

5) We had to do a training exercise in front of the Ma'am (Commander for the entire advanced training base.) He said we did so well that we should be really happy with ourselves.

6) We did a training exercise, where we pretended to go into Syria and blow up a car. After we planted the explosives, we all got to yell: "Al a Palchan" (why to go Palchan, my unit.) Up till now, we were never allowed to say Palchan or anything relating to our unit so it was nice to finally say something.

There are still many more highlights, but the most important one is:

7) My cousin: http://curiousjew.blogspot.com/ has gotten engaged. Congrats.

Warning to my loyal fans (the fame has gone to my head.) I have a 21 coming up next week. This means that I will be closing the base for 21 days and will not be near a computer for the next three weeks. I am sure that I will have a long blog to write when I get back. In the off chance that I do get a computer before then, expect a quick blog to be written about what I did. In the meantime I wish everyone a happy Log Ba'Omer and happy Shavuot.