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.