starting cav

Once you have finished training, the regular soldier goes to cav. Cav is usually guarding the border with Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan or any other boarder that exists.

However, since I am not a regular soldier, instead of going straight to the boarder, we go to courses.

The courses are varied and included many things such as navigation, bomb explosive training, counter terrorists and Jump school.

This week, we started navigation. It started with us learning how to read a map, in a classroom, and then going into the field as a large group and navigating from point to point.
At the end of the week, we were navigating without a map and also with only one other person. We would spend each morning and most of the day learning the path we needed to take and then at night, we would walk it. Along our path, there were points we needed to reach. Once we reached a point, we had to write down the code words we found and bring them back. While we didn’t sleep much during the week, it did feel like a big scavenger hunt and a lot of fun.

Another high light of the week was that we became a tzevet. Up until now, we have been a group, known as group 3. Now that we are done with training, we are considered a tzevet or a group. While there is no difference really, we now wear these hats that have our tzevet name (the name of the tzevet is the name of your mm, 2nd in command. our name is tzevet kimchi.) and are now looked at as a group not to be messed with, and not just some trainees.

Other highlights:

1: We broke distance with everyone and now we are only left with a Samal and the mm. We no longer have a commander above us, so while we now have more responsibility, we also have more freedom

2: we got a pakal coffee (this is considered a big reward in the army)

3: next week we are leaving the training base and are going to the gadsar or the sf base in the north for a week and getting new stuff.

4: we are going to bomb school in two weeks, in Eilat. I cannot wait to start blowing stuff up :)

Returning our things and saying good-bye

As in most stages of life, when things come to an end, you often need to return things and say good-bye. In our situation, we had to return all our gear and say good-bye to some of our commanders and friends.

Since most of our gear belongs to the base, and since we are leaving the base and going somewhere else, we had to return some items, such as snow pants (in case it ever really snowed in Israel), our small tents, our rain gear and a variety of other things. In return however, we got a go army sweater, bungee rope, a flash light and a shakpas or knife proof vest.

The other part of the week is saying good-bye to our commanders. In the next stage of our training, we are only left with a samal and a mm (third and second in command.) The reason for this is because we are no longer considered trainees and we are now thought of as a tzevet or group. For this reason we don't need 24 hour supervision and thus not so many commanders.

In the army, the way you say good-bye to people is play fight them and then we have a heart to heart. In the heart to heart, the commander usually jokes around with us, tells us where he lives, what he thought of us and we all share some funny stories.

Some other highlights of the week were:

1) we also broke distance with the MM and our new Samal. however, since they are still considered to be our commanders, we don't play fight them and there is no heart to heart. Their is just the usual history facts about them.

2) we took part in the nation wide missile drill. We pretended that a missile has hit our base and that we had to guard it. It was a lot of fun because it was actually a real life situation and we finally got to put what we learned into action.

The ending of another chapter in the army

Well it’s been a hard three weeks but one of the most fun and interesting ones I’ve had.

When I first got back to the army, we continued where we left off, by having shavua machlika. a machlika is a level up from kita and contains two kitot (around 21 guys.)

During the week, I was the radio man for the samal or sergeant of the group. It was a lot of hard work, but fun at the same time. We basically continued doing what we did during shavua kita, where we learned how to conquer a mountain. The difference this time was that we actually learned how one group provides cover fire, while the other group continues on. This is a lot of hard work because if you’re not firing, you’re running forward.

My job however, was to be towards the back of the group to provide cover and report our position, ammunition and wounded to the commanders higher up. This means that I didn’t shoot as much as the others, and got to talk a lot of Hebrew. Some other highlights of the week:

1) we broke distance with MM (the second in command.)

2) Since we didn’t need to bring tents, to sleep in, we needed to dig holes and got to sleep in them at night

3) One night, we had a long march and reached a new camp site in the morning. It felt like we walked 30K but it was only 8.

The next week was war week.

War week is basically a week of simulated warfare. We basically act as if we were invaded by a country and we had to fight to recapture Israel. Every soldier hates war week because it is the hardest week in all of training.

Highlights:

1) During war week, you need to carry all your essentials with you on your back. This means that we were carrying food for the week, ammo and other goods. This also means that we were carrying around 40 - 60 kilos a person. Since I am trained to use the maclar (a grenade launcher) I had to carry it on my back. I carried around 60 kilos during the week.

2) I shot the grenade launcher and had a jam and fixed it

3) We had an omes home every day. (Omes home is when the temperature outside is so hot, that we need to stop training and get under a shaded area because if we continue training, we could get heart stroke.) The advantage of this was that we got to sleep a little during the week

4) We did another all night march and got to sleep in the morning.

5) War week is really a continuation of shavua machlica. What we were doing with 21 guys, we were now doing with 150 guys.

6) All our training exercises were watched by the magad or head of the base and the head of training.

The whole week was a lot of fun, but hard as hell and is defiantly a good simulation of what war would be like if we were ever in one.

The finally week that I had was shavua cumta.

It is during this week, that we have our masa cumta and our tekes cumta.

The masa cumta is a long walk (we did 54K, from our base to Masada) that is held at the end of training as a sort of final test that must be completed to finish.

Our masa lasted 13 hours in total and covered a lot of different terrain, from dirt roads, to streets.

Even though the masa was hard at times, it was also fun because we got to talk during the masa, listen to music and eat food (things that are usually considered forbidden during our marches.)

At the end of the march we had a ceremony at the top of Masada. It was really funny because a lot of American tourists were on the mountain. Within a few minutes of us reaching the top, cameras were already taken out and photos were being taken of us. Asher (another American soldier, in my machlaca) and I quickly went over to the American groups and introduced ourselves. It was a very meaningful experience for them to see Americans, leaving their homes and coming to serve in the army over here.

Once we were done with our march, we went back to base to sleep and we were given the rest of the week off (except for Thursday, when we had our tekes.)

Thursday was our tekes. The tekes took place at the nahal museum in pardes Hannah. The tekes was very nice and only took an hour. It is during the tekes that we turn in our training cumtot and get our neon green, nahal brigade, cumtot. It is a very important step for us because now we are part of a bigger group and no longer considered just trainees.

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.

An emotional roller coaster of a week.

Last week (April 4-9) we spent a week working on all of our shifsoriems (ties) and having a misdar. A misdar is a check made by either the MM (second in command) or the MP (first in command). The highlight of the week was on Thursday when we went on a 36k march through the field. While the march as a whole wasn't hard, the last leg of the march (the final 6 k, when we open up the stretch), was the hardest part.

We also go to meet our medics for the first time. While we were at basic training, our medics went to the medical training course to learn to me combat medics. These guys are really cool and they fit right in with us.

The next week (April 12-15) was also a relaxing week. Half the group, went to Beslach (a base used for advanced training or officers course.) Once we reached the base, we were split up into our learning groups. The options were either: GPS, Radio, Makach (a 50.cal machine gun), Machlar (an automatic grenade launcher), Mortar, Driver for an Amour personnel charier, or MishMish (someone who works half the day in the kitchen, and then half the day guarding our stuff). I was picked for the Machlar,which is this really big grenade launcher. The gun alone weighs 34.3 kg and that's not including the stand, ammo or a variety of other parts that need to be carried along with the gun. The crew that has to use this gun is made up of 4 people, each of which has a special job. The breakdown is like this:

#1 - shooter

#2 - commander of gun - says where to shoot and what's the range and so on

#3 and #4 - help to carry things and then help to set up.

When it comes time to shoot, #3 and #4 are sent to the bottom of the hill to protect the back, while #1 and #2 stay at the top of the hill with the gun and shoot.

Even though the gun weighs a lot, shooting it will be something i never forget. The gun makes such a big boom, that you scare yourself the first time you hear it.

The course only lasted 4 days. The first two days were spent in class, the third day was spent shooting and the last day was spent cleaning up and having a celebration for the end of the course. The class included the four of us (Nachlawim) as well as soldiers from the Golani Brigade and the Gadsar Bedouin brigade. At the celebration, Chayal Mitzdayen was chose. A Chayal Mitzdayen is a soldier who works really hard during the week and is someone who helps out when needed and is willing to give of himself. Its basically like the good student award. Every group got one (from the GPS, Mortars, Makach, Machlar, MishMish, drivers and Radio courses), so in total there were 7. I was one of the lucky 7 and as a result, i got to leave the army early on Thursday (while everyone else got to leave on Friday.)

Of course Murphy's law has to come in sometime during the week and this week it hit us hard.

While half the group was away at Beslach training, the other half of the group was at our advanced base guarding.
The medics however, went to our basic training base. The reason was so that they can learn a little about what we learned in the basic training course. While they were there, on of the medics committed suicide. Its often funny how it takes a tragedy to bring people together, but that is life. As a result of this, now more then ever, the group feels like a family, supporting one another through our time of pain and suffering.

Here's hoping that next week goes by smoothly and without any other incident.

Coming home and getting back to buisness

As most of you know, i went home for my Regila or week off from the army. The trip was great and adventurous because not only did i got to see my family and friends, but i was also in the middle of a hurricane and without power for 6 days (the majority of my trip.)

When i got back, it was back to reality and back to the army.

My first week back was a week at Mikva Alon. Mikva Alon is the army Ulpan base. This is where new Oliem go to learn Hebrew, if the army feels that your Hebrew is not good enough. The program combines Ulpan and basic training for the soldiers there.

We, on the other hand, were there to learn more about our selves and why we are fighting. The week was broken down into:

Day 1: we went to Lochame Gitaon. This is a kibbutz that was founded at the start from country. The specialty of this kibbutz is that it was made up of ghetto upraises and so they created a museum that portrays the Warsaw uprising and the uprising of other ghettos. The museum is very interesting because instead of showing camps and death, the museum features more of the uprising side and the brave soldiers who lead them.

Day 2: problems in the country; new immigrants vs. Israeli born people, Jews. vs. Arabs and so on.

Day 3: We talked about problems with the army, the democratic system and the laws of the army. We also talked about Code of Conduct in the army. We were given different situations and asked if what the soldiers did was right or wrong. An example would be that we were in a city and we are suddenly hit with a rock. When we turn around to see who threw it and it turns out to be a child 7 years old. After we tell him to stop, we keep going and we feel another rock hit us. We turn around to see the same kid holding a bigger rock, that if it hits us, we will be hurt. What do we do? Do we shoot in the air, causing a scene and an international case, or run away and act like a coward and make it seem like we will do nothing.

Day 4: we talked about our enemies: Syria, Lebanon and Iran

Day 5: we went to the Acco Prison to see some of the history of the country.

The week was really fun and interesting because we got to learn a lot about our selves and how the army and country works. It was also nice to finally eat good food in the army and to sleep in a building on bunk beds.

Then we went back to base and relaxed before our next week, which was guard week.

Guard week was the same as usual, with guarding at weird hours and not really doing anything fun.

Then came Passover. Passover was a lot of fun and a great experience to be on base for it. There was a lot of food to eat (finally) and it was great spending the holidays with my "family." While we all wished that we were home, we all knew that we would be spending the next 24 hours with great people and great friends. The week went by fast and now are reaping the rewards of the holiday by resting for four days.

Remember the younger years and finally finishing

Remember when you were a little child and your parents would make you do chores and you would get rewarded at the end of the week with some money? Life doesn't change when you grow up I found out.

My group, along with another group, was put back onto guard duty. We would switch off days. (Monday and Wednesday we guarded the base and on Tuesday and Thursday the other group guarded the base.)

On guard days, nothing really changed. Guarding has becoming a sort of self-reflecting time because for three hours we watch and get to be alone. Most of my reflecting turned into what I am going to do when I get home. What will I eat, who I will see and so on.

On days that we weren't guarding, we spent the time working either in the kitchen (cleaning, cooking) the other jobs we did were working for the Ra'sar (the person who is in charge of the entire base.) We spent the time putting up tents, taking the old tents down, cleaning the base, washing different parts of the base and basic "house-cleaning."

Then on the weekend, my group got to go down to En-Gedi for some guard duty. Unfortunately for me I couldn't go because I was still on the injured list. So, while the guys got to go off and have some fun at the beach, I had to stay back on base. The good part was that all of a sudden, it got really gray outside and it started hailing. Big hail. The commanders had us repair all the tents and then gave us 10 min to let us have a snow ball fight. It was funny to see the Israelis play with hail because to them, hail is a rare occurrence here in Israel. It was also fun to see a group of 50+ soldiers playing in the snow.

The weekend was also Purim. Holidays on Base are a great experience. For example, on the first night of Purim, a rabbi came to base and he read the Migila for us. After that we spent the time singing and dancing. The next night, a group of Haradiem came by, dressed up and again sang and danced with us and read the Migila. The down side to being on base for the holidays was that both parties wanted us to drink. (During Purim, one of the commandments is to drink until we can’t tell the difference between good and evil. The problem was that since we are soldiers, we aren't allowed to drink and therefore we weren't able to complete all the commandments. However it was still a lot of fun to sing and dance with 30 other soldiers.

Then it was back to reality and a new week.

Last week we worked on taking over a mountain in groups of four people. One of the people was the leader, the second guy was either the grenadier or a sniper, the third guy was either the MAGist (me), Negavist or sniper and the last one was either a grenadier or regular soldier. The way it works is the leader calls out what to do and we work our way up the mountain until we reach the enemy and fight in close quarters. The training only lasted from Monday to Wednesday. On Thursday we had our Bochan 05. A Bochan is a test, which can either be physical or written test. This test was both practical and written. This Bochan was a test on everything we learned since the start of basic training. It included weapons, chemical warfare, first aid and also radio. The written test consisted of questions relating to the weapons, radio, and chemical warfare and also about Israeli history. Since the test was all in Hebrew, all the Americans got a Mashakit Alyiah. The Mashakit helped us write and understand the questions. After the written part, we went to the practical test. There we demonstrated how to load, take apart and shot the weapons and also how to apply first aid and talk on the radio. The test went well and no one failed.

This is also the final step in our basic training. From here we go to advance training for two months and then to special training.

The commanders then let Asher and I leave to go home and start our packing!!

Hope everyone had a great Purim :)