The update

I am sorry I haven’t written in so long. The reason for this is because I have been busy with my parents and the army. The last time I wrote, my parents had just arrived in the country. I had a fun two weeks with them, showing them all I could do and what I have learned. It was a lot of fun seeing them, and time really seemed to fly by.

Then, when I got back to the army, I learned that I would have another chance to see them again real soon. In fact, within three weeks I was back with my family and this time back in the US. It was a lot of fun to be back home and see how much has changed. It was also great to finally sit down with my old friends and enjoy some catching up time.

During the three weeks in the army, I did not achieve much. I am suffering from knee problems and have gone to see multiple doctors on this. Since most of the doctors are Jews, I never get the same opinion twice. Because of this, I still do not know what is wrong with my knee or how to begin to help it.

With the knee usually acting up either randomly or after a long walks or with weight, my commanders decided it would not be a good idea for me to do everything the unit was doing. The reason is because while the army is a great experience, it only lasts three years and not the rest of your life, like your body.

So, while everyone was out in the field learning new things, I was busy at base doing a mixture of kitchen duty and guard work. I can now say proudly that I can cook French fries and French toast :) It was also during these three weeks that I met with different army leaders and discussed my situation with them. The first one I met with was the MP (officer of all my pluga, around 150 soldiers.) He said that it was a real shame that I was injured because I was one of the better soldiers and have excelled nicely. However he said that since your body comes first, I would no longer be in the unit and a have a combat role in the army. He then asked me what job I would like. I told him I wanted to be a paramedic in the unit, so that I could do what I wanted and still see my friends. He said that was a noble job and would help me achieve this new goal.

Then, a few days later, I met with another head general. He agreed with my MP that the body comes first and that paramedics were a great job. He to promised to help me any way he could and said that it will all turn out ok in the end.

Then last week Wednesday, I went to a base in the south and met with the Magad (head of the entire Special Forces Nahal unit) and he said that due to medical reasons I would not be able to continue with the unit and in a combat role. He said that I would be spending the next few weeks working in the medical clinic on base and that as soon as the next wave of medics were sent to the course, I would be as well. Then when I am done with the course and if there is still a spot open in the paramedics course, I will be sent to that job.

I was so happy to finally be doing something I wanted. I was also sad to be leaving my friends. I’m upset, that I’m leaving my friends. It’s amazing that almost after a year; the bonds we make in the army are so close. This bond that brings two people closer together then friendship or brotherhood ever could. This is what I’m the saddest about leaving.

However, with medic’s course and then paramedic’s course on the horizon, I know everything will turn out ok.

Some other highlights of the week:

Tuesday:

Everyone who was on base and didn’t go out into the field went on a trip to visit families whom have lost their children in the Nahal Unit. We went out to a hotel, which was paid for by Nahal and was hosting the families, and went on a trip to a historical sight. We then went back and talked with the families and ate with them.

Thursday:

I said good bye to all my friends and my commander

Returning back to the army

Its been a long time since I wrote one of these blogs.

Not a lot has changed in that time.

Some highlights:

My parents came to visit me so i had two weeks off from the army. In that time i toured around the country and showed my parents all i have learned

I returned back on Sunday and went striate to the boarder with the west bank. There we guarded in check points and other security areas monitoring the area.

Nothing really new in my life as you can see. Its the army as always. :)

The closing of another chapter

Bomb school has finally come to an end. While the course was a lot of fun and challenging, it is defiantly one of my greatest accomplishments. I have learned a lot over the past two months and I know I will continue to lean more in the future.

Some of the things I learned in the course were how to enter a house using “alternative methods”, how to place a mine field and how to pick one back up without getting hurt.

We also learned about various mines and various booby traps. Some of my favorite tools were the Hilti (a nail gun that I got to shoot with during a training excursive on Wednesday), a metal detector (I can now can confidently say that I can find a quarter in a beach) and other items.

I hope that I will never have to actually use this information, however if the times does come, I am confident that I am well enough trained to accomplish the job safely and quickly.

What is my next step? Kav. Kav is when we go to the boarder and patrol the area. While I am not sure where we are going yet, I know I will have fun because I will be with my friends. I am also counting down the days until my parents come to visit. The count is: 13 days. Hope the time flies by fast.

Starting excersizes with mines

This week we started going to the field and putting into practice what we learned in the class. We learned how to lay down a mine field and pick it up quickly and easily. We also got a chance to see how mines really work. Up until now, we have been using test dummies (that don’t actually explode) and we have talked about them in class. This week however, we went to the vadi netek. The netek is a huge open area where we got to put into practice the things we have been learning. We were each given a fairly large amount of plastic explosives and we were allowed to blow up whatever we wanted (within reason of course.)

I put my share of explosives into a bottle of water and compared it to the effects of explosives outside water. It was so cool to see the difference as well as see the other explosives in real life.

Another cool thing I did was get a new pakal (specialty.) My new pakal is magmak hod or metal detector for the whole group. This means that I am the first person into a minefield with the metal detector. It is my job to find the safest pass through the minefield. It also means that any mines I find, I have to defuse. While the job is extremely dangerous, it is also a lot of fun and a lot of responsibility.

I can’t wait to see what next week brings and what we get to do

Starting bomb school

First off, sorry for the late post. I wanted to write sooner, but never could find the time.

It has defiantly been an intensive and interesting pass few weeks. To start off, we had our masa Alyiah to Beitled (June 13-19). Beitled is an army base used by Gadsar Nahal and Tzanchaniem. This new base of ours is a definite improvement from our regular bases for a few reasons.

1: instead of tents there are rooms with AC

2: this base is only meant for Gadsar or the Special Forces of Nahal and so there are no regular soldiers there.

3: there is more food and better tasting food.

4: there are actually a lot of girls on the base (usually there were no girls at all.)

5: the base is also home for different units (Tzanchaniem and others)

6: The base is big and is therefore called the land of Madas (physical running or working out.)

7: We stated lochami training. Basically it is Krav Maga, stance shooting and short range shooting all in one. The reason for this training is to teach us how to shoot in close quarter areas, such as a house or other small places

8: the base is near Tel Aviv so it is closer to the kibbutz and the center of civilization (means that parents can actually come and visit us when we close base and that there is always good food on the weekends.)

The following week (June 20-25), we left the base and went to Balatz (the base used by handasa Cravi or combat engineers. The base is located in the south, 40 km north of Eilat so the weather there is always hot and dry.

The reason why we went to Balatz was to start learning our specialty course, bomb defuse and setting.

We spent the first week learning about all different types of bombs, cables and detonators. The first thing you learn is the bomb sequence of events. Basically it starts from the igniters, then runes through the wire and goes to the exploding material. The course is a lot of fun. We also spent one of the days in the bomb range (a shooting range but longer and designed to blow up mines.) It was cool to finally put into practice what we have learned. We also spent the week learning about hot entrees. Hot entrees are when we enter a building in the middle of the village. The difference between a hot entree and a regular bomb is that hot entrees are meant to be placed quickly and have a lessen amount of explosives, causing less casualties and causing less structural damage then a regular bomb.

This past week (June27- July 2nd) we spent learning on mines. We learned the difference between anti-tank mine and anti personnel mines. We also had a targil one night, where we pretended to enter a village and we had to enter it using one of the hot entrees and blow up some items we found inside the house. My job was to help blow up the items we found in the house and then get out. It was a lot of fun and I finally can say that I have a better understanding of what it is Palchan Nahal does.

On a sadder note, my MM is leaving me. He has decided that he doesn’t want to be a MM of soldiers in training and would rather be a MM for fighters. It was very sad to see him leave, but we all know that he is doing what he wants and we wish him the best of luck in the future.

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.