Things have picked up somewhat since finishing basic training. I am now essentially done advanced training, with only 80 km standing between me and my red beret!
While many of you may think that Passover is awesome in Israel, because it is everywhere and that means food possibilities are much more varied, it may be true for most people, but definitely not for a soldier in the army. The week before Passover was spent in the field, very similar to our previous weeks in the field, only having advanced to exercises involving our whole squad (group of ~10 people). Towards the end of the week, we had a masa (march) of 22+5 km with the stretchers. Overall it was decent, except that after a week of eating tuna, corn, canned fruit, and beans, you get somewhat bored with the food and sort of lose your appetite. Normally, the masa would be okay because we have to have a hot meal before doing it, except seeing as how Passover began the next week, our base was already kosher for Passover so food options were somewhat limited. I ended up eating maybe 3 matzahs with some chocolate spread and cheese and an orange, and that lasted me for the next 27 km, although by the end I was SO HUNGRY! In short, Passover in the army sucks. The food consists of all you can eat matzah and mashed potatoes (which with a little bit of an exaggeration glows a fluorescent yellow from all the oil). Also because the dishwasher isn’t kosher for Passover, all the dishes are washed by hand so they are extra dirty.
The one plus about Passover in Israel is that there really are tons of snacks to buy. Everything is kosher for Passover, even many of the cereals and chocolate bars that are made year round are made kosher and taste pretty good. On my way back to base one day, I went into the grocery store just to buy a couple bags of bamba. When I got to the cash register, the woman in front of me saw that I was in uniform and let me cut in front of her. I handed the cashier the money for my purchase, and then that same woman grabs the money from the cashier, hands it back to me, and tells me that she’s paying for it and to go get a couple more bags. I was a bit taken aback, so just took the bags I had there, told her thank you probably a few times too many, smiled, and left the store. I felt very grateful.
Overall, advanced training is awesome compared to basic training, even though it is קריעת תחת (expression literally meaning splitting open the ass, but really just means something very hard), we are generally treated better. Instead of getting 2 seconds to do each thing, we have to complete several tasks by a certain time which is longer than we would previously be given. As is very characteristic of the Israeli army, even though the entire schedule for advanced training was set out in advance, week by week, the schedule seemed to change almost every week. We ended up doing a 35 + 5 km masa, and then the next day, we were sent to guard settlements throughout the west bank. This 40 km was the toughest yet, because for some reason I got huge blisters on my feet after the first 10 km, and pretty much had to limp the rest of the way. The biggest of them was the size of my entire heel. Anyhow, so the day after we finished that, without giving my feet time to heal, we were sent to guard a very small settlement of around 300 people. The main problem was that guarding this settlement involved doing patrols by foot for hours at a time, with me still having to limp because of the blisters I had, not to mention the almost daily runs that we were required to do as well in order to stay in shape. Overall, it was a good week because instead of being active for 17 hours a day, even when there is nothing to do (as is normally the case), we had a total of 10 hours of guard duty each day, and the rest of the time free. Meals were in our hands, so we weren’t limited to the same food on base and could actually cook what we wanted to eat. The bad thing is that things like fries or falafel don’t turn out very well when made using only a small hot plate which doesn’t get very hot. It was a very different experience sitting down to eat side by side with my commander, talking to him like an equal, at least almost equal, still being unable to ask him personal questions (which I discovered pretty quickly). In only a couple weeks time we will be breaking distance with him, at which point I will be able to treat him just like a friend.
One of the things I have really been looking forward to is experiencing Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut in Israel, especially as a soldier. Unfortunately, we were required to spend the holiday on base, but at least there would be some comfort in the fact that we must have some kind of elaborate assembly or ceremony. Or so I thought. My expectations of a motivational, very important 2 days were quickly crushed. They ended up being a very normal 2 days. The night of Yom Hazikaron we had a quick 20 minute ceremony and that was it. We then proceeded to spend the entire night awake, having to work on all our gear and equipment to make it function and look better/more professional. Finally, by the late hours of the morning (around 10ish), it was inspected by a high ranked commander (a falafel, as we call them because the rank of 1 ‘star’ that they have on their shoulder kind of looks like a falafel). This was followed by a very simple 10 minute raising of the flag ceremony to mark the transition from Yom Hazikaron to Yom Ha’atzmaut, which from stories I’ve heard is meant to be very exciting, and obviously wasn’t. We then had a couple more hours to improve our gear with the suggestions/criticisms we got from the officer, although not effective because everyone was falling asleep in any position possible. Finally we were given time off until the next day in honour of Yom Ha’atzmaut. I thought it was kind of pathetic that my Jewish high school abroad puts on a more comprehensive ceremony for Yom Hazikaron/Yom Ha’atzmaut than the Israeli army itself, but what can you do. Interesting to note that even though everyone complained about it to each other, it was only the Druz soldier serving with us who actually brought it up to the commanders and ended up getting into a yelling match with them about how pathetic the day was. Obviously, the only response they could come up with was the too well known אין מה לעשות – nothing you can do about it. I’m sure it would have been better had I not been stuck on base, but it would’ve been nice to really experience this special day.
The end of Yom Ha’atzmaut was marked with something all soldiers could dream of... NOT! A 50 + 5 km masa, the last one in preparation for our 80 km masa for our red berets, which everyone keeps talking about. This masa was much better than the last, having learned my lesson and having used 2 pairs of socks this time. I still ended up getting some blisters, but they were very minor and didn’t really bother me, except the small one that formed on top of the previous one which had yet to fully heal.
The following week was spent helping a different paratroopers battalion with their ‘refresher’ training, so to speak. We did several exercises throughout the week, pretending to be enemies and ambushing these battalions, which sounds much cooler than it actually was. One night, they actually ended up completely missing us, and we got lost walking back to the meeting point, having to walk almost 2 hours, rounding it off with a 100 meter trek through deep mud and even a series of barbed wire fences, which were only discovered after the first person in line walked right into them. For some reason, even though we were staying on an army base all this time, they were not ready for us and didn’t have enough food, so we were required to eat manot krav (military rations out of cans). Eating the same food for breakfast, lunch and dinner takes its toll, and I guess it was the Israeli inside of me that made me suggest to my friends that we sneak over to the kitchen and ‘borrow’ some cheese, chocolate milk, and puddings for breakfast, which was a huge success. We got so sick of the food that one night during our free time we even ordered a couple pizzas to the gate of the base and devoured them on the spot, each one of us finishing half a pizza in about 5 minutes. It definitely rates among the best tasting pizzas I’ve had here.
I ended up getting out that weekend while the rest of the platoon closed Shabbat on base because my brother was in Israel leading a birthright trip. As I have noticed many times already, any right that the army sets out for soldiers, especially for lone soldiers, is subject to change without notice. Every time an immediate family member comes to visit, a lone soldier is supposed to get extra time off to see them. I was supposed to stay on base for this weekend and close the next one. They thought that they were granting me this right by letting me out this first weekend and closing the next, essentially just switching the weekends when I wanted both off to spend with my brother. Thankfully though, by the time I got to the next weekend, they forgot all about it so I got off for that one too!
Seeing my brother after not seeing him for over 10 months was awesome, and almost just as great was the huge bag of goodies from home that he brought with him. It was very moving to hear about the whole group’s experiences in Israel, especially their thoughts about their day at Yad Vashem and Har Hertzl which were very motivating and definitely inspired me to give my all during these last few weeks of training.
A while ago, it was parent’s day on base for the newest draft (the March draft). As part of it, they put on a demonstration including a sniper exercise, and a demonstration of how a group of soldiers take over a hillside. Luckily for us, my squad was chosen to participate. Even better was that it was meant as more of a show rather than an accurate depiction of the exercise, so we were instructed to use as much ammunition as needed to give a good impression to the parents, most of which wouldn’t understand anything anyways. In one of our practice drills leading up to the demonstration, the guy in the squad with the Negev (recall: ~18 pound Israeli made machine gun) got a bullet shell in his eye, and had to be taken out. It was very minor, but they took him to get checked out anyways because they didn’t want to take any chances. So we were stuck without a negevist. Luckily for them, I also did the training for the Negev and quickly suggested that I could take over, seeing a great opportunity to let loose with a few hundred rounds, all fired on automatic of course. The drill was very short, maybe taking a total of only 3 minutes, and in those 3 minutes, taking the commander’s instructions to use as much ammo as need to heart, I ended up shooting over 400 bullets. The funny thing was that at one point, as I was shooting and running at the same time, I just couldn’t advance up the hill. The gun was so powerful that I just couldn’t progress up the hill while I was firing on automatic. I had to let out a short burst, run a little, and then another, all the way up. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun participating in the demonstration.
I am now sitting here only a couple days away from my masa kumpta (beret march), in a bit of disbelief at how the past 8 months in the army have gone by so quickly. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to write about last week, the most important week of my training so far, Shavua Milchama (war week), so it will have to wait until my next update, at which point I will have also finished my 80 km hike and received my RED BERET!
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