It was back to the base and back to the field. By the end of the week I had spent 14 of the past 18 days in the field. Given this statistic it is impossible for the blog post title to be related to food. People are amazed that I am always hungry, especially in the field. We now have a few weeks break from the field before we head back, so its a much needed break. I was supposed to do a number of tank exercises but there wasn't enough time so I mostly did nothing. The one thing I did end up doing was a test of sorts for the loaders. The test was called loading the full belly to simulate loading all the shells in the tank. The test itself is more difficult than doing it in reality since practice ammunition is used so in addition to loading the shell, I also have to unload it. I had to load and unload a 25 kg (55 lbs) shell 46 times which totals 1090 kg (2398 lbs) as fast as I can. My time wasn't that great, but OK - 14 minutes and 50 seconds. To date this was without a doubt the hardest thing I have done in the army. Afterward I had a half hour break before it was back in the tank to do a half hour exercise which included loading the 25 kg shell with a gas mask on. After the previous test being completely out of breath, barely being able to catch my breath with the gas mask on didn't seem that bad.
We had another practice for a test two days later that also completely kicked my ass. The test was for the entire company. It involved a 1500 meter run in full gear (including vest) plus another 500 meters with someone on a stretcher. We had a lot of people missing for various reasons so things didn't look good from the get go. Our company was split up evenly into 4 different 'teams' - each team was designated to one stretcher. How was our company split up evenly? "Who can run fast and is light?" 4 people raised their hands and the commander said ok, your job is to run with the stretcher as fast as you can to the 1500 meter mark and then strap yourself in - then your job is done. Next question - who else can run well? 5 people including me raised their hands. At this point I thought - shit, there is no possible way of this ending well. The bad and average runners were split up afterward. So I ran with Ben, the small fast guy because it took 2 people to carry the empty stretcher because it was open. After running as fast as we could for 1500 meters we strapped Ben in, but then I still had another 500 meters to run while taking turn running with the stretcher. After 2 shifts with the stretcher and about 250 meters left I couldn't keep up with the lead group and had to fall back to the middle of the pack. I was totally spent because I had to keep up with someone who was only running 1500 meters so that when the main pack made it to the 1500 meter mark Ben would already be on the stretcher and ready to go. For our first time doing this our time wasn't that bad, but we have much to improve.
I was supposed to stay on base this weekend but because they owed me a weekend off, and also my phone was still broken they let me go home on thursday. This was awesome because I'm missing the entire weekend of doing guard duty on base. We are guarding the base until next thursday, so basically its going to be a fairly boring week - I'm going to have to think about something to blog about.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Walk With Israel
The UJA Walk With Israel is an annual event in Toronto where thousands of supporters of Israel walk the streets of downtown in support of Israel. I have participated in this event on a number of occasions and 2 years ago was one of the founding forces to incorporate my fraternity, AEPi in raising money and participating in the walk.This year, with still over a month left before the walk, AEPi is co-sponsoring the event's after-party and we are leading all 'teams' in money raised. The money we raise will go directly towards building educational and social supports for Bat Yam's Ethiopian-Israeli community. These absorption centres are an important part of the integration of recent immigrants from Ethiopia to Israeli society, giving them medical care and job training, for example. As an international fraternity, we have set our fund raising goal at $10,000.
For obvious reasons I will not be able to participate in the walk this year, but instead I will walk IN Israel and I can guarantee that I will do at least half an hour of guard duty as well.
If you support what I do as I defend Israel on a daily basis as a soldier in the armored corps, I ask that you support Israel by sponsoring myself or my fraternity in the Walk for Israel. For all of you in the Toronto area, I additionally encourage you to show your support for Israel by attending the walk on May 30th.
Sponsor me: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=866640
Sponsor my fraternity: http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=831798&LangPref=en-CA
Donations of $10 and over receive a tax receipt for 2010.
Feel free to check out all the information which is available online at:
http://walkwithisrael.com/
Thank you for your ongoing support!
Alex
How I didn't go crazy...
When we got back to base on Thursday they needed to find people to stay the next Shabbat to do guard duty while everyone else goes home. (This is a regular procedure). Typically its not the worst thing in the world because you just have to switch Shabbats and you get to go home a different weekend. A lottery was held where they needed 2 people from 8 - only certain people were allowed to volunteer. Since nobody wanted to volunteer a lottery was held. I was chosen, and typically its not the worst thing in the world, but in this case it is! I failed to mention its a long weekened - its not just friday through sunday afternoon, but friday through wednesday morning. Sunday we have a field trip day, monday is Israel Rememberance Day and Tuesday is Independence Day. All that time is spent guarding. Not only does it suck to be guarding for Independence Day, but its my first independence Day in Israel and this was definitely not how I imagined spending it. If that doesn't suck enough it gets worse. I also left out the fact that the guard duty is out in the field on not on base.
We now have a new permanent field. Here is a description along with a picture. First the directions: Start from my base, which I had said was in the middle of nowhere. Before I continue I must apologize for misleading everyone when I mentioned my base was in the middle of nowhere. Compared to where the field is my base seems like Times Square in NYC. So from my base get on a bus and drive half an hour further south. Drive 10 minutes through a different base and into the desert behind it, which is a reserved IDF firing zone (like most of the open desert in Israel). Once you get off the bus, walk another 20 minutes until you get to our specified field, which is in the middle of nowhere.
On Friday we went there for my first time to help set stuff up in the morning. When they woke me up to start the 20 minute walk I looked around and I might have said some negative things about our location and the fact that I was to spend 6 days doing guard duty there. What I might have said is worse than what your thinking because I haven't gotten to the worst part yet. So what does the field consist of? tents (one of which is our mess hall) porta-potties, portable showers, a generator, random equipment and the tanks. We spend the week there while practicing with the tanks, but there is always a group of people guarding it 24/7 even when we aren't there. So it is pretty luxurious except in place of food we get battle rations (tuna, loof (kosher spam), etc.). So I'm going to be stuck eating crappy food that I hate while guarding for 6 days. That's still not the bad part. Before I start doing the guard duty on the thursday we are spending the week in the field, so I will be in the field for 11 straight days.
It gets worse (but this one is kind of my own doing, but nonetheless makes things worse). On the Thursday when I was voluntold (combination of volunteered and told - as in I was told (forced) to volunteer) for guard duty they told me that I would be going home 8 hours later on the Friday as if to switch my weekends. I was expecting to be on base for the weekend because that's what the schedule was. I had already mentally prepared myself to be on base. Secondly I had no plans for the weekend (and would have only had 1 hour to make plans before I went to bed and then already on my way home). I didn't want to waste my weekend without making plans. Thirdly I wanted to switch my weekend to a different one in the hopes that I could meet up with friends that are visiting from Canada. So I decided to hold off on my weekend basically meaning that I was going to be in the army for 23 straight days before going home. Given all the crap I just described, the ONLY thing that pissed me off is that I would be spending my first Independence Day in Israel in the middle of nowhere doing guard duty.
After shabbat ended we went into the field. So that 20 minute walk I was talking about - we did it with most of our equipment at 1AM because of logistical problems. That means we were supposed ot be in the field about 3 hours earlier. We got back to working on the tanks and this was the first time we got to do things with the tank in motion. It was awesome to be able to peek my head outside the tank to really be able to see what is going on. The loader is the only crewmember who has to stand all the time and hold onto something for dear life as the tank bounces me around. Think about riding a rollercoaster standing up without safety bars and not seeing or knowing which way your going to get thrown next. I also got to fire my MAG - aside from all the dust and wind in my face while driving 20 km/hr obstructing my view I had all the gunpowder from the bullets also in my face and could barely see a thing or breath.
On Thursday I got taken back to base for a few hours in order ot prepare my things for the next 6 days I would spend doing guard duty back in the field. I got a chance to shower as well as eat a real meal in the mess hall.We were 6 people plus our commander for shabbat but 2 people left us on Sunday. On Thursday and Friday we continued to do the weekly maintenance on the tanks. In addition to all the sweat, sand and dirt I accumulated on myself over the week, once you get to the maintenance part you can add oil, grease, diesel fuel and not showering to the mix. During the days it was hot as hell and impossible to fall asleep. It's too hot to move and I feel like a piece of crap - not in the general sense that I didn't feel well, but in the literal sense as in there are a billion flies constantly hovering around me as if I were a giant smelly turd.
Monday was Remembrance Day in Israel - where we remember the over 22,000 soldiers who have been killed defending Israel in its 62 years of existence. In both the evening and the morning a siren is sounded throughout the country and everything and everyone stops and stands for a moment of silence. A week before was Holocaust Memorial Day and for the moment of silence our company commander pulled up his jeep and turned on the radio so we could hear a few speeches. This time around we did not have that luxury, so the 5 of us stood in silence in the middle of nowhere hearing the same siren that was sounding all across the country. The next day was Independence Day where within a minute the mood of an entire country changes from the saddest day of the year to the happiest. My Independence day was spent probably doing the most Israeli/patriotic thing you can do - guard duty in the middle of the desert. However I would have much rather been spending it not in the army and with more then 4 other people. Clearly the best part of the day was that I was ACTUALLY in Israel! Aside from that the only other good part of the day was that I did NOT eat battle rations. It's a good thing that they brought us food for the holiday, otherwise I would have ended up starving myself for the day because I determined it is not possible to have a happy Independence Day with battle rations.
After 11 days in the field they took us to a different base to continue maintenance on the tanks. I had requested a day off to take care of business and on Wednesday at 6PM I was asked if I had my alef uniform with me (alef uniforms are the ones you wear in public, bet uniforms are work uniforms). I said yes, which meant the next day I was going home!!! One problem was that I didn't really have much else with me. I only took things I needed to the field - one of the things we had to pack was our alef uniform in circumstances such as these. So after 3 weeks in the army, what did I go home with? A clean towel, 2 pairs of clean socks, crocks, running shoes, sun glasses, my toiletry bag, shaver, wallet, camera, BROKEN phone, and the things i need in order to clean my gun. Now I also must define the word clean - if an article of clothing is covered in sand it can still be considered clean if it has not been used. The things I was missing that were at base - laundry, my mp3 player to recharge, clothing for the weekend and shabbat, underwear, and my large backpack itself. Additionally I was missing phone numbers of everyone I know in the country. (Aside: I ended up having to buy a new phone, and I was able to salvage phone numbers from the last time I backed up my phone 8 months ago :-(
So I finally left base and was really excited to get back to the kibbutz until I got on the bus and remembered how far away my kibbutz was. Four buses and over 7 hours later I got back to my kibbutz!!!
Surprisingly after being in the army for 22 straight days including 11 straight days in the field which included my first Independence Day it wasn't that bad. My only problem was that I was really pissed off that I was on base for Independence Day, and of course the 'food' they fed me. So in regards to the title of the blog post - how did I not go crazy? It must be a catch-22 situation because I must be crazy not to have gone crazy!
We now have a new permanent field. Here is a description along with a picture. First the directions: Start from my base, which I had said was in the middle of nowhere. Before I continue I must apologize for misleading everyone when I mentioned my base was in the middle of nowhere. Compared to where the field is my base seems like Times Square in NYC. So from my base get on a bus and drive half an hour further south. Drive 10 minutes through a different base and into the desert behind it, which is a reserved IDF firing zone (like most of the open desert in Israel). Once you get off the bus, walk another 20 minutes until you get to our specified field, which is in the middle of nowhere.
On Friday we went there for my first time to help set stuff up in the morning. When they woke me up to start the 20 minute walk I looked around and I might have said some negative things about our location and the fact that I was to spend 6 days doing guard duty there. What I might have said is worse than what your thinking because I haven't gotten to the worst part yet. So what does the field consist of? tents (one of which is our mess hall) porta-potties, portable showers, a generator, random equipment and the tanks. We spend the week there while practicing with the tanks, but there is always a group of people guarding it 24/7 even when we aren't there. So it is pretty luxurious except in place of food we get battle rations (tuna, loof (kosher spam), etc.). So I'm going to be stuck eating crappy food that I hate while guarding for 6 days. That's still not the bad part. Before I start doing the guard duty on the thursday we are spending the week in the field, so I will be in the field for 11 straight days.
It gets worse (but this one is kind of my own doing, but nonetheless makes things worse). On the Thursday when I was voluntold (combination of volunteered and told - as in I was told (forced) to volunteer) for guard duty they told me that I would be going home 8 hours later on the Friday as if to switch my weekends. I was expecting to be on base for the weekend because that's what the schedule was. I had already mentally prepared myself to be on base. Secondly I had no plans for the weekend (and would have only had 1 hour to make plans before I went to bed and then already on my way home). I didn't want to waste my weekend without making plans. Thirdly I wanted to switch my weekend to a different one in the hopes that I could meet up with friends that are visiting from Canada. So I decided to hold off on my weekend basically meaning that I was going to be in the army for 23 straight days before going home. Given all the crap I just described, the ONLY thing that pissed me off is that I would be spending my first Independence Day in Israel in the middle of nowhere doing guard duty.
After shabbat ended we went into the field. So that 20 minute walk I was talking about - we did it with most of our equipment at 1AM because of logistical problems. That means we were supposed ot be in the field about 3 hours earlier. We got back to working on the tanks and this was the first time we got to do things with the tank in motion. It was awesome to be able to peek my head outside the tank to really be able to see what is going on. The loader is the only crewmember who has to stand all the time and hold onto something for dear life as the tank bounces me around. Think about riding a rollercoaster standing up without safety bars and not seeing or knowing which way your going to get thrown next. I also got to fire my MAG - aside from all the dust and wind in my face while driving 20 km/hr obstructing my view I had all the gunpowder from the bullets also in my face and could barely see a thing or breath.
On Thursday I got taken back to base for a few hours in order ot prepare my things for the next 6 days I would spend doing guard duty back in the field. I got a chance to shower as well as eat a real meal in the mess hall.We were 6 people plus our commander for shabbat but 2 people left us on Sunday. On Thursday and Friday we continued to do the weekly maintenance on the tanks. In addition to all the sweat, sand and dirt I accumulated on myself over the week, once you get to the maintenance part you can add oil, grease, diesel fuel and not showering to the mix. During the days it was hot as hell and impossible to fall asleep. It's too hot to move and I feel like a piece of crap - not in the general sense that I didn't feel well, but in the literal sense as in there are a billion flies constantly hovering around me as if I were a giant smelly turd.
Monday was Remembrance Day in Israel - where we remember the over 22,000 soldiers who have been killed defending Israel in its 62 years of existence. In both the evening and the morning a siren is sounded throughout the country and everything and everyone stops and stands for a moment of silence. A week before was Holocaust Memorial Day and for the moment of silence our company commander pulled up his jeep and turned on the radio so we could hear a few speeches. This time around we did not have that luxury, so the 5 of us stood in silence in the middle of nowhere hearing the same siren that was sounding all across the country. The next day was Independence Day where within a minute the mood of an entire country changes from the saddest day of the year to the happiest. My Independence day was spent probably doing the most Israeli/patriotic thing you can do - guard duty in the middle of the desert. However I would have much rather been spending it not in the army and with more then 4 other people. Clearly the best part of the day was that I was ACTUALLY in Israel! Aside from that the only other good part of the day was that I did NOT eat battle rations. It's a good thing that they brought us food for the holiday, otherwise I would have ended up starving myself for the day because I determined it is not possible to have a happy Independence Day with battle rations.
After 11 days in the field they took us to a different base to continue maintenance on the tanks. I had requested a day off to take care of business and on Wednesday at 6PM I was asked if I had my alef uniform with me (alef uniforms are the ones you wear in public, bet uniforms are work uniforms). I said yes, which meant the next day I was going home!!! One problem was that I didn't really have much else with me. I only took things I needed to the field - one of the things we had to pack was our alef uniform in circumstances such as these. So after 3 weeks in the army, what did I go home with? A clean towel, 2 pairs of clean socks, crocks, running shoes, sun glasses, my toiletry bag, shaver, wallet, camera, BROKEN phone, and the things i need in order to clean my gun. Now I also must define the word clean - if an article of clothing is covered in sand it can still be considered clean if it has not been used. The things I was missing that were at base - laundry, my mp3 player to recharge, clothing for the weekend and shabbat, underwear, and my large backpack itself. Additionally I was missing phone numbers of everyone I know in the country. (Aside: I ended up having to buy a new phone, and I was able to salvage phone numbers from the last time I backed up my phone 8 months ago :-(
So I finally left base and was really excited to get back to the kibbutz until I got on the bus and remembered how far away my kibbutz was. Four buses and over 7 hours later I got back to my kibbutz!!!
Surprisingly after being in the army for 22 straight days including 11 straight days in the field which included my first Independence Day it wasn't that bad. My only problem was that I was really pissed off that I was on base for Independence Day, and of course the 'food' they fed me. So in regards to the title of the blog post - how did I not go crazy? It must be a catch-22 situation because I must be crazy not to have gone crazy!
Guarding Kibbutzim
Wednesday it was back to base where on Thursday we headed out to do a week of guard duty on communities close to Gaza. Before we went out on Thursday we went to the shooting range for a refresher and some more practice, just in case. Our company was split up to 5 different communities. My community was the furthest away from Gaza - about 800 meters from the fence. We are 8 soldiers plus our commander and we all live in this house on the kibbutz. Compared to everyone else's accommodations, ours was the best. We figured this out when every night our deputy company commander, driver, and medic came back to our kibbutz to sleep. Most of our time here is either spent guarding, sleeping or preparing or eating meals. I have 2 shifts of guard duty - 3 hours during the day and 4 hours at night, which spans all hours of the clock.
As for the food situation - its still passover so the variety of food we can eat is limited. I now agree with pretty much everyone on the fact that passover sucks. The only situation where the holiday is awesome is when you get to eat food made by MY mother. Aside from the limited variety there is also a food shortage as we only get army shipments of food twice throughout the week and before we even started we realized we had to ration the food. We got packages of matzah ball mix which was awesome - we could have made about 100,000 matzah balls except for the fact thatwe were missing the only other 2 ingredients required - soup mix and eggs.
If you have a good eye, the answer is yes - the magazine is loaded in the chamber.
As for the food situation - its still passover so the variety of food we can eat is limited. I now agree with pretty much everyone on the fact that passover sucks. The only situation where the holiday is awesome is when you get to eat food made by MY mother. Aside from the limited variety there is also a food shortage as we only get army shipments of food twice throughout the week and before we even started we realized we had to ration the food. We got packages of matzah ball mix which was awesome - we could have made about 100,000 matzah balls except for the fact thatwe were missing the only other 2 ingredients required - soup mix and eggs.
The week was very uneventful except for 2 drills that were held - one of whcih I was happy I didn't participate in and the second was the opposite feeling. The first drill was at 3AM where our commander woke everyone up and they had to practice what to do if a mortar shell/kassam rocket fell within the kibbutz. So how did I get out of the drill? Lucky for me I was already awake and guarding. The second drill I was also guarding throughout its duration. The infantry brigade that is guarding the general area held a drill whcih simulated terrorists within the kibbutz. Since I was already guarding I ended up doing nothing and listening to the radio chatter which was a bummer.
If you have a good eye, the answer is yes - the magazine is loaded in the chamber.Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Touching the wall
This week was a complete waste of time. Tuesday and Wednesday was a holiday so we only came to base for Sunday and Monday and returned again on Thursday. The time that was not spent travelling to and from the base and the field was spent cleaning the tank. Monday was excruciatingly hot - reaching about 40 degrees celcius by 9AM. It was so hot that I couldn't touch any metal part of the tank (99% of the tank) with my bare hands for more than a few seconds. For the holiday of Shavuot on Tuesday I went to Tel Aviv to stay with a friend visiting from Toronto until I returned to base first thing on Thursday morning. We went out to dinner and there was this guy standing 5 meters from our table staring at us the entire time. Midway through the dinner we realized that 2 tables beside us was the Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, which explained his body guard staring at us. On his way out I introduced myself and got a handshake.
Thursday it was back to base for 16 days - 2 full weeks of technical tank training in the field, but first we had to finish cleaning the tanks. Today I officially touched the wall. This is figurative because I did not actually come in any contact with a wall the entire day as I was out in the field, without any walls to touch. The army is seen as a race, and everyone is looking towards the end regardless if how long you have been in the army for. In this race, once you get to the halfway point you 'touch the wall' and start heading back for the second half of the journey. It's hard to believe that I have already been 9 months in the army - the time really flies by.
We headed back to the base for shabbat, but before shabbat entered they decided to punish us for acting like morons throughout the day. They decided to give us a 3rd guarding post for the duration of shabbat. That increased the amount of time we had to guard to 3.5 hours - about an hour extra because of the punishment. Shabbat is supposed to be our free time where they are not allowed to give us orders and there is no work they can make us do EXCEPT for guard duty.
Thursday it was back to base for 16 days - 2 full weeks of technical tank training in the field, but first we had to finish cleaning the tanks. Today I officially touched the wall. This is figurative because I did not actually come in any contact with a wall the entire day as I was out in the field, without any walls to touch. The army is seen as a race, and everyone is looking towards the end regardless if how long you have been in the army for. In this race, once you get to the halfway point you 'touch the wall' and start heading back for the second half of the journey. It's hard to believe that I have already been 9 months in the army - the time really flies by.
We headed back to the base for shabbat, but before shabbat entered they decided to punish us for acting like morons throughout the day. They decided to give us a 3rd guarding post for the duration of shabbat. That increased the amount of time we had to guard to 3.5 hours - about an hour extra because of the punishment. Shabbat is supposed to be our free time where they are not allowed to give us orders and there is no work they can make us do EXCEPT for guard duty.
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