This week was a complete waste of time. Tuesday and Wednesday was a holiday (Shavuot) so we only came to base for Sunday and Monady and return on Thursday. The time that was not spent traveling to or from the base and the field where the tanks are was spent cleaning the tank. Monday was excruciatingly hot - reaching 40 degrees Celsius by 9AM. It was so hot that I couldn't touch any metal part of the tnak with my bare hands for more than a few seconds (about 99% of the tank). For the holiday of Shavuot on Tuesday I went to Tel Aviv to stay with a friend from Toronto until I had to return to base first thing on Thursday. We went out for dinner and there was this guy standing 5 meters from our table staring at us the entire time. Midway through 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 (May 20th) I touched the wall. This is a figurative statement, as I did not actually see any physical walls throughout the day as we were in the field. Army service as a whole is seen as a race, and everyone is looking at the end regardless of how long they have been in the army. During this 'race', once you get halfway you 'touch the wall' and start running the second half. So today I have finished 9 of my 18 months of army service. It is quite crazy to think that I am already halfway done, and still not done training. The time has flown by!
We went back to the base for shabbat but before it entered we were surprised and punished because we had been acting like morons throughout the day. They decided to give us a 3rd guarding post for the duration of shabbat. This increased the amount of time we had to guard to 3.5 hours - about 1 extra hour because of the punishment. Shabbat is supposed to be our free time where they are not allowed to give you orders and there is no work they can make you do aside from guard duty.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Why
'An army without an education knows how to run. An army with an education knows where it's running to'
This sentance is posted on one of the info boards in our barracks. This week we spent in Latrun -where they have the museum and memorial for the armored corps. The week was spent learning about why we do what we do. Why its important to be a combat soldier in the IDF. The week involved learning about the holocaust through a tour of Yad Vashem - the holocaust museum in Jerusalem. We also had a tour of a prison that was run by the British and liberated upon the declaration of the State of Israel, and the archeological dig site right next to the kotel.
The rest of the week was spent in the classroom talking about topics that covered the history of the Jewish people, the land of Israel, and the IDF, and its enemies. Through these topics and discussions we learned more about the importance of our job as combat soldiers in the IDF.
We also spent time talking about morals and values in combat. One of the interesting scenarios we talked about was what do you do if your in combat and you get to a supermarket that you are about to demolish for tactical reasons and your really thirsty for a can of coke. Do you take the can because you know its going to get demolished as part of the operation or do you not because it would be theft. The answer to that was given through another example of what happened during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. A company of soldiers were unable to get their shipment of battle rations from the IDF and needed to eat. An order came down to the soldiers to go to the abandoned supermarket and eat. The order included that they were only to take the bare minimum - water, bread, and basic proteins - tuna. On the way out of the supermarket the soldiers left money at the cash register for what they BOUGHT!
The best part of the week was that we got off on Thursday at noon from the old city in Jerusalem. This was fantastic because I was planning on meeting up with friends that were travelling and touring in the old city that afternoon. This means that I didn't have a 6 hour drive to get where I needed to be, unlike every other week when I'm on base in the south. The problem was that I got a punishment along with 1/4 of the entire company for having a phone in my pocket when I wasn't supposed to. Long story short, the rules were unclear yet they decided to screw everyone and give us a punishement of having to stay one extra hour after everyone was released for the weekend. The big deal about this was that they drove us back to latrun to do our punishement. So instead of being 5 minutes away from where I wanted to go it took me 2.5 hours just to get back to the central bus station in Jerusalem. From there it was another half hour bus ride to where I was 3 hours earlier. Just dying to get where I wanted to be 3 hours earlier to finally start my weekend I find myself shortly after at the police station as a witness to an incident and all I can think of is when is my weekend going to start!?!!!?!??!?! While on the bus, a worker from the bus company came on the bus and asked to see everyone's tickets to prove that they paid the bus fare. Three punk ass teenagers hadn't paid the fare and they starter yelling and swearing at the guy and one other lady. The ticket checker took out his phone to take a picture of the kids so he could report it. One of the kids tried to knock the phone outof the guy's hand and at this time the lady who was getting sworn at decided to call the cops. Now the kids tried to run off the bus. One kid forced the door open and jumped out of the bus as the bus was coming to a stop. I managed to get the second kid in a bear hug so he couldn't run out of the bus as well. Out of pure coincidence the first kid that jumped out of the bus didn't get 10 meters away before he was tackled by cops that just happened to be right there. I then let go of the other kid and then he was also handled by the cops. An hour and a half later after reporting the incident at the police station I finally started my weekend - at 430 instead of 1230. I ended up in the city center where I bumped into my friends from Toronto that I was hoping to meet up with 4 hours earlier in the old city.
This sentance is posted on one of the info boards in our barracks. This week we spent in Latrun -where they have the museum and memorial for the armored corps. The week was spent learning about why we do what we do. Why its important to be a combat soldier in the IDF. The week involved learning about the holocaust through a tour of Yad Vashem - the holocaust museum in Jerusalem. We also had a tour of a prison that was run by the British and liberated upon the declaration of the State of Israel, and the archeological dig site right next to the kotel.
The rest of the week was spent in the classroom talking about topics that covered the history of the Jewish people, the land of Israel, and the IDF, and its enemies. Through these topics and discussions we learned more about the importance of our job as combat soldiers in the IDF.
We also spent time talking about morals and values in combat. One of the interesting scenarios we talked about was what do you do if your in combat and you get to a supermarket that you are about to demolish for tactical reasons and your really thirsty for a can of coke. Do you take the can because you know its going to get demolished as part of the operation or do you not because it would be theft. The answer to that was given through another example of what happened during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. A company of soldiers were unable to get their shipment of battle rations from the IDF and needed to eat. An order came down to the soldiers to go to the abandoned supermarket and eat. The order included that they were only to take the bare minimum - water, bread, and basic proteins - tuna. On the way out of the supermarket the soldiers left money at the cash register for what they BOUGHT!
The best part of the week was that we got off on Thursday at noon from the old city in Jerusalem. This was fantastic because I was planning on meeting up with friends that were travelling and touring in the old city that afternoon. This means that I didn't have a 6 hour drive to get where I needed to be, unlike every other week when I'm on base in the south. The problem was that I got a punishment along with 1/4 of the entire company for having a phone in my pocket when I wasn't supposed to. Long story short, the rules were unclear yet they decided to screw everyone and give us a punishement of having to stay one extra hour after everyone was released for the weekend. The big deal about this was that they drove us back to latrun to do our punishement. So instead of being 5 minutes away from where I wanted to go it took me 2.5 hours just to get back to the central bus station in Jerusalem. From there it was another half hour bus ride to where I was 3 hours earlier. Just dying to get where I wanted to be 3 hours earlier to finally start my weekend I find myself shortly after at the police station as a witness to an incident and all I can think of is when is my weekend going to start!?!!!?!??!?! While on the bus, a worker from the bus company came on the bus and asked to see everyone's tickets to prove that they paid the bus fare. Three punk ass teenagers hadn't paid the fare and they starter yelling and swearing at the guy and one other lady. The ticket checker took out his phone to take a picture of the kids so he could report it. One of the kids tried to knock the phone outof the guy's hand and at this time the lady who was getting sworn at decided to call the cops. Now the kids tried to run off the bus. One kid forced the door open and jumped out of the bus as the bus was coming to a stop. I managed to get the second kid in a bear hug so he couldn't run out of the bus as well. Out of pure coincidence the first kid that jumped out of the bus didn't get 10 meters away before he was tackled by cops that just happened to be right there. I then let go of the other kid and then he was also handled by the cops. An hour and a half later after reporting the incident at the police station I finally started my weekend - at 430 instead of 1230. I ended up in the city center where I bumped into my friends from Toronto that I was hoping to meet up with 4 hours earlier in the old city.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Training and guarding
On a week that was supposed to be brutal because our company was guarding the base, it turned out not to be that bad for me. There are a number of guard posts on the base and from Thursday to Thursday all we did was guard duty. When we weren't doing guard duty they had us doing other nonsense for the sole purpose of keeping us busy. Off the bat, I missed half the week of guard duty because I went home for the weekend. When I got back Sunday afternoon they told me i was going to the field for 2 days to do the tank exercises that I didn't do last week because we ran out of time.
Monday was spent on the tank all day which was fantastic except for the fact that had a splitting headache and my stomach was killing me - I think it was something I ate the day before. By the end of the next day I felt fine, but it was a shame that the one day I felt like crap I actually had to work hard. I would have also enjoyed myself a lot more if I didn't feel so bad. The first "act" we did was to make a 60 ton tank disappear in under 3 minutes. We practiced camouflaging the tank - it works so well that when the tarp is on the tank its easy to step somewhere where there is a hole and injure yourself even though I know where everything is.
The next thing we did was to practice leaving the tank on foot. This was fun because for the loader, instead of taking my M16 I get to take the MAG! Unfortunately we didn't get to practice this drill with ammo, however it was still fun. The last thing we practiced was the most fun but also most complex and difficult thing to do quickly. The exercise simulates what you have to do if one of the links in the tank tread breaks causing the tank to be stranded and stationary. Basically what we (commander, loader, and gunner) have to do is get out and fix it. We have to spread out the entire track on the ground, replace whatever is broken and re-wrap the tread around the wheels. This procedure involves lots of hammering (with a 5kg hammer) and a tug-of-war. We ended up doing this 2 times - with the goal being 13 minutes - the first time in 23 then 28 (because the stupid pin wouldn't budge) and the last time we did it in 16 minutes which so far was the best time in the company.
On Tuesday it was back to base to join everyone in guarding. Our living conditions were brutal. There is a centralized room for the people who are guarding the base, and we all slept in one room. There were 16 bunk beds (36 beds) in the room and you physically could not fit another bed into the room. In addition to that with all our bags and vests you could not see the floor and everyone was stepping on everyone's stuff. We could barely open the door to the room because of all the stuff blocking the way. On top of that we were more than 32 people doing guard duty so nobody had their own bed - when the people woke up to do guard duty the guys that just finished guarding picked an empty bed to sleep in. So since I was one of the 'new guys' who was just starting to do guard duty on the Tuesday I was obviously given the worst shift - midnight-3AM. On Wednesday I was put to work instead of guard duty. From 8AM-11PM I was working for the Rasag, which means a bit of picking up garbage, sweeping, gardening, inventory, cleaning, and a LOT of nothing. It wasn't that bad because I didn't have the stress and paranoia that comes with doing lots of guard duty and the thought of ending up breaking the rules and getting caught. The difficulty is that no matter what, the second you start guard duty you instantly become completely exhausted and feel the need to sit down. If you've just eaten you become starving and need to eat. If you've just gone to the washroom you immediately need to go again. You also feel the immediate urge to talk to someone on the phone. All of these things I just described are breaking the rules. So the best part of working for the Rasag until 11PM was that they moved my guard duty shift from midnight until 6AM, so I could get a COMPLETE night's sleep!!! The funniest part of the week was that in a week that was supposed to be filled with guard duty I ended up doing more guard duty on Thursday (7 hours) than I did the entire rest of the week!!!
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