In continuing with going over everything - which we had started with the ammunition, it was now time to do it with every tool in the tank. We laid everything out on the ground, went over the approximately 7 page list of things that we need to have and then put everything back in its place. We then went over all of our personal equipment in the same way. Without getting into too much detail about tank cleaning, the main tools I have in my arsenal include a steel brush, broom, toothbrush, screwdriver, and sponge. Don't ask how each tool is best used to clean a tank, but it gets the job done. The tank got a new paint job, and soon enough became ridiculously clean.
A quick note on the topic of sleeping. Soldiers are constantly exhausted, and are able to sleep ANYWHERE and ANYTIME! Case and point - I have no problem sleeping in a tank. Now, this won't top a tank, but this week I managed to take a nap in probably one of the weirdest places. They sent me to work to clean up a warehouse and organize some stuff. Once I was done I was allowed to take a break, and I was looking for a place to lie down. I scouted out the storage room, found the spot and said to myself with all honesty "this looks really comfortable". What was this comfortable location? It was a giant bin filled with gas masks. I sprawled out ontop of it and took a very comfortable 45 minute nap. Not a regular person's ideal place to sleep, but I was more than happy!
This week we got a new Battalion commander. What does that mean? Ceremonies and celebratory meals! Wednesday we had a tasty celebratory meal for the outgoing battalion commander. Thursday was another delicious meal for the incoming commander (one of the best meals I have eaten in the army), and the Friday was Shabbat, which meant a third day with a great meal! Now as for the ceremony, I was the lucky one that got to do guard duty instead! Typically people want to get out of guard duty because it's not any fun, and we do enough of it as it is. However when there is a ceremony, everyone suddenly wants to guard. Why? Because being at the ceremony is worse than guarding! At the ceremony you have to stand perfectly still in formation for a long period of time. What makes it even worse is that before the ceremony, you practice standing for a long period of time! The kicker to all this is that everyone has to get dressed in their nicer uniforms without jackets while it is cold outside. As for me, the guy who got 'stuck' doing guard duty, I didn't have to get dressed up; I was able to wear a jacket, walk around (only in circles, but nonetheless) and even talk to myself if I wanted to.
In addition to the training that we will be doing, we are also frequently 'on call' for any emergency in the golan heights. If we are on call and there is an emergency, we have only a few minutes to get the tank started and be on our way. While I was on call, the new battalion commander came by for a test and we were told that there was an 'emergency', and thus we had to jump to the tank as fast as possible. We passed the test, and afterward we had a debriefing. He started by asking everyone their names and where they were from. After I said I was from Toronto his follow up question was "and why do you want to sign an extra 2 months in the army". It seems that I am quickly making a name for myself on the base as the crazy foreigner.
Finally the end of the week rolled around and I was finally able to enjoy it! Just like the rest of the country, the rules of shabbat are also followed in the army. As long as we are not doing any operation activity, we are not allowed to be given orders! For the past half year, everything we had been doing was operational and therefore our shabbat did not feel like shabbat - it felt like every other regular day. Thus being on base for 17 days straight felt like one very very long week. Now that we are in training I only had to do my hour of guard duty and couple of hours work in the kitchen but other than that it was time to relax! And that I did - before I knew it, shabbat was over and I had slept most of it away (approximately 15 hours, non consecutively, however). After being somewhat re-energized, it was time to get back to tank cleaning.
Wednesday was the inspection by the Battalion commander. I was expecting it to be a lot like the previous expection from the battalion commander before we left for the border with Lebanon in July, but I was very quickly in for a big shock. The last time we had the inspection, only 3 tanks were inspected. By the time the deputy battalion commander randomly came to inspect my tank I had already taken a 45 minute nap on the tank waiting for him. This time the battalion commander called over my direct commander as well as two others talked to them for a minute and then all of a sudden my commander comes sprinting towards us and tells us there is an 'emergency'. shit! That means we have to go run to grab our equipment, get back to the tank and start driving - obviously as fast as we can. So sprinted into my room and grabbed all my equipment which was conveniently spread out neatly on my bed for the inspection instead of being all inside my vest, bolted back out to the tank. The tank was also in inspection mode - with all sorts of doors and hatches open, so I had to close those as well. Once the entire crew was in the tank we started the engine and were the first ones to exit our 'parking lot'. Afterwards we were bombarded with a lot of operation questions for about 20 minutes to test us about what we knew. After that the battalion commander came into the barracks. He randomly decided to come into my room and interrogate everyone about all sorts of things. I was able to answer his questions without making a fool of myself or making myself look like an idiot.
After the inspection everyone seemed to be a lot more relaxed, as we were no longer working like dogs day and night in preparation for the inspection. These two weeks of logistics and cleaning was simply brutal, and everyone is very glad that it is now over. Thursday was the holiday Tu b'shvat, which is the holiday of the trees. One of the other companies in our battalion got to go to the carmel forest to help plant trees. Unlucky me, we were stuck on base doing nothing important, except waiting to go home. We were scheduled to leave at 4PM but they were unsuccessfully trying to move that up a few hours because as they said there really isn't anything for us to do here. So by 3PM we were ready to leave, but we had to wait for the bus at 4. We loaded the bus and only by 430 did we get permission to leave. aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrg!!! I ended up getting back to my kibbutz at around 730 after missing one bus, and practically jumping over people in order to get onto a second one.
Next week we actually start doing exercises in the tank, thus shooting ammunition and making the tank dirty again! It should be fun after more than 8 months of not doing anything 'fun' in the tanks.
Playing tug of war
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