Platoon week

When I came back to base on Sunday everyone was already participating in a drill. I ended up doing nothing until they returned, which was about 8PM. Everyone said the drill was absolutely horrible because it was very long, and it rained all day causing tons of mud. When they returned my commander said it was a shame that I missed it because I would have enjoyed it. The next day we headed back to the field to start platoon week. The week was structured to be a war week. We had to walk around with our vests and helmets on and we were not allowed to remove them. We also had to eat battle rations. Luckily we did not have to sleep in the tank - it was too cold and thus we ended up going back to the base to sleep - that ended up being the only perk (yet it was a HUGE perk). Since it had rained on Sunday and throughout the weekend and it was planning on raining throughout the week there was a ton of mud and plenty of puddles - perfect for war week... not! Most of the morning was spent getting to the field and preparing the tanks. We finally got to eat breakfast at 1030. In the late afternoon we were told to simulate a tank tread that had become unlinked. When that happens its a big process to get the tank back in working condition. I posted a picture 2 posts ago showing us doing a tug of war with the tank, which is only part of what needed to be done. Naturally the goal is to complete this task as fast as possible with a good time being 15 minutes in ideal conditions. Naturally we were hoping that they wouldn't make us do this because of the presence of our mortal enemy - mud. The only problem was that they did make us do it and the mud got the better of us. Instead of attempting to make good time it got to the point where we were just hoping to finish - and that we did, 5 hours later! There wasn't a single thing that went well during those 5 hours. Firstly, every tool we used was completely covered in mud, was hard to grasp and freezing cold. Secondly upon numerous occasions I had to sit, crawl, kneel, lie down etc. in the mud and in puddles. We started at about 330PM and it was not expected to last into the darkness. We hadn't yet eaten lunch, but I was lucky enough to eat a few wafers. Once darkness came upon us it started to rain again. By this point it really did not matter that much - I was already wet enough from the mud. Once we finished we were 'rewarded' when they told us that since it was too cold outside we would be returning to the base for the evening to sleep! So it was a long and muddy 2km walk back to base with a massive kit bag on my shoulder and my vest on my back. On top of that I had to hold my rainpants up as they were unable to sit properly on my waist. Once we got back at midnight I was able to have my next 'meal', which was a single piece of cake, as it was split between the platoon.
The next day it was that same walk back tot he field first thing in the morning. At this point I was starving and still waiting to eat lunch from the day before. We got back to the tanks and we had to prepare them for our platoon exercise that we would be doing in the morning. Finally by 930AM I was able to have the next meal - almost 24 hours after my last one. Although I didn't have time to actually sit down to eat it because I had to get back to making sure that the guns were ready for the training exercise.
In the exercise we finally got to shoot shells from the cannon again, so that was awesome to experience the 70 ton recoil of the cannon in front of my face. The exercise was interesting and it went really well. In fact the batallion commander was watching the exercise and said that it was the best platoon exercise in the battalion (9 platoons). After the exercise we finally had an opportunity to sit down and eat a meal at 3PM and like the previous meals it was battle rations. After we had finished our meal we miraculously were brought schnitzels from the base!! What a delicious surprise!

Me and my tank

My commander and I

After getting off base 3 weekends in a row, I will be going back for 2 weeks this time, thus meaning I will be on base for next shabbat. I am hoping that the next week will be very interesting and I'm sure I will have a more interesting blog post. To make up for it this week I have finally added some pictures to my facebook fan page. You can see the pictures here, and don't forget to become of 'fan' of my facebook page and to recommend it to your friends.