Personal account of terror attack in Jerusalem

Sorry I haven't blogged in a number of weeks. I've been enjoying my time off from the army. Since I have time to relax and I'm always around a computer I am not pressured to get a blog post up. Usually I end up waiting until the last minute to get a blog post up before I need to get back to base for a few weeks. I would typically post my blog at about 2 or 3AM and catch a few hours of sleep before waking up at around 6 to head back to base. Since I don't have that pressure I have just been constantly pushing off writing another blog post. I would appologize for my laziness but I'm not at all one bit sorry. After practically finishing up with my army service (I am on vacation until I get discharged) I needed time to wind down and I haven't been in the mood to blog regularly. Additionally, there hasn't really been anything interesting enough to devote a blog post... until now.

Without getting into too much details here are some things that have been going on with my free time.

The week following the last week of training was a nice relaxing week that our entire battalion spent in what can be described as an army resort. It was a relaxing week that we spent together and hung out. These opportunities are donated by large organizations to provide combat soldiers with a nice vacation during our intense and stressful service. It provides us with a time to relax and enjoy ourselves outside the confines of the army structure. We had a sports day and there were a number o comedy acts in the evenings. For the most p

art I spent the week just relaxing and hanging out with friends.

At the end of that week I met my sister at the airport - she is here for the next 5 months. I helped drag all the bags to a relatives house where we spent shabbat and then to Jerusalem where she will be living.

Headed back to my kibbutz and took a nice day hike in the area. The community in the picture below is my kibbutz. More pictures from the hike here.

Celebrated purim in Jerusalem. It was great to see people walking around in costumes for a number of days.

My account of the terrorist attack in Jerusalem:

Yesterday afternoon I was in Jerusalem and on my way to the central bus station to catch a bus to Rehovot for a cousins bar mitzvah party. As I was on the bus about 10 minutes away from the central bus station I saw an ambulance fly by our bus, and then a second one. At that moment I didn't think anything of it as that can be a frequent occurrance in Jerusalem. A few seconds later came more sirens - ambulances, motorcylces, police, all sorts of other emergency vehicles with sirens flew by our bus within a matter of one minute. At that moment the bus driver turned up the radio and everyone was listening attentively. I didn't pick up everything that was said as it was in Hebrew, but I heard enough "bus bombing on Binyanei Ha'umah". Binyanei Ha'umah is the street across from the central bus station where all the inner city busses stop - exactly where I was going. I picked up my phone and called my mom in Toronto to say we were okay, and then started calling other people as well to ask if they were okay. It was extremely difficult to make calls because the network was working overload as everyone was doing the same thing - calling everyone they know at the same time. A few minutes later I got off the bus with my sister and started walking as traffic wasn't moving. I made my way to the scene and all I could really see was a broken bus window. The bus was blocking my view of most of the scene. My initial thought was that for a bus bombing it did not look that bad - but then again I had no information as to the number of casualties and I had arrived about 20 minutes after the explosion so the injured had for sure already been evacuated. I later heard of reports that the bomb was not on the bus itself, but ouside which explained why I did not see much damage.

We heard reports that the entrance to the city was closed and that we might not be able to get out of the city. We were contemplating heading back into the city. We then suddently saw a team of paramedics sprint down the street to their ambulance and drive to a different location. A number of other vehicles followed. Another attack? Shortly after we heard rumours of a shooting nearby (in the end it was just rumours and nothing had transpired). We decided to go to bus station in the hopes that the busses were still running, which they were. Very quickly it seemed as life was returning back to normal.

The good, the bad, the muddy, and...

We got back to base, quickly had lunch and then immediately went to the field. It was pouring rain and we had to prepare the tanks for the company exercise. During the afternoon it was decided to delay the start of the exercise from the middle of the night to the next morning. Before we headed back to base we aligned the tanks so they would be in position for the start of the exercise. On the way we managed to get ourselves stuck really deep in the mud. Since the mud was wet from a full day of rain the tank sunk to the depth of about one meter all the way around the tank. We had to get out of the tank and connect the towing cables to another tank. Instead of being able to lift the cable, the force of the cable pushed me further into the mud - up to the knees. We managed to get ourselves out of the mud, but my boots were full of mud and water. At least we were heading right back to base where I could put my boots right next to the heater to dry for the night. Right before the bus was about to leave I heard someone yell my name. Get off the bus they said, your staying the night to guard.What followed was a long series of swear words and phrases that lasted throughout the night. It continued to rain but I don't think I got any wetter. Everything was already full of mud and we needed a place to sleep. Our options: muddy tanks, muddy regular APCs (armored personnel carriers) or new APCs (called the Namer which only the Golani brigade have) which were also full of mud. The Namer is a lot more spacious and comfortable (in theory). One of its cool features is that its back door opens like what you would expect a UFO to do in the movies. In short, I had a horrible wet and muddy sleep if you could call what I did sleep.

My commander and I lifting one of the towing cables. Take note of my left leg.

The next day the exercise started. My tank did not have a job until the end of the exercise so at the beginning I was sitting behind the action just watching. After we finished with doing nothing we started driving to catch up to everyone else. Since my tank was behind the action at the beginning of the exercise I was able to take an awesome video, which unfortunately cannot be posted. After we started catching up to everyone suddenly my commander pointed behind us with a shocked look on his face. I had no idea what he was pointing at until he said 'cow'. Holy crap! I spotted the cow which was lying down hidden in the grass less than half a meter from where our tank passed. Then I saw that the APC that was driving behind us was heading right for the cow. I start waving my hands indicating to him to turn left. He didn't see me but he did turn enough to just miss the cow. Stupid lazy cow.

About halfway to our destination we ran into transmission problems and were forced to stop. That was the end of the exercise for us. Now, all we could do was wait for the exercise to finish and wait for the mechanic to come and check out what was wrong. I was really bummed out because we didn't do anything. We didn't even fire a single bullet! In addition to that when I was in training and we had our company exercise the exact same thing happened to my tank. After waiting a few hours, the mechanic came and decided that there wasn't anything wrong with it and we were free to drive. We were then told to head back to where we started the exercise because we had to rescue a tank in my platoon, tank #3, who was stuck in the mud. How did he get stuck in the mud? It was called back in order to rescue the other tank in the platoon, #3A who was stuck in the mud. We had passed 3A less than 2km into the exercise and as we passed them we had a good laugh at their expense, waved to them and continued on our way. As tank 3 was trying to pull 3A out of the mud it dug itself quite deep in the mud suck that the mud had reached the bottom belly of the tank and caused enough friction such that the treads couldn't do their work to pull out the other tank. While attempting to get into a different position tank 3 got stuck in the mud as well. So here we come, tank 3B to the rescue...
... or not. As you can see we also got stuck in the mud right as we were pulling in to position ourselves to rescue the other tank. So there we were, our entire platoon of tanks stuck in the mud one next to another. So the only thing we were left to do was to wait until the next day. In the morning a bunch of high ranking people came to take a look at our situation. They seemed to be somewhat surprised and maybe to some level impressed at how bad our situation looked. Two of the tanks 3A and us, 3B were in such bad shape that it appeared that we had intentionally tried to get stuck because we did such a good job at it. They told us that in the afternoon either 2 bulldozers would come or one bulldozer and a rescue tank. Yes, I said rescue tank. A few hours later a hummer came to pick up a few people to take them back to base and they gave us some leftover food - not good kind of leftovers; it was leftover battle rations. At about 4PM a bulldozer and the rescue tank arrived to start working. First, the bulldozer was able to pull out tank 3 without any problems. Next, it had trouble with 3A but eventually it managed to pull it out of the mud as well.

Bulldozer rescuing a tank

Last but not least, they had to bring in the rescue tank to help pull 3B out of the mud. The way it worked was that a massive cable was attached to the disabled tank and the rescue tank reeled in the cable (think of the disabled tank as a fish and the rescue tank being the one pulling in the fish). Now in order for this to work, the rescue tank had to be attached to some form of anchor. Thats where the bulldozer comes into play. It was connected to the other end of the rescue tank so that as it was attempting to pull on 3B the rescue tank would be able to pull on the disabled tank as opposed to the other way around. After a lot of work, we were finally out of the mud.

Rescue tank

We drove to where we started the exercise and I was finally headed back to base - it was about 9PM and I hadn't eaten anything since lunchtime (not that I had much to eat for that meal). (In relation to the blog title, the blog up until now has mostly referred to the muddy and half of the bad). The officer that gave me and one other person a lift back to base asked us if we wanted to stop off in the city to grab a bite to eat. YES YES YES YES YES!!!! We stopped off at a schnitzel place and everyone is staring at me because I looked like I had just gone through the last few days as described above. I was soooooo hungry and the food was soooooooooo good. (We ordered the same thing for lunch the next day and it did not taste nearly as good). When we got back to base, I finally had a chance to shower and clean all my muddy equipment.

The next day it was back to where we were in order to clean the tanks. In the afternoon my platoon commander told me that I was getting a perk for lone soldiers and that I should get my stuff ready to leave. (Referencing the blog title, this is the good part). Awesome. Just like at the beginning of the week when at the last minute I got royally screwed into staying in the field to guard while muddy and soaked to the bone, it can also happen just the opposite. Suddenly out of nowhere you have a gift coming your way. (more often than not you should be expecting the first case scenario as opposed to getting gifts). My commander couldn't elaborate and he didn't know where they were taking me or what I was going to be doing. Soon after, someone came to pick me up in a car and said that I was going on a helicopter ride. WHAT!?!?!?!?!?! He then tried to explain that to me in english as if I didn't understand. I said that I understood what he said, but I was in shock! They took myself and 3 other lone soldiers on a 10 minute helicopter ride (unfortunately it was not an army helicopter) around the north of Israel. The experience was a donation made to the battalion for lone soldiers. Here are some pictures below. It was an awesome experience, and I was in shock the entire time - I simply couldn't fathom that just an hour earlier I was going about my business as usual cleaning my tank not even thinking about helicopters, yet alone anything else aside from cleaning my tank.

Well, the blog title is 'the good, the bad, the muddy, and...' and I think everyone knows what the next part is. I want to point out that I wanted to split this up into 2 blog posts, with the second one being titled '...the ugly', however that would ruin the effect because people would read the second blog post before this one due to chronological order. You would end up reading the punch line before the story leading up to it. I realize that this is already a large blog post but hang in there, I guarantee you that its worth the read. I know what your thinking - the bad and muddy parts of the blog could be considered ugly and I would have agreed with you until I experienced 'the ugly'.

On Friday, the day after the helicopter ride we were in the field again setting up for the battalion exercise (32 tanks and a whole bunch of other vehicles). The regiment commander came to speak to our company. He made a point of finding out who was part of the platoon that was stuck in the mud during the company exercise. It seems like we have become famous or infamous. From what I have heard, not too many people have had the opportunity to see a rescue tank in action. Around lunch time, the company headed back to the base for shabbat and my platoon was stuck in the field to do guard duty. This was partially good and bad. The bad part was that I was stuck in the field for at least 3 nights (including shabbat) because of the battalion exercise that was to start in the middle of the night on sunday/monday. To make it worse, the forecast was calling for rain. The good part was that it was our entire platoon guarding so there was less guard duty.

The forecast was correct and it did rain a lot. Luckily I had guard duty shifts where there was not too much rain. Due to the crappy weather, and the poor lighting there wasn't much to do for the weekend. In addition to that the tent was leaking right where my bed was, so I curled up the entire time under the sleeping bag to keep warm and dry. After Friday night dinner (8PM) until Sunday morning I managed to sleep 22 hours. The only reason I didn't sleep more was because of guard duty. 92% of that time frame was spent either sleeping or guarding.

Sunday we started getting ready for the battalion exercise which was to begin at 3AM. All the commanders went off to do a dry run of the exercise during the day, so once our tank was ready we had the entire day and night to do nothing until the start of the exercise. My commander had left the company the previous week because he was going to officers training school so they decided to screw us (his crew) over. The third tank in my platoon is a tank designated for an artillery officer, so that tank acts independently during the exercise. They decided to switch that tank crew with mine because we didn't have our regular commander and they wanted to give the second commander more experience as being part of the platoon. So this artillery officer guy - he doesn't take the place of our tank commander. We were given a tank commander and the artillery officer is an additional person in the tank, making us 5. So with 5 people in the tank, my job changes a bit and I am given the title ta'an baytzeem (which translates to balls loader). So this 5th person in the tank stands on my chair with his head out of the tank. Since he takes up my space, I am stuck inside the tank (here comes the punchline) staring at his balls (hence the balls loader). There is no place for me to move and I am stuck standing with my face being 30 centimeters away from this guy's crotch for the better part of 12 hours. Aside from the balls staring I did absolutely nothing during the exercise. Not only did the tank not fire a single bullet, but I didn't even load the guns. And to think that I signed more time in the army in order to participate in the battalion exercise.

My job as ta'an baytzim. Two notes on the picture: 1 - this is not the natural posture - I am posing for the camera. If I were to stand naturally I would be staring directly at his balls. 2 - the picture does not give the best angle, yet I am much closer than it seems to his crotch.

Once we reached the end of the exercise and had already parked the tanks we had a chance to regroup, eat a bit, refuel, etc. I had finished talking with some friends and as I was passing by the deputy company commander he said to go put on our gas masks as they had raised the threat level. I got on the tank and as I was picking up the pouch that had in it my gas mask I already see I'm in big trouble as there is a massive cloud of white smoke about 5 meters away from me. As it seems one of the officers had thrown tear gas 10 meters away from my tanks and I was downwind from it. Well I jumped from the tank and started running, but I ended up taking in a gulp of it and I also had my eyes open because I had to look as I was getting off of the tank. The tear gas stung like hell - my eyes and lungs. I ran over to where the medics had set up a little infirmary and they took care of me. After a few minutes the stinging died down and I was back to normal.

I signed more time in the army because I wanted to participate in the company and battalion exercises. Call me crazy, but I suppose I had the silly expectation that in these exercises my tank would actually do something and not just be a waste of fuel and kilometers. These past 2 weeks my tank didn't fire a single bullet. All other tanks averaged about 2000 bullets from the MAG alone. I didn't expect to be stuck with the worst job of staring at an officers balls for an entire exercise. When I found out about it I tried to talk my way out of it. Apparently the sentence "I didn't sign an extra 2 months in the army in order to stare at the balls of an artillery officer" isn't a good enough reason. On the other hand I got to ride in a helicopter and at the end of the day it was funny as hell when we were all stuck in the mud. I didn't expect these 2 weeks to go by the way they did, but then again you can't really expect anything from the army to go one way or another.

On Thursday I finished! I no longer was part of a tank crew and I wasn't attached to any tank. I gave back all my equipment and even my gun! It felt really weird to give back my gun for good. It still hasn't sunk in that I'm actually done! On Sunday I go back to the army, but its for fun. We have a week where they take us to what is like a soldiers resort where there is good food, and fun stuff to do. After that I have until my discharge date, April 14th to do whatever I want! I don't know what my plans will be but I have free transportation until I get discharged so I will try to make good use of it to tour far away places. Not to worry, the blogging will continue.