Preparation for inspection

Back to base Sunday morning meant back to work. After the backbreaking work I did last Thursday to take out and replace all the ammunition it was another 2 weeks of nonstop work. We were preparing for a review from the Battalion Commander, and thus EVERYTHING had to be clean, checked, and in order. Therefore, I spent the better part of the 2 weeks cleaning the tank. Firstly, we received the tank in a filthy filthy condition for a number of reasons. It had rained the previous week which means lots of mud will be tracked through the tank. In addition to that, the tank crew that was using the tank knew that they did not have to clean that specific tank because it was ours, so they were not too concerned about keeping it clean and tidy.

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

Moving week

This was the week of the switch - I didn't go back to the tanks, but I went to another base to help pack up everything. By everything I mean E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. - from TVs to desks, mattresses, toilet paper, picnic benches, bricks, and everything in between. The first few days there wasn't much work to do - just a few hours worth each day. I was able to catch up on my sleep as well as watch some TV. It also rained a fair bit so I was glad to be inside most of the time, unlike my platoon which was outside with the tanks. Most of the work we did was when we had to load up the 18 wheeler trailer with everything that was mentioned above. We didn't get much help as we were only about 5 people. The worst part was that the trailer came at 1030PM in the rain. We didn't finish until 3AM and we had to wake up at 730 in order to finish the last minute packing and clean all the rooms. After lunch, we had literally nothing to do until the bus came so everyone gathered in one room and tok a nap on the floor until the bus came.

It was exciting to finally leave after half a year of boring monotonous difficult work. We are now moving to a base in the Golan Heights where our entire battalion is stationed (3 tank companies) so it was exciting to finally be reunited with my friends from training after having not seen them for more than half a year.

In the next 2 weeks, we have a lot of work to do before we actually start training. The battalion commander will be coming to check the tanks and the barracks so everything has to be in order and the tanks have to be super clean. Before heading home on Friday we had a full day of work ahead of us. Our first task (and might I add that it is one of the worst jobs related to the tanks) was to take out ALL the ammunition, have it checked and then put it all back where it came from. In daditino to there being tons of ammunition (I'm not exaggerating - the ammunition does weight a number of tons), it is also difficult to access and awkward to remove. We couldn't start working on my tanks because it had not yet arrived from our previous base, so we did the owrk for the crew that was tank sitting for us. Once our tank arrived we did the backbreaking work for a second time. The third tank in our platoon did not arrive until the afternoon so I had to assist them as well. In the evening, while everyone went to a company meeting my commander and I had to stay back and fill up 2 tanks with gas. From this description of my day it doesn't sound so bad, however I started working at 630AM and finished at 1030PM. I also had to work straight through dinner, so the last break I had I had taken was for lunch. The only thing that kept me going was the light at the end of the tunnel, which was that the following morning I was heading home for the weekend!!!

SOME of the ammunition.

On Friday it was time to go home!!!! Wake up at 530, and by 7 we were on a bus heading home. At about 9AM we stopped for a pit stop on the side of the road. We hadn't eaten anything all morning because we were too busy scrambling to get things ready in order to go home. We were given 10 minutes and everyone got off the bus and all we saw was a sea of people because there was another bus full of soldiers that had gotten there before us. We manage to push our way to the front and we see about 10 tables full of food - cookies, cake, candies, salads, sandwiches, etc. pretty much an entire brunch buffet. It was all free!!! The only catch was that once we got on the bus we got listen to this woman's amazing story of why she decided to give free food to busloads of soldiers.
Twenty years earlier across the street from the bus shelter on the side of the highway which we stopped at, a terrorist with a knife was stabbing a woman who started to cry for help. It was a friday morning and like many bus stations there was a soldier waiting for a bus on his way home from base. The soldier heard the cries for help, subdued the terrorist and ended up saving the life of the woman. A local citizen of the community (this woman who was speaking to us) wanted to do something to show her appreciation for what that soldier did, and what the soldiers do as a whole. The following Friday morning (this is the time that many soldiers are on their way back home from base for the weekend) she showed up to the bus shelter with homemade cookies and handed them out to the soldiers who passed by. She continued to do this every Friday morning with some of her friends. The project began to grow when one morning a soldier asked if she happened to have a sandwich instead of the cookies because he was hungry; the following week she made sure to prepare sandwiches. She began accepting donations from community members - however the donations can only be made in food, she does not accept money. As the project grew, the city asked how they could help her. She said that since the bus shelter is simply on the side of the highway, she wanted a space that was more off the side of the road and safe. The city decided to build a fence where it was cornered off and there was a safe place to park for the buses and passers. Her idea has grown and now there are numerous stations like these around the country where regular citizens hand out free food to soldiers on their way home from base. This woman has been doing this every week for the past 20 years in order to show her appreciation for what the soldiers do for Israel.

I spent shabbat in Jerusalem as a guest on a trip sponsored by the JNF (Jewish National Fund) entitled Greeks Build Israel. It is a trip for students in fraternities and sororities to travel to Israel for one week to do volunteer work. I participated in the trip 2 years ago (and blogged about it here - blog posts from December 28th 2008 - January 6 2009) and they requested that I join them for shabbat and share my experiences about being in the army. We headed to the Western wall with the group to welcome in the shabbat and we had quite a long and wet walk back to the hotel. Our walk brought us through the entire city. I have done lots of walking in Jerusalem, but this walk took me into different areas of the city that I had not seen before as well as areas that I have been to by bus because they are too far away! All in all the walk was about an hour and a half. On the walk back we passed by the Prime Minister's house. I previously had no idea where it was located, but I found it to be quite close to a main intersection that I frequently pass by. This is noteworthy because since September the parents of Gilad Shalit have been sitting outside the house on the sidewalk as a protest to the governments inability to bring back their son from captivity. For those who don't know Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by hamas terrorists about a month before the start of the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Since then his whereabouts are unknown and he has been denied his right to see the Red Cross. More on Gilad Shalit here. His parents feel that the government is not doing enough to get his son released. Outside the Prime Ministers house, on this cold rainy Friday night, his parents were sitting at the shabbat table, singing the prayers and welcoming in the shabbat. There were about 100 people that were standing around the table and joining in with the singing. His parents have vowed not to leave the tent until their son is released from captivity. We only stuck around for about 10 minutes before we continued our walk, but I had the opportunity to see what was going on and now that I know where it is, I will have to make a point in going back.

I apologize for not posting this 2 weeks ago when I was off base, but I did not have an opportunity to get to a computer because I only got 2 days off base. Now that I am in training I spend 11 days on base and 3 days at home.

Year In Review 2010

As 2010 comes to a close, here is a year in review - a complete year spent in the IDF. It started with the completion of my basic training and the start of tank training. I was chosen to be a tank loader - the job that I wanted. I spent the next 2 months learning my job and getting to shoot guns mounted from tanks. I even got the opportunity to drive the tank one day! I received my black beret in completion of this training. In advanced training we did interesting work - learning how to operatethe tank as an entire crew - commander, gunner, loader and driver working together. In addition to getting more familiar with the tanks, I became well acquainted with the outdoors, the desert and the summer heat. At the end of training my tank crew was awarded the outstanding crew within the company. With the completion of all the training, we finally received our warriors pin - indicating that we had become fully qualified combat soldiers in the IDF! I even received the honor of having the company commander give me his personal pin!

After trainig it was time to put that training to 'good' use, where I would guard the border with Lebanon from July until the end of December. All that intense training did not prepare me for the boredom that I was to face. My wide range of responsibilities included standing for extended periods of time, staying awake and maintaining the tanks. Most of the last 6 months was spent outisde, and after a quick estimation, about half of the days (3 months) I spent sleeping in a tank. It's hard to believe that 1/4 of the year was spent sleeping inside a tank.

In October, I had the chance to visit home for 2 weeks - the first time that I had been home in a year and a half.

2011 should be another interesting year. With a bit more than 3 more months left in the army, it should make for some more intersting times as now we will start training in the Golan Heights. With my release in April, it should be interesting to see what life outside the army has in store for me.

Thanks to my loyal readers of the korner. Hope you enjoyed my last year of blogging and will continue to read what life has in store for me in 2011. Don't feel shy to share the blog with friends and family.

Wishing everyone a successful 2011!

Release date

My year and a half of service is quickly coming to a close (Feb 19/2011). Less than 2 months away! What to do afterward??? The release date is towards the end of the training and the most intersting exercizes are to be conducted after my release date - those are the exercizes of the company and batallion levels. I recently asked my company commander what the situation is with my release. He was quick to respond not to worry (apparently, when translated to english, the statement 'dont worry' actually causes the opposite effect! - I'm not sure if thats an army thing or a Hebrew thing). In any case he said don't worry I will get my accumulated vacation days. So where did my vacation days come from, and how many do I have, and why have I decided to save them up? To answer the questions out of order - I have a lot of vacation days and I was forced to save them up. Each soldier gets a certain amount of vacation days a year. If one is a jobnik - comes from the english word job implying that the soldier has a regular day job from 9-5 or something of that matter he can request time of like you would at a regular job. For a combat soldier, its difficult enough getting off our scheduled weekend! Forget about unscheduled personal vacations! So without the option of taking vacation days they get saved up and in essence the vacation is all piled up at the end of my service. With my entitled vacation time practically I would stop working well ebfore the 19th of february, thus I would miss even more of training.

In response to what my company commander told me I was quick to respond that I want to stay on until the end of the training. Needless to say, but he was more than surprised and said it shouldn't be a problem. After taking a look at the schedule for the training I have decided to continue 'working' up until the end of the last training exercize which is of the battalion level. After that, I will get my vacation and then get released on the 10th of April - another month and a half after my original release date - and I will have a bit longer than one month of vacation time - which will start in the month of March.

So why specifically have I decided to sign this extra month? There are several reasons, however the main reason is that I expect the training to be fun - why would I decide not to participate in something that I expect to enjoy? On top of that how often does someone get to participate in a battalion level tank training exercize - 35 tanks! I'd be a fool to pass it up!

Last stare into Lebanon and is now a Sergeant!

Crappy weather
On the way back to base it began to rain again. The entire weekend I had managed to be indoors while it had rained. In the negev desert there were sand storms, whereas in the rest of the country there was rain and even snow in the golan. During the storm there were winds of 100km/hr and the kineret rose by 5cm. While I was at home the rest of my platoon was in the field and said that it did not stop raining for over 2 days straight. They had no dry clothing and could not fall asleep because they were so cold. Simply, it was the best weekend not to be in the army.

The drive from Kiryat Shmoneh to the base took us through 2 extremes of weather. Kiryat Shmoneh sits in a valley between the Golan Heights and the hills by the Lebanese border. As we were driving through the storm in the city and driving upwards into the peaks, we were driving through the rain and the clouds themselves. We couldn't see 10 meters in front of us. Then are all of a sudden we would exit the clouds and the sun would start to blind us as the rays reflect off the water that was on the ground. We looked behind us and could see the massive storm and black clouds in the distance. Looking forwards we saw the next cloud that was just like the last. To our side we see the valley and Kiryat Shmoneh where we came from and the massive low hovering rain clouds over the valley, yet below us. Once we finally made it through the clouds we got to our base where the weather is sunny, and obviously very muddy.

Cleaning the tank
On Tuesday we supposed to join everyone else in the field for another week, but they came back early because of the terrible conditions. Our first task once they arrived was to clean the tank. This was a nightmare because the tank was FULL of mud. It was the type of mud that was hard and had solidified, but it was soft and fresh mud. They split the word up over a day and a half so on the second day I helped the gunner clean the tread tightening system. Its job is to make sure that there is no slack on the treads. In order to clean it you have to first be able to see it. Having never cleaned it before I wasn't exactly sure what specific part needs to be cleaned. I was given the general instructions of start digging in this general area and remove all the mud. The best tools to use is a large metal pole to loosen up the mud, a screwdriver to get to the small corners and mainly your hands. In order to reach the difficult parts I have to reach in with my hand until my shoulder and dig away behind the nooks and crannies. Due to the positioning of my arm I can't even see what im doing otherwise my face will be inside the mud. After digging for over 3 hours I had completed the difficult work and the gunner came to finish off the cleaning. In addition to the cleaning outside the tank I did a fairly thorough cleaning of my sleeping quarters inside the tank (also known as the turret floor). There was a nice layer of mud caked on the floor. To clean it you get on your hands and knees and start scrubbing with a bucket of water and sponge.

Crappy food
In some upsetting news, the reserve soldiers that were on the base with us got switched to the same horrible peopel that were incapable of making and delivering us food. With the reservists there was no cook so we get to make breakfast and dinner for ourselves. Lunch was shipped in from a different base. Nobody had a real problem if we went into the kitchen and searched for something to eat. There was one reservist who happened to know how to cook well and they decided amongst themselves that they would all pic up his hours of guard duty so that he could become the cook. There was always plenty of tasty food to eat. But of course the fun had to end sometime.

Our first shabbat with the new old 'cook' did not go so well. (Here I use the term 'cook' in quotations so you don't get him confused with the reservist that was not a cook but knew how to). The army always seems to give people stupid job titles and tho has no idea what he is doing is misleading and cruel. idea what he is doing is misleading and cruel. We were stuck outside again for shabbat and when we saw what we received for dinner we were excited - chicken wings! When it actually became time to eat, that level of excitement turned to anger. Before I get to that I want to explain how we eat when we are in the field. We receive a container of food, a loaf a bread, forks (if we happen to be so lucky), and usually without a proper place to sit. We don't really have a place to sit, so we put the container on the ground and everyone huddles around it. Upon the arrival of food, 8 hungry soldiers who have anxiously been awaiting its arrival are notified of its presence. I don't really need to explain this any further, I think its quite clear how this plays out. So back to the Shabbat meal - when we sat down to eat the meal, we realized that there was only enough for one chicken wing per person! However, in the 'cook's' defense we also received a leathery piece of chicken breast that was only slightly larger than the size of the chicken wing. There seemed to be one living being that was pleased with the food that we got, and that was a cat who ate the scraps we threw it.
Lunch the next day was no success story either, in fact it was an embarrassment to food. There is typically a traditional Jewish dish cooked for shabbat lunch. Since cooking on shabbat is forbidden, the dish, called cholent or chamim is prepared before shabbat starts and is left for a long time to cook (rule of thumb - the longer the better). The dish typically includes meat, potatoes, beans, and/or rice. I am the last person who would be able to identify ingredients in a cooked dish or describe the process in how it was made, but I will now describe exactly how the 'cook' prepared the meal by sight smell and taste only:
1. Throughout the cooking of the dish do NOT add any seasoning
2. Salt is also forbidden
3. Boil whole potatoes
4. Boil beans
5. Put chicken breasts in the oven and cook them
6. Boil hot dogs
7. Take the potatoes, beans and chicken and add them to the pot of boiling hot dogs
8. This dish is now ready to be served!

I'm not sure if the food looked worse than it tasted or the other way around, but it was simply disgusting. Everything tasted gross and bland with a hint of hot dog water. It looked like boiled hot dogs were left sitting out for a week. People were laughing at us because we actually intended on eating it (only after seasoning the food). In between the 2 horrible meals it rained from 3AM-7AM while I was in the tank. I didn't get soaked because I half closed the hatch, nonetheless it was not fun. The highlight of the shabbat was after it had rained, we made a mud sculpture of a turtle. Yes, we have too much spare time.

Doing nothing
Sunday evening my tzevet was taken to a different base in order to do maintenance on a different tank because my commander had to go attend a 2 day course. We had to do more work than expected, but at least I got a good night sleep in a bed, and even managed to take an afternoon nap the first day. In the early evening we were told that we were returning to base because my commander's course finished early. This was very upsetting news because I was expecting another full nights' sleep and a second easy day. Back at base I was expecting to go back to work right away, but in the end it was decided that we would switch with the other tzevet in the morning. Before going to bed I got to relax and had time to watch the movie - 'the hangover'. After a good night sleep again we woke up only to find out that in the evening we would be making the switch! With only one task to do all day -arrange some equipment that took less than 2 hours I managed to go for a jog and watch 19 episodes of Family Guy!!! All this happened before 7PM when we left for the field to make the switch. I almost completed the entire season 8 of Family Guy in one day in the army. The fact that I was able to do that in the army instead of on my own time made me extremely happy. It is not very often that I can accomplish things in the army that I would normally do on my own time.

More food problems
After those 2 refreshing days we headed back to the shetach for another cold week. While in the field we are supposed to get one meal a day (lunch) from these idiots. I'm not going to get into any elaborate stories, but here is the bullshit we had to deal with:

• One day they did not have enough disposable food trays for us so everyone received the equivalent of half a meal
• the next day we received lunch at 430PM because after running out of food they had to make lunch again specifically for us and then they couldn't be bothered to make a trip specifically to bring us our food
• For saturday lunch they brought us chamim that was more disgusting than last week's - i didn't think it was possible!

My promotion
This past week, on the 20th of December, I got promoted to the rank of sergeant! One might be surprised to find out that it really isn't that big of a deal to get this promotion. I didn't do anything noteworthy, per se and I wasn't recommended for the promotion either. It just happens.After a year and 4 months in the army, everyone gets promoted to sergeant. Practically, what does it mean? On my uniform that I wear in public I get to sew on the 3 strip patch on the sleeve of my upper arm indicating my rank. In addition to that I get a pay raise! Hold onto your hats, because this pay raise is really going to shock you. I get a raise of 2 shekels (about 60 cents).... a month!

The End!!!
After a cold and windy week in the shetach I finally finished my last guarding mission on the Lebanese border!!!! Once I return from my weekend at home at the start of 2011 we will start preparing for 2 months of training in the Golan Heights, which will take me to the end of my service. On wednesday I was supposed to be picked up at 730AM to be driven back to the base so I can prepare to go home. I had thought that the bus comes by the base at 930, so I would have plenty of time to shower, organize my things, and relax a bit. Well, I wasn't picked up from the shetach until 805, and returned to the base at 815. I was then told that the bus was at 830, and not 930. SHIIIIIIIIIIIT!!! If I were to miss this bus, I would have to wait until 1130 for the next one. Lets just say after 17 days on base, one can get ready to go home quite quickly. The bus ended up being a few minutes late, but nonetheless I still would have been on time.

Chanukah

One thing about the army that I extremely dislike is stupid people, stupid orders, stupid people who give stupid orders, and stupid orders carried out by yours truly. So this week started with a mission that takes stupid to a whole new level. Unfortunately I can't describe the mission in detail, but to say it was stupid would be naive. Not only was it a waste of time, and not productive, but I would classify it as being counterproductive. Additionally, doing something for the sake of doing something is just plain stupid. It got to the point that when we started I looked at my commander and without saying anything we just started laughing hysterically for approximately 5 minutes without saying anything. This was the kind of mission that you want to get the commanding officer to come down and do it himself. Afterward I want him to look me in the eyes with a straight face and tell me that this mission is not a complete waste of time and that some good came out of it.

This week was Chanukah - the festival of lights (or as I called it this year, the festival of sufganiyot). Sufganiyot are the traditional jelly donuts eaten on the holiday. It seemed that every day of the holiday (8 days) we got a shipment of sufganiyot from somewhere. Assuming that we would not be getting sufganiyot every day we enjoyed (devoured) them the instant they came. With this procedure repeating itself every day I seemed to have lost track of how many sufganiyot I ate over the holiday. An estimate conducted after the holiday shows that I probably had in excess of 25 sufganiyot over an 8 day period. The only down part of the holiday was that despite the near endless flow of sufganiyot I was not able to choose different flavours - I had to eat what was delivered :-( I was not lucky enough to get off base and to a bakery in time to be able to choose my flavour of sufganiya.

It rained again - this time as we were cleaning the tanks. simply not fun at all - rain, and lots of mud. But one thing I do have to be thankful for was my weekend break when it came. This past weekend the sky finally opened up and it simply poured all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon and evening. Saturday there was also hail and winds up to 100km/hr. Sunday at about 1PM the sky turned pitch black as if it were 10PM and the sky opened up again. All this time I was very thankful to be inside, and nowhere near tanks. I hope that the rain will stop by the time I get back to base.

Sorry for the fairly boring blog post, but at this time my life is just like the blog post - fairly boring. Nothing too interesting to report. Coming up to 6 months while guarding the border with Lebanon its hard to find new and interesting blog material.

New Tzevet

First thing Sunday morning it was back to the army. My first stop before going back to base was to go sign out my gun that I had returned while I was abroad. Once I got to the base where I could sign out my gun I was told by one of my commanders to "hang out and wait - it could be a while" Perfect!!!! This gave me time to hang out with friends on the base and even catch up on sleep. 7 hours later I got my gun and then it was back to the field to get back into the routine.

This week the draft of March 2010 finished training and now joined the pluga - like I did 4 months ago. This means that most of my machlakah (12 people) are new and I have a new tzevet. My driver and gunner are new from training and my commander was previously a commander of mine in the machlakah. We headed back into the field for another week with the only highlight being the weather - temperatures in the mid to high 20s. For half of the week we did not have electricity so I had to conserve my phone battery and therefore couldn't spend most of the day on the internet or talking on the phone. Obviously we were also without running water. Surprisingly the week went by relatively quickly, mostly in part because there were new people around to talk to.

There has also been a huge improvement in terms of the food - not because there were enough complaints to force a change, but because the infantry company that was here was switched to another company of miluimnikim (reservists). This means no more of the crappy cook! The miluimnikim are laid back and they aren't being ordered around with discipline so it makes for a nicer and friendlier atmosphere. For the past few months with crappy food, our company has often brought us additional food or fruits when we are in the field because they know we aren't being treated well with respect to getting the food we need. Just this past week when our company brought us food, and "didn't know what to bring us" so we received a couple of packages of radishes and a 10kg sack of carrots. Needless to say everyone is ecstatic that the miluimnikim have arrived!

I have been spending a lot of time on the tank recently. Over one 55 hour period I spent almost 40 of them in or on the tank. They are really making me work for my money. Once I got to my kibbutz I received my new ID card for combat soldiers. This enables me to ride the buses and trains for free while I'm NOT in uniform!!! Previously I had to be in uniform to receive those privileges. Since I tend to ride the buses a lot while I am off duty its great to finally get this card!

Vacationing in Toronto

*Sorry for not having written this earlier once I returned from Toronto.

After a year and 5 months in Israel, I finally got a chance to go back to Toronto for a short but sweet 2 week visit. It was great to get a break from the army where I didn't have to do any guard duty, and I was able to catch up on some sleep. I was able to eat what and when I wanted, sleep indoors in a bed as opposed to outside in a tank. For the first time in about a half year on any given week I spent more time cleaning myself rather than guns (and the rest of my tank for that matter). I was able to dress myself how I wanted, get changed into clean clothing and not have to sleep with boots on.

During the 2 week visit I managed to avoid a heat wave in Israel, but back in Toronto it endedu p raining 5 or 6 of the 14 days I was at home. Without getting into too much detail, some of my highlights back at home were:

• Attending a Friends of the IDF fundraiser as an honoured guest.
• Going to a Leafs game - they lost in overtime but it was a very exciting game.
• Playing ice hockey for the first time in over 2 years and playing squash with my dad.
• Going back to my university to party with my fraternity brothers and celebrate a friend's birthday.
• In between all these I managed to spend time with lots of family and friends I hadn't seen in ages.

Most importantly while I was at home I spent lots of time eating lots of delicious food prepared by moy mother, sister, and grandmother. In this situation lots is defined as gaining about 10 pounds in 2 weeks. In order to satisfy my dietary needs I had to go and play lots of sports so that I would have room in my stomach to eat more. I managed to spend more time playing sports and being active in the 2 weeks at home than the last 4 months I have spent in the army while sitting on the border with Lebanon. Once I returned to Israel, put on my army pants and attempted to button them up I encountered some difficulty.

After 2 fantastic weeks at home it was time to say goodby andhead back to Israel to complete my last 4 months of army service. I landed to a nice sunny Friday afternoon. I only had to return to base on Sunday morning so I was able to spend Shabbat with a cousin. After Shabbat I headed to Jerusalem but beofrehand I was able to take a spin on one of his Segways which he happened to be s toring at his house for his business. I took about a 20 minute ride around the neighbourhood - it was easy to handle and a lot of fun!

The first rain

I returned to base for 8 days before I headed home to Canada for a 2 week visit. Before I got back to guard duty we had a 2 day break where we spent it sitting around for a bit of a refresher course on some of the things we learned about the communication system within the tank. We also had a lot of free time in the evening and got to eat some much better food because we were on a different base.

I got back to base to continue my normal work. We were getting ready to head out into the field on Friday and the weather was not looking good - calling for rain. I was not looking forward to rain and getting soaked in the field and I was hoping that it would pass. Well, it didn't pass but luckily we missed the worst part of it. All the while we were hoping that the rain would stop. We then found out that due to the rain and other reasons we were not going to the field!!!! After that news we hoped that it would continue to rain so that when we did eventually get to the field we would have missed it all. One thing I learned about the rain is that the water itself and getting drenched can be the LEAST of my problems. Water in Israel is celebrated because there is a major water shortage and this was the first rain of the season. Everyone was very excited about it except for anyone who owns a tank. The problem with the rain is that rain turns the ground into mud, which eventually gets brought into the tank via our boots. So your probably thinking, whats the big deal, so there's a little (or a lot) of mud in the tank, suck it up. Well, true there is nothing we can do about it, and I don't claim to be the biggest neat freak however I would rather not track mud through my 'bed' and 'bedroom' as I also sleep where I work. Luckily, as I mentioned we missed the worst part of the rain and we didn't spend a lot of time in the tank, so it stayed relatively clean. However, expect more interesting blog posts in reference to rain and mud in the future.

So after only 8 days back on base I headed home - back to Toronto!!!!!!!! The week flew by, except for the last day and a half that I was on base, which felt like an eternity. I had a 1AM flight out of Tel Aviv and got to the airport at around 930 only to find out that the plane was delayed by about an hour. Not such a great start to my vacation, but that was the only bump in the road on my journey home. I managed to get a seat on the plane with nobody next to me so I was able to stretch out a bit and get a descent amount of sleep. The best part of the flight was that it was a 12 hour El Al flight without any crying babies - simply amazing! I landed in Toronto at 830AM local time without being jet lagged. Here is a fun fact you probably didn't know about IDF soldiers: we are immune to jet lag. The secret - always being completely exhausted 24 hours a day. With the ability to sleep anywhere and anytime, a 6 hour time change did not make my body any more tired than it already was. It was nice to get home for a 2 week vacation to visit family and friends. After exactly 1 year and 5 months in Israel, I finally get a much needed (in my opinion) vacation.

shetach shetach shetach

After forgetting to go to bed I headed back to base for 14 days and immediately headed to the shetach (the field). The first 10 days were extremely difficult. Not much to explain or elaborate, so here are some of the stats from the first 10 days:

• Days spent with access to running water AND electricity: less than 1/2
• Showers taken: 1, but I was lucky to even have time for that
• Hours spent guarding: too many to count, but for 10 days straight I either did shifts of 2 hours of guarding with a 4 hour break in between or 4 hours of guarding with a 4 hour break in between. Break time does not mean I can do whatever I want, break time is better defined as time not spent guarding.
• Longest consecutive sleep: less than 4 hours.
• Days spent not eating or drinking: 1 (yom kippur). Hours of which spent guarding - 8. Time spent waiting for a meal after not eating for 25 straight hours: 3.5. Ate mediocre cookies and cake in the meanwhile.
• Warm meals eaten: 3
• Mosquito bites on my hands and arms after sitting at a mosquito infested guard post for hours on end at night: 46
• Nights spent awake in a broken down tank instead of asleep in a bed: 1 (more on that to follow).

The first week went by as expected, and not so out of the ordinary with doing 2 hours of guarding followed by 4 hours of not. It didn't help that yom kippur was spent in the field doing a lot of guard duty and not spent indoors. One of our nights that we were supposed to have 'off' - allowed to be inside, sleep in our beds and not the tank, sleep without shoes and fewer hours of guard duty turned into what I mentioned before - an entire night spent awake in a broken down tank.
After we spent an entire day cleaning the tank we were supposed to be given the evening and night off just to hang around and have time to shower, and sleep. Instead, an hour and a half after we finished cleaning we had an exercise where we had to go back and sit in the tank. Usually we don't really do much in the exercises, but this time they had us drive somewhere. On the way there, we managed to take out a fairly descent sized tree branch. Once getting to the destination we waited there a few hours until we could return. On the way back, my driver decided to venture a bit from the middle of the road and end up demolishing some sort of concrete post that most likely was supposed to stay in tact, hence its placement away from the road. Now as we are on our way back all I can think about is getting out of the damn tank and into a bed and indoors where there is both running water and electricity. We had to wake up at 8AM, so I was eager to get into bed by what I was projecting to be about 1130. The only obstacle left was this massive hill that the tank has to climb, which has never been a problem before. Well, what do you know, all of a sudden at 10PM this massive hill is causing us major problems and the tank won't climb it. Here is a brief rundown of the next 7 hours:
Commander attempts to drive the tank up the hill, and fails. Same story for the platoon commander. We then call a D9 bulldozer to pull us up the hill. No success there. Bring in the second working tank. The D9 pulls the working tank which then tows us. SUCCESS!!! Once at the top of the hill we had a couple more hours of tank maneuvering, which were quite similar to the following video clip. The only difference was that each time we went from forward to reverse or visa-versa the working tank had to pull the dead tank from the other direction (remember you can only pull the tank - you can't push it).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLKR9tCiwvA&feature=related
Next, we had to prepare the spare tank for use and close down the broken tank. While this is happening, the sun is rising. 5AM - go to bed. 7AM - wake up for half an hour of guard duty. 730 - grab a quick bite to eat and take a shower before wakeup at 8AM.
So that was week 1. For week 2, as I mentioned we were alternating between 4 hours of guarding and 4 hours of 'break'.
After 2 weeks like that I got a well deserved 5 day weekend (because it included shmini atzeret/simchat torah, which was a holiday). I was also finally given the opportunity to see a dentist which I have been asking for for almost forever. So when was my appointment? On my day off, obviously! Where was my appointment? Literally on the other side of the country! (obviously). Why is that obvious? because I have to go see the dentist for my battalion, and my battalion is all the way up north. As if I didn't hate the dentist enough to begin with, I had to wake up at 6AM (on my day off!!!!) to get to my dentist appointment at 12PM. So I ended up spending the better part of the day riding buses instead of enjoying my weekend.

Back to base for 9, but hopefully 8 days before I get my vacation time to go back to Toronto!!!!