The End

So now I am done with the army after 14 months, it might not be like the 3 required years that Israelis have to do but it is different since I left home and came to volunteer on the other side of the world. It started from the day I got on uniform , I looked in the mirror and said "wow I'm actually here" it was a really good feeling. I decided to join a combat unit who's main purpose is to guard the borders of the country and go to war if one breaks out. In the beginning you are just in shock because of what is going on around you. All the sudden you are getting told what to do 24/7, your whole day is being timed and you have someone set your schedule for you weather you like it or not, you can't sleep when or as long as you want . Day is night or you can say night is day, because here it doesn't really matter since work is work and it has to get done. The physical part started with a 3 kilometer hike where they put the water jug on my back which weighed around 20lbs , ill never forget how tired I was after those 30 MINUTES!! 7 months later we finished a 60 kilometer hike which took 12 hours and I had 80lbs on me ;see any improvement? That's just one example that shows how hard work pays off. Did I mention I was also chosen to be the machine gunner aka "Magist" hence the the name of my gun "MAG" . After the training we went to guard the Lebanon border, which was quiet and not so dangerous until something actually happens, and when something happens there its usually something big. We ended up on being there for only a month since it fell out on our schedule that we have another 3 months of training in Nevi Mousa which turned out to be the hottest , most disgusting , deserted and depressing army base and place in the world in my and many others opinions. During those 3 months I had a few of the hardest physical times of my life. This is when we got split up into different sectors. I was chosen along with a bunch of other people to be taken to a demolitions course. We learned how to blow up and destroy almost everything in many ways. We then got transferred and were together with the soldiers that have been in the army longer than us. Next stop,the Gaza border . The most dangerous one in the country. We were in charge of almost the whole top northern border. Our job , to protect all of the people living near there. Also stopping terrorist from crossing the fence coming into Israel and trying to either kidnap soldiers (us) or kill innocent people. Did we get shot at ;yes .Did we have 3 seconds instead of the 30 most people get to run to the bomb shelters when they shoot rockets ;yes. Did we driver along the border knowing at any second we can be he by laser guided missiles that the terrorist have and want to use against us; yes. Did we get anywhere from 0- 5 hours of sleep for a few weeks at a time ; not shower for days and sometimes weeks, not eat any food that was even close to as good as the food you eat at home. I wasn't connected or updated to most things on the outside world, music , TV ,movies and regular things that you see on the news. I knew that at any second a war can break out and I can find myself in Gaza , Lebanon and who knows where else, but you feel ok with it since you trust the guys that you are with. My overall experience was amazing , a year and a half in Israel might not seem like too much but I feel like I always lived here. I learned a lot , made a lot of friends and felt like I did a meaningful thing . When I first got here I could never see my self living here but after being here for some time you realize that you never want to leave. I flew back on January 9th 2012, I already see my self coming back soon. I might of told you only 1% of my story but If could do it all over again I would in a second.

Nevi Mousa Training base (Aka Hell)

Nevi Mousa Training base (aka hell)

5km hike with stretchers to Nevi Mousa to start our 3 month training, there were fireworks when we got there but that was probably the nicest thing we will see in the next 3 months. So I got chosen to go to a demolition course with some of my guys. It was a 3 week course where we learned how to blow up rooms, doors, fences, almost anything. We also learned how to navigate through a mine field. We practiced with many types of explosives. C4 , tnt ..you name it. I found out that demolitions is one of the
hard things to learn in the army and I got a 90 on the course in Hebrew!

We had our first exercise after a lot of classroom preparation. We walked a few miles and when we got to the building that we had to get to we blew up what we had to and finished.We had a close quarter demolitions exercise too the next day. We learned how to shoot the Simon ..look it up on youtube its kidna cool. During the course there was a 25 hour fast we were down south near Eilat in the summer in tents. Defiantly the hardest fast I ever had.


TARGAD
We started one week on a Monday something called a targad (targil gdudi)
(Brigade exercise)
We didn't know what to expect, how hard it would be when we would have breaks
and when the week ends. Around 300 soldiers met at the meeting spot near the dead
sea. We ate dinner and started to walk, everyone has at least 40 percent of
Their body weight in a bag. I happened to have 60 percent with all my machine gun ammunition and the gun of course (around 105lbs) lucky me. We walked a few miles and got to a checkpoint for a break, we refilled water, and by the way we
only have a few sandwiches for the next 12 hours. We got to a point where out
company commander told us we are about to have a pretty hard uphill walk. So
usually we say ok maybe it'll be an hour or two. We start walking this was like on a 70 degree slope, some of the hardest terrain I ever walked on. After the first FEW hours my legs were just in terrible pain. My sides are cut up from my
vest and you don't ever see the end on these uphill hikes. Well you do see the
top and think its the end but it never is. Let's just say 8 hours later we
finished it was around 10 miles uphill. I got to the top with help from other
people of course. There was breaks throughout he night but not that they help,
they just get you angry since you have to stand up after sitting for a few
minutes and continue walking. We got to the top just to find out we have another
2 hours of walking to the place where we have our first exercise. We started
walking , as fast as I can which was not fast at all.. We got to the exercise
mountains at around 6am. The exercise started a little bit after. So I loaded my
machine gun a we started to go. Usually we would have to run up mountains and
shoot ..this time it wasn't really a mountain, more like a wall you had to use
your hands to get up , except the wall was around 200 feet..(Really steep
mountain , if you fall back you might fall off) so we start running I know once
I get to the top I can shoot a lot of ammunition to the mountain on the other
side which would make whatever I'm carrying much lighter. So I had some
motivation to get to the top. Finally got there and did what I said I would.
There were tanks shooting , mortars, snipers, apc's and a lot of explosions.
Cool seeing a whole brigade work together. We finished the exercise at around
11pm and walked to the checkpoint where we can fill up on water have food . And
sleep until the sun weakens(you can't sleep in this heat no matter how tired you
are) . Did I mention that I was sweating from head to toe , my shoes were wet
from sweat. We filled up on water and got ready to go walk to the night exercise
a few miles away. We got there and saw that we are doing a down hill exercise ,
so I thought it would be easy. This one was a dry run and live fire one. After
the dry one you have to walk back up the hill you just went down, same thing for
the live one. We finished those 2 exercises and found out some new. Remember the
mountain we just climes last night? Were going right back down it tonight, not
as hard but painful on the knees. During the down hill at night ( it got to a
point where it was as hot as day during the night since we are near the dead
sea... We stopped for a long water break. We walked down and got to the next day
exercise after 12 hours of walking . I was sweating more than I ever did in my
life . A high ranking officer in the army said all of his service he never saw
anyone sweat like me. We got to the day exercise , we had "enemies" shooting at
us with blank rounds and we decided what we had to do at that second. This
exercise took around 2 hours and we finished after walking uphill some more.
After that we found out that we have to walk to the checkpoint . At this point
it was already 11 which means it is too hot to even be in the sun and we have
around an hour walk to the checkpoint. We finally made It there after taking
some stops in the shade. We had another break until the sun weakens, today the
sun was stronger than yesterday , I couldn't even sleep in the shade every where
you walked it feels like you just opened a hot oven. We were suppose to take
helicopters at 6pm to a fake town and take over the town, but the helicopters
got cancelled. Instead we took buses to the spot. We go there at 9. When I say
spot I mean miles away from it. We had to walk there , we started walking around
10pm got there at 5am , this wasn't as hard since it wasn't too much uphill. We
started taking over the city at 7am , it was like a real war, explosions in your
face , blanks shooting everywhere , injured people screaming. They took over
every house room by room until 10am . We finished and carried stretchers with
people on them a few kilometers until the end where we had a ceremony , shwarma,
schnitzel and hamburgers waiting for us. One thing I can say " it was the
physically hardest week of my life, but don't think I ever felt more
accomplished.

Next week we had a trip with my group of guys to ein gedi , we also slept by the
dead sea , they had karaoke ,bbq, went into the water slept right near the water
. Relaxing after the last week of hell. The next day they went to a water park
but I didn't go since I volunteered to stay on base for shabbat where I don't
like to be since no one is there except for a 5 people. After the water park
everyone got on there off base uniform ready to go home. Then they were
told.......that they are all going back to base . Something happened and they
needed everyone to be on base. Terrible for them but good for me , now I have
people to be with for shabbat.

Tarchat

So on saturdy night a commander came up to me and said I was picked along with a
few other people to people with the head of the unit in next weeks tarchat
(targil chativati) (unit exercise, something big containing thousands of
soldiers)

My knee is messed up from 2 weeks ago so I said ill go if I don't have too much
weight. So he said fine you'll take your regular gun and some radio.
I said "ok" shouldn't be a problem...I was also told we are only walking 10
miles from sunday until wednesday. So I went to go sign on the equipment I'm
taking . IT IS ALMOST HEAVIER THAN MY MAG.
We left Sunday afternoon to the meeting point in the south of Israel. So my bag
was a heavy radio with an extended and something else that I have no idea what
it does, plus water Its HEAVY. Its all in a army hiking bag. So all the weight
pushes down on your shoulders the whole time. We started the walk at 9pm.. there
was inclines and sand to walk in , rocks.."Enemies" attacking us randomly out of
no where. We walked until 10am .. That's 11 hours.. (I thought after 2 weeks ago
it could not get any harder) We got to the checkpoint where we waited for our
APC's to take us. We got in them and drove down south all day we got to a small
town we had to takeover which took a few hours . After that we took the APC's to
a huge checkpoint with thousands of soldiers from every unit in the army. It
crazy too see how the army would work in a war. We slept outside on the floor
all night . Finally got some sleep. In the afternoon we left to our first
exercise of the day .It was extremely hot outside and we had around 4 miles to
walk throughout the exercise. It was crazy. Tanks, artillery, attack
helicopters, 50.caliber machine guns, til orev, explosions, plus over 100 people
on foot taking down targets everywhere. There was a lot of high ranking people
watching the exercise including the Ramatkal (head of he army). This exercise
took around 4 hours we got to the next checkpoint on top of a hill . We had a
few hour break . All the high officers got a new operation that we had to do. So
they were planning on how we would do it. We had 6 cans of tuna and some
packaged meat for 12 people for the next 20 hours its no where near enough .We
left around 9pm and walked a few miles to the next checkpoint. All in DEEP sand.
Which just makes everything harder. I didn't think that it would be like that
the whole time .. We had a break until 11pm . Then we started walking . We see a
town, Miles down.. A fake town but the realest fake town in the world. We had to
make in there by 4am and have the whole town under control before 11am. We got
there finally after walking in deep sand for 5 hours. We went into the town, as
always explosions everywhere "enemies" shooting at us, highly trained dogs.
Surveillance drones. This town has everything broken down cars, street lights ,
anything that would be in a regular town and 100's of buildings and houses even
10 story buildings. After 15 miles all night, We finally took over the whole
city with over 1000 people and made it to the end where there was a ceremony and
some of the best food I ever had in the army. Steaks, schnitzel, chinese food,
salads , sodas. I learned something , never think something can't get harder
...it always can, and will.

First Week On Kav

First week on Kav

Lilach
We were on the Lebanon border for a month right on the fence. One of the quieter places in the country , until something happens and when it happens its something big over there. We are on non stop duty , due to the low amount of soldiers we had on our small base.
17 days Feels like a long day that just gets light and dark out, because its
over 400 hours that you constantly have something to do every few hours , if its guarding the border in bunker, stakeouts near the fence or patrols on the fence in armored hummers.

I got off base for a day and lucky me…I get tickets for J walking and not shaving while on uniform. It could have been a 35 day punishment but I got out of it.

Back on base back to no sleep
You think a lot like on July 4th for an example where am I and where are my friends. I’m Lebanon border watching cars of Hezbollah leaders pass by while your friends are at BBQ’s, watching fireworks, parties. If I had to see any fireworks it would probably be a bombing.

MAY/JUNE 2012

May
---------

This week was advanced shooting week so we shot and shot and shot all week. We also had the practice run for the contest against the other units, a 2km run with full equipment and 1k with an open stretcher with someone on it. Then you shoot 6 bullets right after

The unit with the highest score wins. We shot this week from morning to midnight everyday. We had a run once a  night, 800 meter sprints , 4 times.. One of the hardest runs I've ever done and right after we had a 2.5km regular run. I haven't showered all week since we were in the field. I think this is the worst smell I ever had.

On Yom Hazikaron , I went with the other lone soldiers from my unit to a memorial ceremony for Machal soldiers that have been killed in Israel’s wars. Machal are volunteers from outside of Israel who serve in the IDF

Some families  flew from around the world to come to this small ceremony. There was people there that had stories about how they fought in the six day war..and they had around 1 gun for every 3 people. One guy that was there was in the first draft the IDF ever had. He said they got off the boats, received a gun and went straight to war.
Very interesting ceremony. At night I went to the Kotel there was a huge ceremony with the head of the IDF.

Yom Haatzmaut was a crazy day to be in Israel. There are parties everywhere. I hung out in Tel Aviv that night, all night

This week we learned what to do with APC's (armored personal carriers) We drove in them all day, these are really old ones that they use for practice so they aren't so good .Kind of dangerous honestly. Kind of fun as well. We only needed a day to learn everything about it.  We had a 8k run this week..


We stayed on base for Shabbat, and go ready for shavuah machlakah.

Exercises, 30 people at once. We walk all day and run up mountains  with all of our equipment. Learning different formations.
This is one of the hottest weeks I've ever been through. To a point that it is dangerous to do anything so we got some breaks. People were passing out left and right. 2 in the hospital since they were bitten by leeches in the middle of the night.

The sleeping area was on an incline on rocks. I walked around all day with my Mag and when it came down to shooting, it didn't work. (All the equipment and guns you have for training is usually older and not in as good condition)

 The last night we took helicopters to the starting point of our 10km heavy weight hike, w stretchers in the end.

We ended the hike back on base around 1am. We had a BBQ donated to us by someone in our unit. Some of the best meat I ever tasted. We were supposed to get off for the weekend but something happened so we didn't. My mefaked , told us that night that he is leaving to officers course. So we got to beat him, kind of fun.
My beard was full since it was still the omer  And the black face paint + not showering all week+ being covered in dirt , let's just say I didn't look so good. We finally got time to shower. I open the water to find out that the hot water isn't working!!


This week we have our Masa Kumta (Beret March) last hike around 60km (35 Miles)  8km of them being with an open stretcher. We started getting ready around 5pm we painted our faces. Fixed up any equipment that had any problems. We took a bus to the starting point of the hike. We had a meal there before we started. Good food for once. We sat down and waited for them to say we were starting. Everyone was excited and happy that its our last one. Even though we know its going to be extremely hard. We started the hike at 7pm . I had my Mag this hike as usual . I remember the first hike we did 3km and it was hard . I was thinking then how would I ever do more. We started the first 6km .They are usually one of the harder parts of the hike. We are 120 people. With 3 more groups of around 100 people behind us. After 15km I tripped and fell into a hole hit my knee and then my gun fell on top of it .

Now I have knee pains and I'm limping the whole time. We got to the halfway line. There was a pretty good meal. This was around 2 am.  Right after the food break we had a huge mountain to climb it was dark and we couldn’t see the end . Everyone is pushing everyone with a lot of weight up the mountain. The next break someone dehydrated, scary thing to see. Its now 5am and the sun started coming out. The guy that is in charge of all 600 people joined our hike. Once it got light out we knew we were almost done. We got on the road finally.

 This road led to Masada, at the back end.

We opened the stretchers when we had 8km left we were on the top of the mountain and can see Masada all the way down miles away. At this point no one can walk but everyone continues. I held the stretcher as much as I could until my legs almost collapsed.

We had our last break before the end and a taxi pulled up on the street, it was my father..

He found the place where the hike was!! I ran to say hi and continued the masa. He was waiting for me at the end...only parent that actually came.

We finished on the bottom of Masada. After the hike we walked up Masada..I think that was harder than the hike. We had a ceremony at the top. Everyone was so happy it was over. It took 12 hours. We took buses back to base. Walking was close to impossible at this point. There was obviously no hot water when we got back. It was also hard to sleep from the flies. I got to sleep a bit though.

I got off in the morning; since my father was here and we went for dinner by this sick meat restaurant. Some of the best food I've had in a while. We had a ceremony Thursday where we got out berets. Lime Green ones. I was with my father all week.

JUNE

We were on base up north this week.  We learned about the army hummers and about bunkers on the countries borders. We had a lot of classes I can't speak about.

We had to go back to base next week for a day.
We had the competition 2km and 1 km with a stretcher run and the shooting. Home for shavuot I ate by my friends cousins house

We got back next week . We had a exercise competition with all the people on base. It was also about who's equipment looked and was set up best. We had a meeting with the Mem Pey since we have shavua milchama -war week -next week.

For Shabbat I was in shetach with 5 other people we had to watch the tanks that were there until Sunday where we started the shavuah milchama.
3 hour exercise, walking until night 3 hour exercise, walking until 7am ,3 hour exercise - walking all day, 3 hour exercise, then a building exercise, a hike to the mountain in Arad where we finished the week. After the first night I got hypothermia, hard week though,  6 days no shower or brushing my teeth, we got our loochem (fighter) pins for our shirts.

The second to last night on base we got some other things, hats shirts.. And did imitations of our commander’s, was a  fun night.

The night after we had a  Ceremony " sof imun mitkdem" (end of advanced training). Concert , comedy show, with all the plugot plus awards.

Cleaned up the base before we leave for good, were done with all of our training now. Heading up north to guard the borders for a whileYou still train every once in a while though. Ill keep it updated.

April

April- Week 1

 On Sunday morning we met at the Kotel and we started we had a week of learning about specific army things we need to know about

We got to the place we were staying for the week, we walked into the rooms , they had AC , beds, clean showers, for us its like a 5 start hotel even though its like a regular place like a Holiday Inn.

We got to the first meal and the food was actually amazing, something you would eat at home. We knew it was going to be a good week from now.

We had classes on a lot of thing, some were on why we are here and what are job is, classes on army morals, lessons on enemy countries, speeches from different people, one being an older guy that was in the second Lebanon war. The classes were actually very interesting, can't really get into details though.

Of course every night we had runs, this place was down hill so every run we did was all up hill, very hard. We finished this week knowing we are going to be in the field.  Big transition from the a/c rooms with beds to the ground outside in a sleeping bag. Off for Shabbat. I had Friday night dinner with some guys from the draft before me who are also in Nahal.  A few of us ate at their parents house and we had a good meal whoch cant hurt once in a while.

I bought a lot of food for the field this week. I always say I'm going to go home early so I won't be tired all week but of course I get 3 hours before I go back to base.

Week 2
I got to base Sunday and we left for the field Monday morning.

Shavuah Kita. We learned how to fight together as a group. Basically what I did all week was run up mountains with a lots of weight and drop down shoot my machine gun run up more and do it again all week day and night. We also walked around a lot. We started having same longer meal times so we can make the food a bit better. We burntt the tuna, open it up put toilet paper in the oil and light it. Comes out really good.  I obviously bought whole wheat bread for the field, white bread isn't that good coming from the army. Plus I had my protein bars and dried fruits.

We walked back to base 6km hike with 40% body weight on you. I didn't have to do more since I have 50% already. I wasn't feeling well so didn't end up doing the hike anyways in the end. You would think they could at least have the hot water working after a week in the field when we get back but no we took semi cold showers. We went to sleet at 430 am
Woke up 11 to find out there is a lone soldier speech soon for all the lone soldiers on base.

We had a very high ranking officer speak to us and he gave us something for pesach. Shabbat was on base, we had to guard also, so tiring...there is a hangout room on base with cable tv that they let us use for the first time and somehow the AC caught on fire , so that was done with quickly. I woke up Saturday morning dripping sweat and my feet sun burned since the tent doesn't close all the way and my bed is too small so my feet stay off , and what also woke me up were all the flies we had in the tent.

Very relaxing no? After Shabbat we had to help kosher the kitchen for passover. 30 people 8 hours and it was done 3am . A lot of work.

Week 3
I had seder on base along with a different part of Nahal. There were a lot of Americans so we ended making out own table. Food wasn't like at home but what can you do. Wednesday morning we woke up 4am to get ready for out 23 mile hike. I'm with full equipment for it too, around 70lbs. We took an hour long bus ride to the place we are walking. We started and the first 5 miles were up and down hill. It was getting really hard so I have a MAG helper sort of. So he took my gun while I held the ammo and we switch off because it is just so heavy. The whole hike your thinking of ways you can get out of this but you don't want to at the same time. I walked with 2 pulled hamstrings for the last few hours of the hike. It was also pesach so there isn't much to eat either besides for matzah. We finally finished the hike after 9 hours . We got pin for our beret they says Foot soldiers in hebrew  hayal raglayim.
I couldn’t walk normally for a week after the hike.
I'm fine now though. On base after Shabbat we had a night which we don't sleep. We work on our equipment until the morning and have it all checked by a high officer. I went Home for holiday on Monday morning extremely tired from not sleeping. I went to my cousins for a really good meal. Had to be back on base the next morning.

Week 4
This week we had Lashab, which is close quarters combat. We learned some really interesting and cool things. How to storm building and stuff. Short week but we are going to learn more of it. We brought so many sauces for the food in the field this week. Anything goes after eating plain tuna for so long. We got off for shabbat after this week . Back on base for sunday for the next month of training.

March

We had the last week of basic training and we basically closed up the base and got ready to move on to the new base. The first week on the base we just had to guard and set up the base before we have our break in between basic and advanced training.

On the weekend on went to my cousins for Shabbat dinner, feels like home there. Now I was doing something on Sunday night that I don't usually do to often. I'm flying to America to surprise my friends and family. :) I got special permission from the army to stay a few extra days.

My father is the only one who knew I was coming. I packed and got on my flight Sunday night. I got to NY Monday March 7^th around 6am . I got my bags and took a taxi back to my house. It was so weird being back in New York for the first time in 8 months.

Everything is basically the same but still feels weird. I walked inside with my suitcase and bags quietly

 First thing I heard was the morning routine of my mother screaming " Sarah wake up" 100 times. So my sister Flora stood behind her and watched me walk in. My mother didn't see me at first. Then I repeated after her " Aarah wake up !!"" and my mother turned around screaming .

It was soo funnnyy!! I told her I was going to be in the field all week so I can't talk all week.

 I surprised all of my close friends one by one. I visited my school, family and cousins.

It was crazy; having the freedom to drive somewhere, eat my mothers amazing food, go out at night, have my laundry done right..(I think I ruined all my clothes already) watching tv for the first time in a while, being able to shower every day, even 2 times a day.

While I was enjoying all my freedom I knew I still had to go back and do what I have to do so after 10 days at home I said goodbye to everyone again on Wednesday afternoon and made my way to the airport with my family.

I arrived in Israel Thursday March 17th went out with Flora for a few hours at night as she was in Israel and had to be on base Friday morning, just so I can be there for Shabbat.  I was so jet lag but I still made it to base even if I was 3 hours late.

Spent Purim on the base which was kind of interesting and different

The week of the 21^st was a week on training for a competition against other units in shooting, krav maga, physical fitness and studies (about the army) . My group participated in the physical fitness and studies. The part of the physical fitness that we took part in was the obstacle course. Its a really hard course that you have to finish in around 10 minutes or less.. (You have all your equipment on and your gun, you start off with a 1.5km run then the next run is also 1 km with obstacles which include, a 6ft wall you have to jump, monkey bars, dip bars to go across, a rope you climb (I got it with no legs :) ) a gate you squat under and walk, a hole to jump through, crawling and a few other things.

Then to finish it off there is a last 1km run around the track and youre done. Extremely hard. Everyone in my group passed that day. The studying and test was hard for me in Hebrew so I didn't do to well on that.

One day this week we had a run in the morning, a lot of running and shooting exercises all day, then later on fitness test that we take every few months. Max pushups 76, max situps 86 I got max in the pushups and situps but the 2k run I got in 8:35. Its getting better. After all that we had dry exercises, which involves a lot of crawling and practicing positioning and getting dirty.

 I spent the weekend in Tel Aviv with a few friends. Sunday morning I went straight to Jerusalem where I had to be Sunday morning. It happened to be me and 7 other guys were chosen to represent the Nahal unit in an event that students come to so they can get an idea of which unit they want to join in the army. We had to explain to them about whatever they asked. There was even Americans there. So I got to do some explaining in English. It was a fun 2 days overall.

We did have to sleep 9 guys in the back of a truck one night but besides for that it was great. We also got to go home Tuesday night and come back to base Wednesday morning, which was amazing to sleep at home for a night. This week we finished up our guarding schedule and went home for Shabbat. I got a total of 20 hours max of sleep this week.

Friday night I went to a lone soldier dinner, which is held by the Michael Levin lone soldier center sometimes on Friday nights. There are around 300 people at this dinner usually and we all had a good time.

1/30 -2./27

1/30-2/5

Sunday

Woke up early and was put to work on the base for the day but I had guard duty for like 4 hours anyway

It started to rain hard so the commanders decided they were going to do some practice drills. Shooting positions, crawling, and running. I was soaked covered in dirt, and freezing for the rest of the day.

Monday

We practiced our shooting all day and it rained too hard so we couldn’t shoot at night, and we were supposed to sleep in the field but didn't end up doing that

Tuesday

Shooting ranges again. At the end of the day we had to start drinking our canteens. Which usually means we have a masa (long march). We ended up having a huge workout class with the whole plugah. It was a workout that the American army uses to get stronger quickly.

Wednesday

Today is the last day of shooting for basic training. We had night shooting that was horrible because it was freezing outside and you can’t move

2/6-2/12

Sun-
Got to base normal time. We go to the field tomorrow. I am prepared with a lot of protein bars. I live off them. We set up camp at an old shooting range. We trained on 4 different mountains the whole week. Every meal the whole week was, Tuna, beans, corn, canned pineapple, halva(sesame snack) water.
 Very hard to sleep in these small tents that fit no more than you and your equipment, but you have 2 people and the equipment.
No shower all week, your covered in oil from the tuna, and gun oil, and dirt, and who knows what else.

We did a run with all our equipment on this week. Very hard. Then dry exercises, for a few hours was hard but fun. Thursday morning we woke up to find out we have a long masa (hike) 16+3km (12 Miles) . You get a rush of energy when you find out.I brought some sucking candies for everyone in my pocket , to give some energy

.I was with my Mag. It’s a heavy machine gun and not comfortable to hold. My leg muscle pulled in the middle and I switch guns with someone.
At the end they put me on the stretcher since I'm heavy. It was cold out so .I was wet from sweat, on the stretcher was freezing!! We were given watch covers after the hike, which we all earned.

Back to base finally, Cleaned all our equipment had lunch, first real food all week, hamburgers, I must of had 10.
Cleaned my guns in oil, the Mag and M-16, took over an hour
Heard a long speech from a guy that was in the second Lebanon war, can't write about it. Went to the showers late to take a 30-minute one when no one was there and back to my apartment for the weekend

Saturday

My high school (magen david) came to Israel on a trip and they invited us to eat and sleep with them for Shabbat and saw a lot of people form school.

2/13-2/19

Sun

Back on base, they put me as a worked for the day in the storage area. Worst job u can get.


Monday
We have classes on everything for our test tomorrow, tests on all we learned so far in training and you have to pass.


Tuesday
Tests on everything, the test are written and some you actually have to demonstrate that you know what you are talking about.
Wed

Wednesday
Suppose to be barur in the morning. 2k run, pushups and sit-ups, to see how much you improved but we didn't end up doing it. We went to the shooing ranges to take some more tests.
We got split up into groups for sport day tomorrow. They told me I would be in the sprint races, arm wrestle and tug of war.

Thursday
We got to Arad early in the morning to start the sports day. It was different plugot competing against us in  931. There were over 1000 people there. The sports played were arm wrestle, volleyball, soccer, basketball tug o war and sprint races. I ended dup playing in tug of war but we didn't win. Our plugah ended up winning the army history contest.

Friday

I ate by my dads friend for Shabbat in the Citadel which was really good and then went to my friends house for his birthday.


2/20-2/27

Sun
Got to Base late, had permission. Had to go to the bank and a few more things. Got to base 7pm.

Mon

We went to the field after we learned about what we will be doing there. Did a lot of exercises all week.

Tuesday

More exercises all day.
We had a run 5.5km. Longest I ever ran and it wasn't hard surprisingly.

Wednesday afternoon

They served us potatoes from the lunch room. Since we have a 26km Masa in a few hours. We started the masa around 2pm. I was with the Mag. I knew it was going to be hard. We started on flat land after an hour. We had a small break then it all went "uphill" from there. 8km uphill.

Hardest hour and a half of my life I think. My leg muscles pulled at least twice, everyone is pushing each other up.

The sun is still up so your sweating 10 times more then you usually would. And once we got up it was a relief since we knew we were going down hill. We got down and then had another 4 hours to go. We continued on until we had a food break. I ate everything they brought. We got to the last 4 kilometers and opened the stretcher. We put one heavy kid who became dehydrated today on it. And carried it for the last hour. We got back to base and finished outside our rooms. Hardest masa so far. We ended up getting our fleeces on Friday with the unit name on it for finishing the masa

Fri/Sat

We went to a Kfir base near Jerusalem, They were short some people for their real guard duty on Shabbat.

So a few of us were called up to go and guard a specific area for Shabbat with Kfir.

Happened to be a fun and met a lot of American tourist and an American soldier on the base from Texas.  He gave me his sling from the Mag which is much more comfortable then mine.
Going back to base now to finish the last week of basic training with guard duty and some other things that I'm not sure of just yet.

Moving to our advanced training base next week for two months.