Wednesday, February 8, 2012
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.
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.
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.
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