Finished Basic Training

A month after I first started basic training and the course attached to it, my time at Michveh Alon is finally over. It’s been an exhausting month, I never thought that I could really push myself on as little sleep and as much activity as I did. I made many close friends, and I hope to see most again soon at the courses we will eventually be sent to. One of my instructors told me the Hebrew equivalent of: “you’re a small cog in a huge machine, but everyone is important to make things work”. It was at times hard, cold and snowy, but somehow it all worked out well in the end.

We ended things off last week with a couple days in Jerusalem. For the first time, I got to see the Old City, the Jewish Quarter, Yad VaShem (the Holocaust museum), and Ammunition Hill from a new perspective. Going back to places I had been a million times before in uniform made a profound impact on me, and for the first time, I really started feeling like a soldier. We had a tekes (ceremony) at the Western Wall; everyone stood at attention and sang Hatikva (The Hope, the national anthem on Israel). I remember all the times I walked by and saw the same ceremony when I was younger, being on the inside and experiencing it first hand really made me feel a part of something much bigger, serving for something important and real. Being in uniform around civilians made a huge impact, it’s easy to forget everyone is dressed the same while on a base with thousands of people. When you stand out and are always aware you are different it really makes you think.

Next week is my swearing in ceremony, and my first assignment. I will be sent to a new base, and new job, and my first adventure with a bit of independence. Not having someone tell me what to do and where to be every second is going to be an interesting change, but I am glad I made it through tiranut (basic training).

So much to write about, I hope to catch up in the upcoming months when I have more time.

The second week summation

The second week of my adventure in the army is over. It’s been a great week with tons of learning, many more push-ups, lots of new words, and plenty of new friends. My group has really been coming together this week, and we are starting to work as a team. It’s very difficult to make it through the challenges of each day, its great to have so much support from the group. Soldiers in our unit come from Canada, the US, India, Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Switzerland, Hungary, France and Israel, and that’s just my immediate unit. Each seventeen or eighteen hour day has been planned second by second, and it’s been a very good week. I don’t have much time off this weekend, and will be in for the next two weeks. Thanks to everyone for their calls and emails, here are some highlights from the weeks past in basic training.

Chanukah in the army was really nice, the sufganiot were not that great, but seeing the candles and singing Chanukah songs at dinner time made it really special.

The army is much like an archeological excavation with less digging and more running. The sleep depravation, immediate chain of command, and endless activity seem very familiar, and I think I am adapting well to army life.

I have met officers from our unit and those in charge of the base. Everyone really knows what they are doing, and from our drill sergeant all the way up, I think we are in good hands.

You can never have enough gumiot. They are the small elastics which hold your pants up, and having many spare on and can really be a life saver when they get lost at least once a day.

I figured out how to properly put on my uniform, it looks a lot better now and I finally feel confidant that I look like a soldier. I also learned how to properly tie my boots, one of the more critical soldering skills to have.

While standing in formation a couple nights ago, it started snowing on all of us. The snow was a reminder of Canada, although my Dad told me that they don’t have much snow yet, a bizarre reversal.

In the rain/snow this week there was a magnificent rainbow right off the base, it was by far the clearest and closest I have ever seen a rainbow.

I now know all the parts of the M-16 in Hebrew and can field strip and reassemble it in about 1:20. I am hoping with more practice I can get it down to under a minute.

My first sit-ups of the army turned out to be more like modified crunches, several hundred more and I are sure I will get the hang of it. I am getting much better at pushups, my daily high is around 100 with 20 at one go.

Rain, snow, cold, wind, and hail all made better by insanely strong army tea laced with enough sugar to kill a horse.

Much more detail and many more stories during my next leave, sorry for being so short, but I have to get back to sleep and try to do some more catching up.