It's been a bit more than two months since I've joined the army, but I feel that during this short time I've done much more than in my entire high school years.
I'll start, of course, in the beginning.
As a citizen of the state of Israel, I'm required at age 17 to make my first step into the army recruitment base, there they do some medical tests and some other stuff, which later determinate whether I'm fit to service or not, and if I am, then at which unit.
A year later, after finishing high school and all the final exams, the army comes for you again, this time, you don't get by so easily, this time, it's for real.
At the 31 of July, 2005, I've set foot in the recruitment base, where I've been given uniforms, army boots, a dog tag and a number. At this point, I'm a soldier, instead of an I.D card, I have a soldier verification document. That sums everything up.
I spent that night in the base, together with another 300 teenagers, who are all in the same situation as I am, and most of us were destined to reach the same spot.
The 2nd day has only now began, and we were already loaded into the buses, away from the big city of Tel-Aviv, and onto the desert base known as BISLASH (in Hebrew, an acronym for armored vehicles school), which for the past two months (and the next two as well), will be referred to as The Base.
It's quite impossible to describe all that happens, it's like packing your whole life experiences: your family, your friends, your mentors, your daily schedule, all into two months.
If you've read my first post, before I started my service, you might remember that I was very skeptic about making new friends and getting along with people over there. However, I'm glad to say that I worried for nothing, the people whom I now share my life with are a great bunch, I could go on for decades on each of them, I'll simply start by describing the eight people who stayed in the same room as me.
1. Igal- archaeology crewmember #1 he's been in the army four months earlier than us, but he was in a non combatant unit, he transferred to the armored corps since his brother is an officer at the 401st division, he's probably the reason why our class (the 2nd structure, about 20 people) looks the way it looks. If not for him, I probably couldn't have stand everything& he's a great person, he always smiles, even when everybody else cries. His role in the tank is charging the shells into the cannon.
2. Yaniv archeology crewmember #2 Igal's new best friend, also an army 'veteran' (at least for me, for others, it's only four months ahead) who was in a non combatant unit, and is now in for the 2nd round. Together with Igal, he creates an atmosphere in the class that makes everything seems possible. Same role as Igal, following his father and brother.
3. Harel Harel started out as a fairly quiet guy, we knew mostly that he likes surfing and order. It was only when we first had to stay a night out on the field that I understood how much he likes order, the man can't stand seeing a single ripple in his mattress, nor can he stand seeing a stain of dust on the floor. With him around, I felt that a Polish mother has descended on our room in order to win the 'room of the year' award. He recently left to be a paramedical.
4. Yoel Harel's best friend, he never wanted to be a fighter, he wanted to work for the army paper and take photographs (and apparently, he has all the qualifications needed to do so) for it, but was sent to the armored corps instead, despite all his complaints, he was one of my best buddies, renowned for his 'I see colors' speech, and crowned as the rich prince of the class, he was probably the first to notice exactly how unique I am (no mistakes, by unique we mean weird), also left to be a medic, the room grieves for the loss of the two.
5. Tomer at the first month of the boot camp, Tomer was the silent person. At night, he fell asleep quietly, listening to his eastern music (not eastern as in oriental, eastern as in middle east) and eating candies from his endless bag of sweets (I swear, it must have taken the complete break of all physics to pack so many sugar into that small bag). But today, he has opened up quite wellž with his 'won't happen' (are we gonna stay in the base this weekend? Won't Happen. Are we going to do cursed kitchen work? Won't Happen) and after he was based for a weekend, with his 'Sabbath in your face' attitude (I heard someone was looking for you yesterday. Really, Who? The Sabbath), he's now a tank driver like me.
6. Itay 1- actually, the 2nd Itay, but since the first one left the room very fast, Itay is one of my favorites, he has a tendency to strip naked (in front of other people, while they aren't looking for a moment) at least twice a day, and he wears the same kind of underwear as I do, which lead to me shouting on him to keep his cloths in check and not on the floor (I don't care that we don't wear the same size, I'm not planning to check the label and sort out his dirty underpants!). Incidentally, he's probably the complete opposite of Harel, as he tends to mess any given space for his stuff, no matter the size of it. His role is the cannon operator.
7. Itay 2 the first Itay, I hardly knew him, he left quite early to a less combat unit.
8. Nadav the mystery student, he never belonged in that room, he was never part of our class and we knew almost nothing about him other than his name. It appears that in his rush to stand in times he somehow managed to jump from the smoking area table (which is next to our room) into the doorpost and crack open his head like an idiot.
That's a quick information about some of my army buddies, the stories can go on and on, and I've hardly wrote anything about the army life itself.
So here how it went in the first two months.
We wake up six hours after we went to sleep, usually at 04-30am, but sometimes later, at which point we started washing the rooms and following the 'wet is clean' mantra of the army (next to 'painted is new') we've thrown all our belongings in water. After which we've done something completely useless like making sure everyone is shaved and has polished his shoes, up to 06-00, when we went to eat breakfast, which contained bread, chocolate milk and some veggies. Afterwards we've done more useless stuff, mostly running from one place to another under strict rimes and organizing ourselves in three man columns. That would usually last us through the night, until we went to sleep and woke up six hours later to a whole new day of fun and excitement. From time to time we would have field days and shooting ranges with our short M-16 rifle, god bless the SHORT part of it.
Now, that we have took our first steps into the tanks, it's a bit different, the times are less strict, and instead of shooting the rifle, we learn about moving the tank and co., needless to say, I'm having a hard time keeping myself up during those classes (in one class I've been given the crown of the Peckers, a metal ring of two KG which I wear on my head while standing, it's supposed to keep me alert since if it'll fall, it'll hurt badly). After those, we enter the tank and see everything with our own eyes, which is sorta fun, after which, we continue doing the same all day long.
Basically, I have hard times remembering what I've done a few hours ago, so I can't recall what happened last week, except for the marches.
A march, in army terms, is basically a long walk with your army equipment on, you carry the rifle, the vest (two water bottles, four ammo cartridges) and the class equipment (more water, a radio com and a stretcher), the walk starts at four miles in the first time, and is expected to reach about 15 miles at the beret march (in the end, we will receive the black beret of the armored corps, and that will mark the end of the boot camp session), and have no mistakes, it might sound easy (or at least bearable) but after putting yourself through bodily pains for months, every step you take is harder than the last, which makes the entire march worth it, at least I hope so.
Again, I won't try getting into the details of the army life, it's almost impossible to explain, even someone who serves in a different unit can't fully grasp what the group dynamics are, I guess that's what makes the experience so special, everyday something new and silly happens, it might be something that someone said or did (we were once told to get ready to a 'PACKAL' run, where that words can mean both the class equipment and both exercises, so we went there with the water jerikan on our back, ready to run around a bit) or something the commander said ("Team 3a is a team of lions! Team 3a is a team of fighters! Team 3a is a team of little cute moomins!") or even stories about other platoons (someone from another division managed to crush his rifle inside the tank).
At any rate, something new happens, and you forget the old, you might have to pull an all-nighter after giving a blood donation, and people will fall asleep while standing and waiting for the room inspection, and then, after two more hours of being awake, you feel like dancing from excess energy.
So far, I've passed two months of army service, it leaves me with 34 more. For me, it's an achievement, it means that I'm capable of standing what they have in mind for me, and in two days, I'll be out for a first "real" action, standing guard in settlement near mount Hevron, which is what my military service will mostly consist of, but since this is the first time, I'm quite nervous about it.
Anyway, that's all I can think of now, I'll probably have something new to say a moment after I sent this topic, but it doesn't really matter, I'll never get the chance to explain everything, at least not until a thought recorder device will be invented, but then it'll be the largest spam (by the way, spam taste horrible, stay away if you ever encounter it) machine in the world.
I'll be around for a day or two now, and also in the next few weeks, I'll try posting some pictures of myself and my friends, if anyone cares.
