Week 11

This past shabbat was the first time my class was כיתה סוגרת, the class that closes. There’s a rotation of every class in the pluga where, on a shabbat where everyone else is given leave, that class has to stay. It’s a bit annoying having to stay back when everyone else gets to leave, but that grievance is assuaged by the knowledge that everyone else has to do it at least once too.
Plus, the shabbat wasn’t bad! I read a lot, this time in my book rotation is a book of Ray Bradbury short stories (one of my favorite authors) and The Devil in the white city, a “novelistic history” book by Erik Larson. I try to bring authors whose writing transports me and I read my last Erik Larson extremely quickly.

(I’m waiting on the sequels to the Ken Follet kingsbridge series as my next base Shabbat books)

The Shabbat consisted of reading and loads of sleep – I slept 10 hours straight for the probably the first time in my life. At one of the meals, I was asked about my blog from my commander. He saw that I posted about it on my WhatsApp status. He said it was a great thing that I’m writing down my experiences and he complimented me on it.

We went on a 5 kilometer, slow run on Motzei Shabbat.

On Sunday morning, we did more arts and crafts and waited for everyone to return to begin the eagerly anticipated שבוע מקצוע – the week where soldiers who got a special Tafkid get to learn all about their newly assigned roles.

I got sharpshooter – קלע – and aside from not wanting the big Negev because of the weight, I didn’t really have a predisposition to any of the other pakalim (except that everyone wants kala and I knew itd be fun to become a really great marksman). The entire pluga split up into their respective Pakalim; the negevistim with other negevistim, kalaim with other kalaim, etc. Luckily, my Mefaked Machlaka was also the one put in charge of Kala training for the week ( he was a Kala during his regular service). We had an expectation setting meeting about the week and the responsibility of taking this week seriously and not becoming discouraged if we weren’t amazing in the beginning of the week. Like anything else, shooting takes loads of practice to improve.

We walked to the range and fitted our new guns with the different, more specialized sharpshooter scope. There, we heard from our sharpshooter instructor, Tzahals official sharpshooter instructor who teaches the Kalaim throughout the army. A real expert and professional.

That night, back at the pluga, I hit a real army milestone; Something I knew would happen at some point. One of the younger chayalim in my class approached me and asked to speak – it seemed serious/important and of course I said yes. After the hour of free time, we staked out in the bathrooms to speak.

He started, “I want to ask your advice as someone who’s older and also a chayal boded” (all of this in Hebrew of course). “I’m really starting to miss my girlfriend. She just drafted and because of our schedules, we won’t be able to see each other for a few months. How do you deal with being away from family and people you love for so long?” He asked his question earnestly and I reciprocated in my answer. I told him that the nature of his relationship is going to change; he can’t expect the same, always in person type of dating. Expecting that will lead to disappoint. But, it will reveal an as-of-yet uncovered aspect of the relationship. Challenges, if met wholeheartedly and with resolve rather than abandon, reveal forms of adaption and clever solutions. Maybe they plan cute dates on their phones or send longer messages or make their in person meetings that much more special.

I also spoke with him about his desire to be in combat and how that should level his emotional playing field. His desire to defend his family and country and be the best soldier he can be, should somewhat counterbalance the emotional difficulties of being away from people you love. I told him it wouldn’t be easy, it would actually be rather hard, but you get used to the new norm. Obviously it’s different with Israeli culture where you’re always just a train ride away from home, but I told him how its a normal part of American culture to leave the nest and go to college at 18.

We spoke for a while, he asked about my experience in the army, and I opened up about the difficult social aspects. I was already friendly with him, but after this conversation, and his assurances, I knew we’d become even closer. Real friends. I was also happy though to assume the role of “older mentor”.

The next morning, everyone woke up at 4:30 to do the 3k run test and sprint test. I got my 3k time down to 11:59. At Minyan later on, I spoke with Yehuda, another lone soldier, about his Pakal – the Negev: a large, heavy gun. He was really upset and vowed to get it switched, whatever it took. Just made me appreciate how fortunate I am to have gotten the Pakal I wanted.

We all walked to the shooting range afterwards and spent all day and all night shooting with our new scopes (night vision at night) to center them. We slept at the shooting range, on mats and sleeping bags on concrete floor, waking up to do a 20 minute guard duty shift some point in the middle. I learned my lesson from sadaut though and remembered to bring bug spray, but still unfortunately didn’t have the best sleep.

The following day, with now centered sights, we spent all day on shooting exercises. One exercise is called the bochen meah; there’s a metal rod called a flick-flack with 5 metal circle targets suspended in the back. When you hit one of the targets, it spins around the back of the rod. You have 10 bullets and 30 seconds to hit the targets as many times as you can. I shot 10 for 10 on my 3rd try, something only one other person was able to do. We did more shooting exercises at night with the night vision Scopes.

The next day, big surprise, was even more shooting practice. We had a test called טבח בינוני where we had 12 bullets and 3 targets, one at the 100 meter range, 200 meter, and 300. We had to hit each target twice, first at 200, then 100, then 300. I was finally able to do it in 20 seconds. We also learned how to shoot with ledges as a support. We moved around different structures and learned how to aim in different positions before doing the same טבח בינוני test with ledges. We shot until 1 am, doing the same flik flak and טבח בינוני test with the night vision Scopes.

Thursday, finally. More shooting practice before finally leaving the shooting range around 2 Pm. We did gun cleaning when we got back to base and had summary conversations of the week. We all went to the auditorium to hear a story from a former 202 member who was ambushed by terrorists during shmirah. He was a kalah and emphasized the importance of knowing our tafkid well.

At night, we had a masa. We’d heard rumors there would be, but youre never sure until the Chopel comes to measure your heart rate. That’s the tell tale sign there will be a masa. We fill up our memiot, put on the vests, and set out as a pluga on the masa. This one was a 10+2; 10 kilometers plus 2 with the alunka (stretcher). Overall, Masaot are the easiest of the physically challenging army things we do. This time, they messed with our minds. The 10 kilometers was made up of the same route 7 times in a row before finally switching it up for the stretcher portion. After the second, third, fourth time, it starts getting to you. The route had a steep incline and steep decline and we would anticipate it with dread everytime we made the loop.

We got back around midnight and I went to bed at 1 AM. I was woken up at 4 AM for the earlier lone soldier shuttle at 4:30 so with those 3 hours of sleep, and an entire week of not sleeping well at the range, I knew itd be a tiring shabbat.

As a side note, the only way I’m able to remember all that we do during the week, especially when we have our phones for only about 20 minutes – which is not enough time to write if you also want to call your family – is by incessantly journaling. During our meal breaks, I would write out everything we did up until that point. It was writing advice I got from Dr. Erica Brown, a personal mentor, before the army and it has helped tremendously.

I went to Eliav’s 4th birthday party on Friday morning and spent shabbat back in Herzliya by my old apartment for the first time since I drafted.

Really great to see everyone; I had an odd sense of deja Vu and longing when I rode my scooter from the train to the apartment, a route I did twice daily for an entire year. The route is still there, my apartment and roommates are still there, living life just as they did before. The community and everything else is still there. But my life has changed so so much.