Week 6

Tiring. Exhausting. Draining.
However you want to call it. Whichever adjective gives you a sense of the combination of a lot of physical work and little to no sleep; that’s the feeling I’m trying to impart to sum up this past week. שבוע שדאות!!!!! Our first week out in the field.

Over shabbat we relaxed on our cots. It was nice; no one had their phones so we all spoke and bonded. I read a bunch (luckily I remembered to bring my book), taught a card game to one of my classmates, and napped. And thank God I did. As soon as Shabbat was over, the work started.

As soon as Shabbat ended we put on our gear and walked into the middle of the forest. The point of shavua sadaut, as we were reminded several times throughout the week, is to teach us the base of being a combat soldier. How to operate out in the field. We started our night with the first sampling of that: hand signals – a practice we’d study and perfect over the course of the week. We learned the signals for stop, go, group count, spread out, etc. We learned about the different forms of exposure out in the field, the objects, sounds and movements that would expose our position, and how to minimize or eliminate them.

From there we went back to our base camp and were surprised by the first (of many) הקפצה. Essentially a surprise, quick, call to action. We had to change from our full army, wartime gear into sports clothes within 2 minutes. It’s almost pitch black in the campsite and the cots are squeezed together like sardines in a can. So the first minute of the הקפצה is always first finding your bed and equipment. We changed into workout clothing and left for a 3 km run.

Important sidenote here. Throughout the week, as a form of punishment or maybe just to teach us how to change clothing fast, the commanders would make us change back and forth between full army gear and sports clothing. We were never really sure what aer were doing next and therefore didn’t know if the outfit we were in was final and corresponded with the training exercise we were about to do or was just a quick pit stop before changing again. I have flat feet and wear shoe inserts (which has been huge for saving my lower back in the army). But up until this point in the army I only had one pair.  Now, as you can surmise, time is of the essence in these הקפצות (and all throughout the army). Changing inserts from army boots to sneakers and back takes a significant amount of time. I took that into account and had to guess whether or not we were changing into sports clothing for an exercise or just as a quick change before changing back to army gear. Thankfully I guessed right throughout the course of the week.

So this first change to sports clothes was real. After the 3 km run, which, since we were so close to base followed a path in the base, we did a sprinting exercise up a hill. We then ran back to our Shavua Sadaut home base and had another impossibly short amount of time to change back into full war gear. The entire pluga walked to a nearby hill and lied down in a row. We were shown how to crawl and pick up an injured person. We did it ourselves and then walked back to the campsite. First real night of shavua sadaut done. Important to note though that we did shmirot, guard duty, throughout the night. In the middle of the night, following a certain order and alloted time, we would wake up, put on full gear, and walk around the campsite on guard duty for about 20 minutes. All rules of hygiene, 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep, and other broad army rules are all thrown out the window on shavua sadaut.

Sunday
Our first full day of training exercises. Majority of the day was spent walking around the surrounding area, practicing the walking hand signals, stopping only for a lunch and dinner of field rations or to have a lesson taught to us by our mefaked. Midday I was pulled out for a 3 hour Hebrew lesson with the other olim Chadashim (which was really more hanging out with the Hebrew instuctor and being gently reprimanded when we spoke English, but we also learned some slang words and other lessons that everyone else would learn throughout the week just in our slower, remedial Hebrew). We went to be around 10 and were woken up 20 minutes later with shouts and yells from the Mefakdim “חמש מלחמה!!!” – “five minutes, war!”. We had 5 minutes to get out of our sleeping bags and change into full combat gear. After the initial shock, and being yelled at for not everyone doing it fast enough, we hiked over to a hill. The drill sergeants (mefaked samal) shouted at us throughout and told us to partner up.  One person would play injured and the other would pick him up using the method we learned the night before and carry him up the hill. Then we’d switch. I managed well, but there was someone who, either due to lack of hydration during the day or having to carry a heavy partner (or a mix) fell backwards and hit his head. Shouting of an injury ensued – we didn’t know if it was a fake drill or not so we all crowded around – and he was carted off and supposedly airlifted to a hospital. He’s alright.
After about an hour of this drill, we went to bed, sweaty.

Monday
The מג”ד visited us in the morning to speak about what גדוד 202 had been doing in the war and what they were going to do in the coming months. Most of the day was spent walking around in formation, solidifying our knowledge and familiarity with the hand signals. In the afternoon, we gathered with the rest of the Machlaka and heard a mini talk from him on the importance of Tzahal not just for defense but also as the great uniter of Israeli society. We’re exposed to every strata, race, and political belief of Israeli society and the army truly is unique in that we’re forced to live and work alongside people we ordinarily wouldn’t have the opportunity to be exposed to.  It made me think  (a luxury in an army which usually occupies every minute of your time and all of your mental bandwidth) of the experience of the army for these 18 year olds and how it fundamentally differed from mine. This is their “gap year.” This is their first time away from home for an extended amount of time, sleeping on bunk beds in rooms with 15 other people their age, experiencing radically new things than what they’re used to. I vividly remember going on tiyulim in my year in Yeshiva and learning about the importance of a place or why Eretz Yisrael matters overall. The army knows this and treats it as such. It isn’t just an education on how to shoot a gun or get ready for war but rather an all-around maturing experience where we’re taught important lessons about our country, national pride, and in general are taught how to become adults. I’m older and have had tons of these sorts of experiences, whether it’s college, Yeshiva, or the working world. But for these guys, my classmates, Machlaka, and the majority of the army, this is their first real foray into the outside world.

Monday night was intense. Starting around 7 PM, we worked out in the makeshift outdoor gym at our campsite and then immediately changed back to full army gear to crawl uphill (this was one of the hardest exercises of the week). From there, we went back to the campsite to quickly grab our bags and hike out to another hill. Using skills we’d learned the day before, we had to build a shelter for us to sleep in that night. In pitch black, we scouted out a location, built a shelter and then laid down our mats to sleep. In out drenched uniforms, with mosquitoes buzzing all around and bugs biting our skin every few seconds, we went to sleep out in the woods. Each person had to wake up for 10 minutes every hour in order to do guard duty. Suffice it to say, it was not the best sleep of my life.

Tuesday
In the morning, we hiked over to a makeshift village built out of crates right outside the base. We practiced new drills and applied our learnings over the past few days to this “village” scenario. Essentially exposing us to a base understanding of how different combat is in the open field versus a town with buildings and structures. We went to different stations in the different crates and learned all about this different form of combat. In the evening, we had a bonfire with our commander where everyone shared their reason for drafting to combat. It was supposed to motivate us for the difficult night ahead: the Layla Lavan.
The Layla Lavan is a test of all that we learned over the past few days. It started at 9:30 and lasted until 4:30 in the morning. It consisted of:
Road crossing
Ambush
Grenade thrown
Picking up an injured person and carrying them up a hill
Crawling up a hill
Building a structure
Carrying a stretcher for 2 km up and down hills

In between all the stations, we’re hiking with our full war gear on. It’s a long, tiring night. We got back to base at 4:30 drained, excited to shower and go to sleep, but the Mefakdim surprised us and shouted to get changed and ready for Krav Maga within 4 minutes. We got shouted at, bullied, and trained in Krav Maga for an hour and then, and only then, were finally permitted to go back and shower after 5 days without showering in the field. Finally clean and sleeping on a real mattress in a room with AC after an intense, draining, packed week.

Wednesday
We woke up at 1:45. We cleaned our rooms and I was pulled away for a Hebrew lesson. Right after dinner, we got changed into full war gear to do a run through of the obstacle course which, surprisingly I didn’t too bad at ( I did it in 11 minutes). We came back to our Pluga, changed and went to the shooting range for a few shooting exercises. We walked back, and to our lucky surprise, were shouted at to change back into Krav Maga gear. Finally, in this krav maga session we weren’t just shouted at and worked out, but also learned how to punch. Finally some actual knowledge imparted. We had a 30 minute break to shower and then went to sleep. Still hadn’t gotten our phones back at this point.

Thursday
We woke up and cleaned our guns. Then, along with the other Chayalim Bodedim, I went to a 3 hour Chayal boded appreciation event for rosh hashana. We heard from people who donate to Tzanchanim and were former chayalim bodedim, had a great lunch, and were even gifted Tzanchan bathrobes. In the early afternoon, we donated blood which “incapacitated” us and forbade us from doing anything physical the rest of the day. We did a 30 minute stretch exercise to ease our muscles after the intense week and heard from the father of a soldier who was killed in combat. We had a talk from the Mefaked Pluga about staying safe during our Regila and had a last minute, nighttime lesson from our Mefaked Machlaka on warfare in Lebanon.

Friday
Regila!!!  A break from the army for 8 days for the chagim. The Chayalim Bodedim left at 4:30 in the morning. I got back to the apartment, relaxed, and saw some family, Allegra, Ami and Shlomo, before Shabbat. Another LONG week in the army finished.