At the start of the week our commander told us that it would be a good chance to rest after what was a considerably difficult prior week - I still don't know why I believed him. Going into the week we knew that we were going to be getting ready to give back all of our gear in preparation to change bases. What we didn't know was how they would fill all of the downtime.....
Sunday our entire company went to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem for a cultural day. When we got back to the base for dinner we were warned against eating too much food. This I assumed was a sign that we would be going for a run in the near future. In fact this was to be the first of many Krav Maga lessons we would have during the week.
***For those of you unfamiliar with Krav Maga, according to Wikipedia "Krav Maga is a military hand-to-hand combat systemm developed in Israel, which assumes no quarter will be given, and emphasizes maximum threat neutralization in a "real life" context. (Here is a quick video I found http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0CjWX9-Z14&feature=related, it is pretty realistic in terms of what we do).***
Until this point in our training, all of our Krav Maga training had essentially been conditioning. We did a lot of suicides, sprints, and crawling, but no actual drills. This was the first week we actually put on gloves and gear. Each lesson has a "warm-up" in the beginning of about 30 minutes of sprints, after which the Krav Maga begins.
Our first lesson we were taught different punch and kick techniques, which we practiced on a partner who stood against a wall with his hands in the air. Monday we graduated to actual "fights." It started out as one-on-one, but quickly moved on to two- and three-on-one. The idea being that the person who is getting double and triple teamed is given no chance to catch his breath before two new people enter and mount a new assault.
The truth is that I actually enjoy the Krav Maga itself, the one downside is that after more than one day of Krav Maga in a row your entire body becomes tight and sore. Not to mention that after the second day it hurt to walk because of the bruise on my right quad from all of the kicks I had taken.
By the third day, there was a hault put on Krav Maga because of the number of injuries people had sustained (oddly enough no one had been injured in an actual "fight," rather people were coincidentally hurt during the lessons). There was one member of my team who had to get a staple in his arm after he cut himself on a screw sticking out of a door, in a mad dash to change the two left gloves he had selected. Two more people got hurt when they ran into each other during sprints.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
War Week!
This past week was called "War Week". The idea being that it is supposed to simulate a week of wartime conditions and simultaneously act as a final test combining all of our training up until this point. Needless to say, I did not expect it to be an easy week.
A couple quick captions: The top picture is my team before we headed out Sunday night (I'm in the back row, 4th from the right). The middle picture is just something my commander took on one of the few chances we got to sit down. The last picture is my team carrying somebody on the stretcher, little did we know at the start of the week that this would become a very familiar pose.
We spent the majority of the weekend leading up to the week getting all of our gear ready (when everyone wasn't trying to guess what we were going to be doing). Sunday the entire company was brought into an auditorium and the Company Commander explained our first mission. It was explained that there was information speculating several rocket launch points that we would be going to try and eliminate. As a company we would all walk 10 km to get into position, from that point each team had its own assignment. There are 4 teams in the company, two anti-tank teams, one reconnaissance team, and then my team which is supposed to be a sniper team.
We left around 11 PM on Sunday night and walked in two lines with the recon team leading the way. We walked for about 2 hours and then everyone began to break off into different directions. My team was in charge of climbing two tall hills/mountains and providing information/fire to the three other teams who would be storming the targets. When the entire scene had played out it was already 5 AM. At this point we no longer knew what to expect from the week, this was as much as we were told before hand...and this is when it really got fun.
From 5:30 Monday morning until around 8:30 me and the rest of my team had to carry someone on a stretcher in a simulated retreat. When we were finally finished with the stretcher we practiced storming a hill until around noon. After we stormed the hill we went back to carrying the stretcher, except this time we opened two stretchers (which cuts the number of people who can help switch out with you in half). We then preceded to carry the stretchers up and down hills in the dead heat for about 2 hours. At that point one of the smaller guys on the team named Chesterman got dehydrated. As awful as it sounds I think that sort of got our commanders' attention and they let us find a spot with some shade and sit down to rest for a while.
When it started to get dark we got up, put all of the gear back on (which in my case happens to be all of the gear for the light machine gun, somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60 pounds of ammunition that I had the pleasure of carrying around all week), and started walking. One of the less appealing sides of spending a week in the field is that there really is not much time scheduled for showering, and after hours of carrying people on a stretcher I tend to get a little sweaty. This has multiple downsides, however, the two most pertinent are that the nights quickly become much colder and secondly the wet clothes rubbing against your skin all day lead to sever chafing. By the time we had got to Monday night I was in some serious pain from where my vest had rubbed my sides raw.
As the night wore on we did a few more drills in which we practiced storming hills at night, and around midnight on Monday we recieved our first "meal." The contents of which were 1 and a half pieces of bread, 1/5 of a can of tuna for each person, 1/3 of a pickle, and a can of corn to be divided amongst all 17 of us. It sounds somewhat meager, but at that point I was actually not that hungry.
The rest of the week was more of the same. Tuesday morning around 5 AM we had another hike with the stretcher for about 2 and a half hours. We had another drill storming a hill until about 11 AM, however, at this point we ran into what I like to think was some luck. It became so hot that it was pretty unsafe for us to continue, so we found a tree and sat down until it cooled down. We were given our second meal Tuesday afternoon. It was more of the same, except at this point half of our bread had ants...it didn't seem to deter anyone. At which point we continued with the stretchers. Tuesday night we did a few drills with blanks in which we played the enemy for an opposing team and vice versa. Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was one of the harder "acts" (as our commanders referred to them) of the week. We carried two stretchers for 3 hours, one of which carrying our heavy machine gunnist, his machine gun (another almost 20 pounds), and our water.
Wednesday morning we had been without water from about 3 AM until around 9 AM. I was starting to get a headache and I mentioned it to our medic. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your take of it, Wednesday was the hottest day of the week. As a result, we spent most of the day light ours in the shade. When the water arrived I had some trouble drinking it. Every time I drank I threw it back up. The medic decided it best to give me an I.V. When you are hooked up to an I.V., much like in a hospital, there is a plastic cylinder that lets the medic see if the fluids are moving from the bag down into the tube. Apparently, my body drank the fluids so quickly that there were no drops in the tube, it was completely full for the duration of the I.V. The medic said he had never seen that happen before.
Wednesday afternoon we had our third and final meal. This time the bread had spots of mold on it. I don't know about everyone else but at least for me at this point I was so hungry my stomach was starting to throb. I laughed as I watched people after the meal scrounging in the dirt for pieces of corn or tuna that others had dropped.
When we were asked to start moving again we opened up the stretchers this time while wearing gas masks. We hiked another 2 hours at the end of which we scaled a hill that is 200 meters literally straight up. We arrived around 10 PM. We had another drill with blanks in which my team and another team practiced taking over a hill together. When we finished around 1 AM, everyone filled up their water and got ready for the 10 km hike back to the base...this time carrying stretchers.
We carried one stretcher back for about 5 km and then stopped. After the first 5 km they told us to open another stretcher and put on our gas masks. We had to go the last 5 km with gas masks while carrying two stretchers. We finally got back to the base around 4 or 4:30 AM.
All I can say is that I am glad the week is over. It was our last week of Advanced Training and after the upcoming week, in which we give back all of our gear, we will be starting Navigation training as the first phase of Special Forces Training.
One of my friends gave his camera to our commander, who took a lot of pictures throughout the week. I am going to try and get him to give me some copies and I'll try and put some pictures up next week.
We spent the majority of the weekend leading up to the week getting all of our gear ready (when everyone wasn't trying to guess what we were going to be doing). Sunday the entire company was brought into an auditorium and the Company Commander explained our first mission. It was explained that there was information speculating several rocket launch points that we would be going to try and eliminate. As a company we would all walk 10 km to get into position, from that point each team had its own assignment. There are 4 teams in the company, two anti-tank teams, one reconnaissance team, and then my team which is supposed to be a sniper team.
We left around 11 PM on Sunday night and walked in two lines with the recon team leading the way. We walked for about 2 hours and then everyone began to break off into different directions. My team was in charge of climbing two tall hills/mountains and providing information/fire to the three other teams who would be storming the targets. When the entire scene had played out it was already 5 AM. At this point we no longer knew what to expect from the week, this was as much as we were told before hand...and this is when it really got fun.
From 5:30 Monday morning until around 8:30 me and the rest of my team had to carry someone on a stretcher in a simulated retreat. When we were finally finished with the stretcher we practiced storming a hill until around noon. After we stormed the hill we went back to carrying the stretcher, except this time we opened two stretchers (which cuts the number of people who can help switch out with you in half). We then preceded to carry the stretchers up and down hills in the dead heat for about 2 hours. At that point one of the smaller guys on the team named Chesterman got dehydrated. As awful as it sounds I think that sort of got our commanders' attention and they let us find a spot with some shade and sit down to rest for a while.
When it started to get dark we got up, put all of the gear back on (which in my case happens to be all of the gear for the light machine gun, somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60 pounds of ammunition that I had the pleasure of carrying around all week), and started walking. One of the less appealing sides of spending a week in the field is that there really is not much time scheduled for showering, and after hours of carrying people on a stretcher I tend to get a little sweaty. This has multiple downsides, however, the two most pertinent are that the nights quickly become much colder and secondly the wet clothes rubbing against your skin all day lead to sever chafing. By the time we had got to Monday night I was in some serious pain from where my vest had rubbed my sides raw.
As the night wore on we did a few more drills in which we practiced storming hills at night, and around midnight on Monday we recieved our first "meal." The contents of which were 1 and a half pieces of bread, 1/5 of a can of tuna for each person, 1/3 of a pickle, and a can of corn to be divided amongst all 17 of us. It sounds somewhat meager, but at that point I was actually not that hungry.
The rest of the week was more of the same. Tuesday morning around 5 AM we had another hike with the stretcher for about 2 and a half hours. We had another drill storming a hill until about 11 AM, however, at this point we ran into what I like to think was some luck. It became so hot that it was pretty unsafe for us to continue, so we found a tree and sat down until it cooled down. We were given our second meal Tuesday afternoon. It was more of the same, except at this point half of our bread had ants...it didn't seem to deter anyone. At which point we continued with the stretchers. Tuesday night we did a few drills with blanks in which we played the enemy for an opposing team and vice versa. Tuesday night/Wednesday morning was one of the harder "acts" (as our commanders referred to them) of the week. We carried two stretchers for 3 hours, one of which carrying our heavy machine gunnist, his machine gun (another almost 20 pounds), and our water.
Wednesday morning we had been without water from about 3 AM until around 9 AM. I was starting to get a headache and I mentioned it to our medic. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your take of it, Wednesday was the hottest day of the week. As a result, we spent most of the day light ours in the shade. When the water arrived I had some trouble drinking it. Every time I drank I threw it back up. The medic decided it best to give me an I.V. When you are hooked up to an I.V., much like in a hospital, there is a plastic cylinder that lets the medic see if the fluids are moving from the bag down into the tube. Apparently, my body drank the fluids so quickly that there were no drops in the tube, it was completely full for the duration of the I.V. The medic said he had never seen that happen before.
Wednesday afternoon we had our third and final meal. This time the bread had spots of mold on it. I don't know about everyone else but at least for me at this point I was so hungry my stomach was starting to throb. I laughed as I watched people after the meal scrounging in the dirt for pieces of corn or tuna that others had dropped.
When we were asked to start moving again we opened up the stretchers this time while wearing gas masks. We hiked another 2 hours at the end of which we scaled a hill that is 200 meters literally straight up. We arrived around 10 PM. We had another drill with blanks in which my team and another team practiced taking over a hill together. When we finished around 1 AM, everyone filled up their water and got ready for the 10 km hike back to the base...this time carrying stretchers.
We carried one stretcher back for about 5 km and then stopped. After the first 5 km they told us to open another stretcher and put on our gas masks. We had to go the last 5 km with gas masks while carrying two stretchers. We finally got back to the base around 4 or 4:30 AM.
All I can say is that I am glad the week is over. It was our last week of Advanced Training and after the upcoming week, in which we give back all of our gear, we will be starting Navigation training as the first phase of Special Forces Training.
One of my friends gave his camera to our commander, who took a lot of pictures throughout the week. I am going to try and get him to give me some copies and I'll try and put some pictures up next week.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Teams Week
The last three weeks were my last weeks of Advanced Training, and apparently the commanders thought it best that the whole company spend the three weeks together on the base.
The first week was called "Team Week" (for some reason the translations never really sound right in English). This was the first week that we started learning how to fight as a team (usually around 20 - 25 people in the Special Forces and around 30 - 35 in the regular batallions). Until this week we had learned pairs, groups of four, and then "class" of roughly 10 people.
After talking to some of the commanders it sounds like we got off pretty easy. Supposedly, this was supposed to be one of the hardest weeks of training, but because it was soooo hot it was more educational than physical. We spent the mornings and nights storming hills, about one drill a day. Then in the afternoons we would sit in the shade and study for an upcoming test we have.
As it turns out, there are different levels of training depending on intensity and at the end of each level there is a test. For instance, soldiers who work in an office reach level 02 (which happens to be the training I did when I was at the Army Hebrew course). The next level is almost the exact same training, except that it includes throwing a hand grenade. The level that we are now at is considered 07. In addition to having to know how to use all of the different weapons, such as the grenade launcher, heavy and light machine gun, and the sharpshooter scope, there are questions on Israeli Military History, First Aid, Anti-Chemical Warfare, and how to use different radios. After 07 the next levels are mostly reserved for commanders, officers, and special forces.
After each drill we would have a short session carrying "wounded" soldiers on stretchers and on our shoulders. This is usually one of the hardest parts of being the field, but because is really was so hot we didn't have to carry them very far at all. According to my commander, when they had the same week it was in the rain and mud all day and there was very little sleep. I guess we lucked out a bit.
At the end of the week there was a long hike back to the base. We are slowly working our way up to 70 km, which will be the hike we do to earn our red beret. This hike was 34 km and then an additional 3 or 4 km carrying two people on stretchers. It was pretty tough and lasted somewhere around 6 hours. I can definitely say that I am not looking forward to the next one. Aside from the fact that I have to carry additional weight because of the machine gun, it starts to become pretty boring because we have to walk in two lines the whole time and we aren't supposed to talk. I am realizing as I write this that the word "hike" might be a little misleading because we are going at a pretty fast pace. The norm is supposed to be 6 km an hour, which, if your commander has long legs like mine does, means you are spending most of the hike in a slow jog.
On a somewhat unrelated note, there was a pretty funny/weird story that happened that same week. Each week when we arrive from home the army chooses a place to meet so that it can charter buses to the base from one location. Some of these meeting points are bigger than others, and as it turns out we met at one of the bigger meeting points this week. Why do I bring this up? Because there are so many soldiers meeting at one place at one time it is the perfect place for the Military Police to set up shop (unbeknownst to me, although logical had I took the time to think about it). What is the job of the Military Police you ask? As far as my interaction goes they are a mix between Internal Affairs and the Fashion Police. They are fellow soldiers who were chosen to the Military Police after enlistment. They are in charge of making sure the soldiers that are walking the street are dressed properly, shine their shoes, don't jaywalk, and of course the occasional random drug test (that of course is done on the base and not on the streets).
As far as I know the Israeli Army is the only army in the world that lets its soldiers grow a beard. Originally, this started for religious reasons, but now pretty much anyone in the army can have a beard if they really want one. The thing about the beard is that it is one way or the other, either you have a beard or you don't. There is no option of having a beard one week then the next week not having one. Anyway, out of a combination of various reasons such as laziness, hearing that there was very limited time to shave in the mornings during basic training, and not wanting to irritate my skin by using the razor blade every day...but mostly laziness I decided to take the beard path.
I had gotten into a pattern of trimming my beard on weekends that I got off, except that for some reason I always ended up using someone elses trimmer with different settings, and it just so happened that this weekend I accidentally trimmed my beard particularly short and when I arrived to the entrance of the meeting point on Sunday morning I was stopped at the gate by the Military Police. Some 18 year old girl came up to me and asked me if I had a certificate of approval for my beard. I didn't think much about it, I had the certificate and assumed she was just doing a random check to make sure I had the proper documents. Then came the questions of did I trim my beard (which she said was against the rules, but almost everyone does), so on and so forth. After a few minutes I was given a ticket, which means I would have to go to a "trial" and receive my punishment. I can't help but think that if my Hebrew vocabulary was better I might have been able to put up a better argument, or if I had really been thinking on my feet I should have acted as if I didn't speak Hebrew (I'll habve to save that for if there is a next time).
Later one of my friends explained to me that it was written on the certificate of approval that you are allowed to trim you beard, so long as it does not look as if you shaved yesterday. At that point it was too late, but I figured I'd save that as something to bring up at the trial. When I got to the base I wasn't too worried about the trial because usually the punishments involved having to stay on the base for a certain amount of time and I was already going to be there for three weeks, and I doubted the punishment would be any longer than that.
In the end, getting the ticket turned out to be kind of lucky. I was waiting and waiting the first day for the trial and it never came. Finally, on Thursday (our last day in the field) one of the commanders came up to me around 1:00 PM and told me to get in the Hummer and go back to base for my trial. Turns out that my trial was at 6, so in the mean time I got to take a shower, eat a real meal (in the field we eat field rations all week, not that it is terrible, but after a week of canned tuna, corn, and white bread it gets a little monotonous). The trial itself was something of a joke. I explained what happened, what my friend told me, and that from what I understood it was acceptable to have a beard somewhat short because that was the way it was when I had requested the certificate. The commander in charge of my trial looked at my beard (at this point it had almost a week to grow out) asked if that was how it looked on the day I received the ticket, I said it was, he said he didn't really understand why I was given the ticket and pronounced me innocent. I then got to eat dinner in the dining hall and wait until 10 o'clock to join my team in the field for the hike back to the base. In the end the ticket was a nice excuse to get cleaned up and rested.
The first week was called "Team Week" (for some reason the translations never really sound right in English). This was the first week that we started learning how to fight as a team (usually around 20 - 25 people in the Special Forces and around 30 - 35 in the regular batallions). Until this week we had learned pairs, groups of four, and then "class" of roughly 10 people.
After talking to some of the commanders it sounds like we got off pretty easy. Supposedly, this was supposed to be one of the hardest weeks of training, but because it was soooo hot it was more educational than physical. We spent the mornings and nights storming hills, about one drill a day. Then in the afternoons we would sit in the shade and study for an upcoming test we have.
As it turns out, there are different levels of training depending on intensity and at the end of each level there is a test. For instance, soldiers who work in an office reach level 02 (which happens to be the training I did when I was at the Army Hebrew course). The next level is almost the exact same training, except that it includes throwing a hand grenade. The level that we are now at is considered 07. In addition to having to know how to use all of the different weapons, such as the grenade launcher, heavy and light machine gun, and the sharpshooter scope, there are questions on Israeli Military History, First Aid, Anti-Chemical Warfare, and how to use different radios. After 07 the next levels are mostly reserved for commanders, officers, and special forces.
After each drill we would have a short session carrying "wounded" soldiers on stretchers and on our shoulders. This is usually one of the hardest parts of being the field, but because is really was so hot we didn't have to carry them very far at all. According to my commander, when they had the same week it was in the rain and mud all day and there was very little sleep. I guess we lucked out a bit.
At the end of the week there was a long hike back to the base. We are slowly working our way up to 70 km, which will be the hike we do to earn our red beret. This hike was 34 km and then an additional 3 or 4 km carrying two people on stretchers. It was pretty tough and lasted somewhere around 6 hours. I can definitely say that I am not looking forward to the next one. Aside from the fact that I have to carry additional weight because of the machine gun, it starts to become pretty boring because we have to walk in two lines the whole time and we aren't supposed to talk. I am realizing as I write this that the word "hike" might be a little misleading because we are going at a pretty fast pace. The norm is supposed to be 6 km an hour, which, if your commander has long legs like mine does, means you are spending most of the hike in a slow jog.
On a somewhat unrelated note, there was a pretty funny/weird story that happened that same week. Each week when we arrive from home the army chooses a place to meet so that it can charter buses to the base from one location. Some of these meeting points are bigger than others, and as it turns out we met at one of the bigger meeting points this week. Why do I bring this up? Because there are so many soldiers meeting at one place at one time it is the perfect place for the Military Police to set up shop (unbeknownst to me, although logical had I took the time to think about it). What is the job of the Military Police you ask? As far as my interaction goes they are a mix between Internal Affairs and the Fashion Police. They are fellow soldiers who were chosen to the Military Police after enlistment. They are in charge of making sure the soldiers that are walking the street are dressed properly, shine their shoes, don't jaywalk, and of course the occasional random drug test (that of course is done on the base and not on the streets).
As far as I know the Israeli Army is the only army in the world that lets its soldiers grow a beard. Originally, this started for religious reasons, but now pretty much anyone in the army can have a beard if they really want one. The thing about the beard is that it is one way or the other, either you have a beard or you don't. There is no option of having a beard one week then the next week not having one. Anyway, out of a combination of various reasons such as laziness, hearing that there was very limited time to shave in the mornings during basic training, and not wanting to irritate my skin by using the razor blade every day...but mostly laziness I decided to take the beard path.
I had gotten into a pattern of trimming my beard on weekends that I got off, except that for some reason I always ended up using someone elses trimmer with different settings, and it just so happened that this weekend I accidentally trimmed my beard particularly short and when I arrived to the entrance of the meeting point on Sunday morning I was stopped at the gate by the Military Police. Some 18 year old girl came up to me and asked me if I had a certificate of approval for my beard. I didn't think much about it, I had the certificate and assumed she was just doing a random check to make sure I had the proper documents. Then came the questions of did I trim my beard (which she said was against the rules, but almost everyone does), so on and so forth. After a few minutes I was given a ticket, which means I would have to go to a "trial" and receive my punishment. I can't help but think that if my Hebrew vocabulary was better I might have been able to put up a better argument, or if I had really been thinking on my feet I should have acted as if I didn't speak Hebrew (I'll habve to save that for if there is a next time).
Later one of my friends explained to me that it was written on the certificate of approval that you are allowed to trim you beard, so long as it does not look as if you shaved yesterday. At that point it was too late, but I figured I'd save that as something to bring up at the trial. When I got to the base I wasn't too worried about the trial because usually the punishments involved having to stay on the base for a certain amount of time and I was already going to be there for three weeks, and I doubted the punishment would be any longer than that.
In the end, getting the ticket turned out to be kind of lucky. I was waiting and waiting the first day for the trial and it never came. Finally, on Thursday (our last day in the field) one of the commanders came up to me around 1:00 PM and told me to get in the Hummer and go back to base for my trial. Turns out that my trial was at 6, so in the mean time I got to take a shower, eat a real meal (in the field we eat field rations all week, not that it is terrible, but after a week of canned tuna, corn, and white bread it gets a little monotonous). The trial itself was something of a joke. I explained what happened, what my friend told me, and that from what I understood it was acceptable to have a beard somewhat short because that was the way it was when I had requested the certificate. The commander in charge of my trial looked at my beard (at this point it had almost a week to grow out) asked if that was how it looked on the day I received the ticket, I said it was, he said he didn't really understand why I was given the ticket and pronounced me innocent. I then got to eat dinner in the dining hall and wait until 10 o'clock to join my team in the field for the hike back to the base. In the end the ticket was a nice excuse to get cleaned up and rested.
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