Mobilizing the Airborne Division - pt. 2

The first night we got to our lookout post as a storm was starting. As everyone was pulling out their rain gear I heard one of my friends start mumbling to himself. He started pulling out things from his bag as he was saying, "No...no...I don't believe it!" It turns out my friend had forgotten to bring his rain gear and most of his cold weather gear. Fortunately for him he had brought a jacket with him.

Being in the North during the winter made it cold enough, but being on a mountain top in the rain really compounded the cold. I was wearing a thermal underarmour shirt and pants, my uniform, a fleece, a rain jacket and pants, a thermal ski mask, and a neck warmer (I had heard stories of how cold the previous week had been and decided I'd rather be safe than sorry). I remember saying to myself, "Wow, its pretty warm. I think I should be good for the night.".... I was wrong.

Right when I laid down to go to sleep the rain started, then it continued and continued for the next 7 hours. This was no drizzle, marble sized rain drops fell from 11 PM until 6 AM. I don't know why but whenever it rains like that I think of the scene from Forrest Gump when Tom Hanks is wading through the water talking about how it just kept raining. I quickly learned that our rain gear was not made for these conditions. I would estimate that it took about 2 or 3 hours before the rain managed to make its way to my clothes. I found myself shivering from the cold and simultaneously cursing myself for thinking I was gonna be warm and wondering whether my friend was catching hypothermia. I distinctly remember having a dream, either having dozed off or out of pure delirium, of a nearby house with nothing inside except for a hot shower. Everyone waited in line to get in, the room filled with steam, and just as I was about to enter I was brought back to the real world by my own shivering. I quickly realized there was not going to be a shower anywhere in my near future.

The worst part was waking up the next day to a completely grey cloud covered sky. During a normal week in the field I lived from sun-up to sun-down. What I mean by that is that the nights nights were a nice escape from the grueling sun and by the morning the heat was a welcome refrain from the cold nights (with the added benefit of drying rain or sweat soaked clothing, since most of the walking takes place at night). When I woke up that morning I new that my soaking wet clothes would not be dry any time soon, and my only hope was that I would warm up when we started walking again.

I packed up all of my cold weather gear and started walking to our next reconnaissance post (You may be asking yourself why I took off all my warm clothing, but I can assure you that no matter how cold it is, once you start walking you will get warm - quickly). After we arrived we set up our gear and prepared ourselves for another night of rain. I was pretty tired of being cold and wet, but on the bright side at least the rain wasn't going to bother me that much.

We had a rotation in which we would man the thermal night vision for 30 minutes and then try and sleep for an hour, lookout for 30 minutes, struggle to doze off for an hour, so on and so on all night. As expected it rained again, but not until early in the morning, and not nearly as hard as the night before. Then in a miraculous turn of events...the sun came out.

Mobilizing the Airborne Division - pt. 1

This past week I took part in the largest military exercise in the last 3 or 4 years. As a conclusion to the three month long training period there was an exercise in which the entire Paratroopers division, in collaboration with several other units, was tested in its wartime readiness.

The exercise was massive and I only saw the little bit in which I participated. There are four Airborne battalions (the 101st, the 202nd, 890th, and the Special Forces battalion) that participated in coordination throughout the week, each with somewhere around 500 people.

As an example of just how immense this drill was, the first day 90 helicopters flew 1,500 soldiers to their respective drop zones to begin the exercise, while simultaneously the 202nd battalion was brought in from the sea with the help of Shayetet 13 (the Israeli Navy Seal equivalent). I'm fairly certain that the budget for fuel alone must have been in the millions. To give a small example of how much money was put into this exercise, the enemy we were fighting was a third-party company that had been hired to simulate the enemy. We had been told that there had been an emphasis on orders to try and kidnap soldiers. It was actually kind of humorous because before we set out for the week our commander told us that if someone tries to kidnap us that we should physically fight back, his words were "I don't care if you have to knock their teeth out!" It was at that point that I decided to myself that apparently the commanders had been told if they lose any soldiers that they should probably expect some heavy handed punishments.

As a favor to me, and my still healing ankle, my commander told me that I would not be participating in my usual role as the light machine gunner this week. Seeing as it would mean carrying about 20 pounds less than I am accustomed to, I was thankful for commander's concern. Unfortunately, I still ended up carrying the stretcher for the team in addition to all of my regular food and gear, I guess sometimes being the only American in a group of scrawny Israelis has its disadvantages. The truth is the stretcher wasn't too heavy, but it took up a lot of space in my bag (we carry 90 liter bags that look something like this except green and not camo: http://uk.shopping.com/xPO-Alpine-Lowe-Alpine-Saracen-90-40-Liter-Military-Backpack) and because we had been told that it was going to rain all week we already had a lot of extra gear to take with us.

My team was in charge of leading our unit because we are trained in reconnaissance, whereas the rest of the teams are trained in anti-tank missiles. To aid us in the beginning of the exercise my team was joined by two dogs and their handlers. One was an attack dog and the other was a bomb/mine smelling dog. I had seen these dogs work in urban settings, but I was interested to see how they were utilized in open field combat like we would be simulating during the week. It actually turned into quite a fiasco. My team of 11, the two dogs and their handlers, along with everyones bag was helicoptered 30 minutes in a black hawk. We were dropped off behind the "enemy" and were hiking to a mountain in order to take the higher ground and clear the way for the other battalions to come in. When we came upon a wide clearing we were told to crouch down and wait for the attack dog to go out and do a quick search. A few minutes later the dog came running up to our sergeant and was jumping all over him. Fortunately for him, the dog was wearing a muzzle for the entire exercise. The handler came over and straightened it out after a minute or two, but this should have been a sign that this wasn't going to work.

After crossing the clearing we met up with the rest of our battalion (their helicopters had landed in a different zone) and began to lead the way to our destination. A few miles later our commanders again decided to send the attack dog out. This time, however, the dog apparently heard rustling coming from someone farther back in the group and ran after him. This is where the problem came about. Apparently, the people who weren't on our team did not realize that the dog had a muzzle on. They saw the dog attacking someone and assumed he was getting mauled. Someone fired a few shots in the air and others tried kicking or hitting the dog off. I don't really know why they thought the bullets would do anything because the dogs are trained for combat, but impressively (at least I was impressed) the dog was unfazed by the blows he was receiving. He only let up when his handler blew his dog whistle. Things calmed down a bit and a medic checked the dog out. He was fine, except for a small cut he got from running to his handler and nicking himself on some barbed wire. Needless to say, the dog experiment was done for this exercise. The dogs walked with us for the next few days, but only the bomb sniffing dog was sent out.

Sidelined

After not being able to participate in my first actual week, I was forced to sit out of the next week as well while my ankle continued to heal. This time however I was actually a little pleased that I didn't have to participate.

The past two months all of the paratroopers have been in a three month training period. This particular week was what is known as a "battalion exercise." The name is pretty self explanatory. The entire Airborne Special Forces Battalion spends the entire week simulating war time conditions. This particular drill we have been preparing for a war with Lebanon or Syria, meaning that the drills take place in the North.

For those unfamiliar with the country's layout, Israel is not a complete desert which I know is what a few people have in mind, especially when thinking about a Middle Eastern country. The Northern portion of the country, the Golan Heights and the Galilee, is actually rather mountainous and actually quite woodland. Therefore, during the winter it tends to get both cold and wet.

My commander and I decided that because of the weight that everyone would need to carry during the week if it would probably be best if I stayed behind for the week. At all times there has to be at least three people at our base making sure that no other soldiers come in who do not have permission. So that is where I spent my week. Mostly relaxing and watching television (we have a TV room with the equivalent of Israeli HBO, one of the few perks of the Special Forces).

When the week was over and I talked to the rest of my team I was pretty glad I didn't try and tough it out. They told me that it was probably one of the hardest weeks that they have had since enlisting. Everyone carried a bag that weighed at least 100 pounds (even two guys who probably weigh about 120 or 130 themselves) and walked about 15 or 20 kilometers each day. However, what they said was the worst part was that it was so cold they couldn't really sleep. Not sure my ankle would have held up for the long hikes, but I'm definitely glad I didn't have to find out.