First Half of Basic Training

     Ok...so the title of this post is a little misleading.  The way that my training breaks down is that there is basic training for the first 4 months, then 2 months of advanced training, and 10 months of special forces training.  All-in-all it is a year and 4 months of training, and at this point I have finished the first half of the basic training portion.

     It has been pretty interesting.  I didn't know what to expect going into it and I would definitely say that there are parts that have been harder than I expected and other parts less challenging than I expected.  

     The first real week of training was called M-16 week.  We spent the whole week at the shooting range learning to shoot correctly and how to fix the sights to our eyes.  The first thing we did was actually pretty incredible.  There was a shooting range simulator that looked like three movie screens put together.  They have the technology to put up any image that they want.  When we used the simulator it was the image of a shooting range (wow!).  Even more impressive was the technology connected to the guns.  We all shot with M-16s that had been connected to wires and shot lasers.  From the control room they could tell if we moved the neck of the gun a centimeter before, after, or while shooting, how hard we squeezed or released the trigger, and exactly which bullet hit where.  It was pretty unbelievable.  The rest of the week we were at the real shooting range (we even slept out on the range one night).  At the end of the week I was one of three soldiers chosen to participate in a fun "prize" activity.  We got to shoot with the commander's guns (they were essentially the same as ours, except they had a special sight which doesn't have to be lined up, simply put the dot on the target).  First we shot at metal ammunition containers filled with water and then at a balloon placed on the head of a target.

     The week after that was a week in the field.  We left on Saturday night and came back to the base on Wednesday morning.  So far that was the hardest week of training.  We spent all day hiking from place to place with all of our gear: stretcher, radio, a bag with 10 full liter bottles of water, and for every two people a large bag with personal gear (i.e. - shovel, gas mask, blanket, change of clothes (which went unused)).  During the week we learned how to walk as a group in the field, how to cross open areas, how to carry wounded soldiers both on the stretcher and on our shoulders (this was particularly difficult do to all of the gear and steep inclines of the hills), and lots and lots of crawling.  At the end of the week there was a test on everything we learned, which we later learned that our team had received the highest marks of the entire company.  Wednesday morning there was a 6 km hike back to the base plus one more kilometer carrying someone on the stretcher.  When we got back we cleaned all of our gear and got prepared to go to Jerusalem for our swearing in ceremony on Thursday at the Western Wall, which my Mom, sister, and Grandparents flew in for.

     Since then we have had another week in the field, in what was called "Pair" or "Duo" week.  Essentially, we spent the week learning how to storm hill tops in pairs.  The way it was explained to us is that it is the basis for what we will be doing later on.  In the beginning we learn how to work in pairs, in another two weeks we will learn how to do the same thing in groups of 4 or 5, then groups of about 10, followed by our team of 20, and by the end the whole company of 90.  We did several dry runs and then live fire in day and night.

     One week was spent learning first aid and chemical/biological/atomic warfare.  Part of the chemical warfare training involved going into a tent full of gas and taking off the gas mask.  Apparently, this is something of a joke to all of the commanders.  They tell everyone something ridiculous to do when they come out of the tent gagging and crying.  Also, while in the tent they make everyone sing a song (for instance there was a group that sang "Happy Birthday," so that they know when you take your mask off that you breath in the gas).  Our commander told us, "I am completely serious, when you come out of the tent the best way to get the gas off of you is to grab both of your ears, flap your elbows, and jump on one leg!"  Of course this is at the same time that you are drooling on yourself and you can't see because your eyes are watering so hard.  To top it all off there are girls who come to videotape you make a fool of yourself so that when you finish basic training you can laugh at what an idiot you were.

     Other than that nothing too special.  We have done some guard duty on the base and worked in the kitchen a little bit.  We had our first two lessons of Krav Maga (the Israeli self defense/hand-to-hand combat system), except at this phase of our training the lessons only consist of 45 minutes to an hour straight of conditioning.  It is actually kind of funny, it is one of the things I was really looking forward to and now it is the time that everyone in the team hates the most.  I'm sure it will get interesting later on, but right now all we do is suicides, crawling, or push-ups.

     That's about it for now.  I am fairly certain that I am going to be on the base for the next three weeks, so I don't know if there will be any updates in the near future but if I get off I'll try my best to keep this somewhat up-to-date.