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.