Haifa Underdogs

So about two or three months ago I joined an Israeli football team here. I think I mentioned it in a previous post. I don't really understand how it works but for some reason they have a ridiculously long season. I joined, not in the beginning, sometime in June and our first real game is November 13th. Football season usually starts in September and ends in December. Here it starts in November and ends in March. Who knew?

Anyway, I had a scrimmage a few weeks ago in Tel Aviv and a preseason game a week ago in Jerusalem. The scrimmage was pretty fun, we had fifteen plays of offense and fifteen plays of defense against the team from Tel Aviv and the team from Modi'in. The picture above is from the scrimmage. In the scrimmage I played running back, linebacker, and safety. I had some good runs, but didn't score any touchdowns (I'm saving that for the real games). On defense I think I played about 11 plays altogether and probably had 8 tackles (why I didn't play defense in high school I'll never know). It was pretty fun and Blayke was able to come out and see me, so that was nice.

Last Thursday was a preseason game against Be'er Sheva. I didn't think I was going to be able to play because it was on Thursday, but somehow we ended up getting out of the army on Thursday evening and one of the guys was able to swing by and pick me up on the way to the game.

I wasn't sure what to expect in the game because the scrimmage was tough to tell because we tried to let everybody play. Plus we run the wishbone and don't exactly have a quarterback who can throw. To give you an idea of how little we throw the ball at one point the announcer said over the microphone, "Here comes Haifa, and what are they gonna do this time...run the ball!". This works well for me since I play running back, but it doesn't take a defensive genius to realize how to slow us down (or at least I thought). Turns out we are a little better than I thought. By the third quarter when they took me out (I played pretty much every play except for special teams as either running back or safety) we were winning 40 to 0. I ran for probably 150 yards, 1 touchdown, and 3 two point conversions.

Our first game is on the 13th of November, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it or not.

Navigating...again

This week was our first week of the upcoming three month training session. Each week has a different "theme," this past week everyone trained on their specific profession within the team. Some people went to learn about various reconnaissance equipment, some camouflage, others rockets, and I went to practice my navigation skills.

As it turns out this was almost a punishment of sorts. Why do I say that, while everyone else had lessons during the day and the rest of the night off to do whatever they want (poker has really picked up in popularity here lately), the navigators, there was about 2 from each of the three units, had lessons during the day and then navigated all night.

I had navigated several times before, I would estimate that at least a third of our training was navigation, but this time was a little different. First of all, these navigations were alone instead of in pairs. Second, they added a few twists. The first and second night in addition to the normal navigations in which they ask you to find a specific location and describe what is written there (something they spray painted) we were also asked to point out specific houses. What does this mean? We would navigate to a point on the border of an Arab village and then someone would be waiting with night vision goggles and we would be asked to take a laser pointer (that can only be seen with thermal night vision) and point out our house to them.

The third night we were given 4 houses that were inside of an Arab village and asked to make drawings of them, which they would later check against pictures they had.

The truth is that it did make the navigations a little more interesting to have a new element thrown in, but I still couldn't help myself from thinking how everyone else was watching movies and basically doing whatever they want while I was walking from 9 PM until 3 or 4 in the morning.

On a side note, on my last navigation I wasted an hour looking for a code that apparently wasn't even in the right place. I new I was in the right place based on the aerial photographs I had seen, but the code wasn't there. I called my friend who was in charge of the navigations (as a general rule phones are not allowed, but since this was a week for self improvement I don't think they minded) and described to him the place where I was located only to have him tell me that someone had had the same point two weeks ago and told him that it was 20 meters south of the place it was supposed to be. Needless to say that after wasting close to an hour looking for that spot I was pretty frustrated.

Leaving the West Bank

The last few months I have been stationed in the West Bank.  There really hasn't been too much to report, I spent most of my time guarding the Jewish settlers and occasionally entered a few of the Arab villages to arrest terrorists (which at the time I deemed a little too confidential to reveal in such a public forum).

However, seeing as how we just finished our post in the West Bank and are going to be starting a three month drill in which we refresh everything we have learned, I think it is probably alright to go into a few details.  Over the last two months our battalion has been asked to arrest several terrorists, but the majority of the arrests were canceled at the last minute.  For instance, we obtained information that there was a Hamas member in a nearby village with several weapons at home, but before we moved out the mission was canceled because it was unknown which of three potential house he would be in.  

The largest mission we went on took place in Nablus.  Before two or three years Nablus was considered the most dangerous city in the West Bank.  Soldiers who entered could expect to be met with heavy resistance in the form of road side bombs or gunfire.  These days the resistance is minimal to non-existent but the Hams and Fatah members continue to use Nablus as a hub for terrorist activity.  Unlike most missions which entail one or two teams, 4 of the 5 teams in our battalion took place in this mission.  My team was asked to help surround the bomb makers home in case he attempts to escape as one of the other teams entered his home and arrested him.  The mission was a success and we met with no resistance.  

Other than a few other canceled missions we didn't see much action.  We are now going to the north for a refresher in all of our training in order to remain war-time ready.  

Getting Back in the Swing

I took a small hiatus from the army during the month of July.  I was given a month leave to go home and visit family and friends.  The best part was that the army actually payed for my entire flight.

I got back to Israel a week ago and spent most of the first week getting all of my gear back.  This week I met up with my team at our outpost in the West Bank.  We  spend most of our time guarding and patrolling the villages in our immediate area.  Even though I'm half way around the world from the US I still find the culture permeates here in various forms.  Yesterday I was in the mess hall listening to the radio.  Because we are in the West Bank we actually pick up the radio from Jordan.  The funny thing is this is what I hear, "Kiss 102.5 Jordan's Hit Radio Station" followed by Black Eyed Peas "Boom Boom Pow."  When I was in Austin, Texas a month ago the song came on every 5 seconds, and now a month later I can't escape it.  Even in the Arab country of Jordan!

Last weekend I went to my third IFL practice.  It was my second practice with pads and the first practice in which we were hitting.  It was actually kind of humorous.  They have some large guys (I'm talking 6'4'' 260), but these guys grew up playing soccer.  They try and tackle or block and they just stand straight up or will come up to make a hit and stop on contact.  For those of you who haven't played football this pretty much neutralizes all of their size.  The team has some potential but its gonna take a lot of work.  Oh...and I forgot to mention that we don't exactly have a quarterback so the coach is planning to run pretty much every down.  Which I guess is a good thing if I am going to be a running back.  Although it does make me a little suspicious as to how he plans on keeping opposing defenses honest.

Not too much going on right now.  We finish up our posting in the West Bank in another month and then we'll be starting a brigade wide exercise for two or three months.

Return to the Gridiron

Just when I had almost given up all hope on sports in Israel, I received an intriguing phone call.  I was in the middle of Shabbat dinner when I got a phone call from a number I didn't recognize.  The voice on the other end of the line introduced himself as the coach of the Haifa Underdogs.  I had no idea what the Haifa Underdogs was, so there is no chance you would have heard of it.  As it happens, the Haifa Underdogs are one of 5 football teams in the Israel Football League, a league created by Patriots owner Robert Kraft.  It is an 8-on-8 league in its third year of full-contact.  The coach said asked if I was interested in coming to their practice the following day, and that he would be willing to be pick me up and take me there (I didn't know at the time, but one of the members of the team knows a friend of mine).

I didn't have anything better to do, and I was pretty curious about seeing what it would be like, so I told him I'd be there.   The next day I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but I was somewhat surprised with the turn out.  There were maybe two Americans and the rest were Israelis.  There definitely was a little "Bad News Bears" about them, but at the same time there were a few guys with some potential.  Perhaps the funniest thing was that when everyone was split up into different positions I was sent to the running backs group.  Actually, I don't know what is funnier, that I practiced with the running backs or that I was actually pretty good.  Who knows maybe my real talents were wasted through out high school.  Not to mention, I don't know if I would stand much of a chance against there line men, who were all at least two of me put together.

It wasn't particularly serious, they only practice about 2 times a week, but that actually works out well for me since I only get out of the army every now and then.  The whole way home I couldn't help but think how it reminded me of a book I read recently by John Grisham, Playing for Pizza.  About American Football in Italy, and how the players aren't payed but receive free pizza and beer after each game from one of the players who owns a restaurant.  

Just when I thought the training was over

The past two weeks I have been participating in some supplementary training.  As a result of the Second Lebanon War the training regiment has been rearranged with an emphasis on open field warfare.  Apparently, the army felt that its soldiers were not under prepared for the last war and thought it necessary to devote almost the entirety of our training to wartime efforts.  Thus, leaving a rather important gap in our training - the  "peace"time training.  

The primary task of the IDF Special Forces during "peace" time, as of 2002, has been defined by "Operation Defensive Shield" (http:en/.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Defensive_Shield).  From that point on, Israeli forces started crossing the border into the West Bank and arresting terrorist in their home.  So this would be the work that we would be doing (although it is relatively quite these days and there actually isn't much work to be done).

In order to prepare for this work an additional two weeks was added to our training.  The first week was devoted entirely to a special style of Urban Warfare shooting.  Unlike open field warfare, Urban Warfare takes place at a much closer range.  Therefore, the techniques used for shooting differ greatly.  The concept of what we were learning is that close range combat requires  multiple bullets shot in rapid succession.  Over the course of the week we fired over 30,000 bullets in an effort to acclimate to the kickback of shooting 5 or 6 bullets in under 2 seconds.  I put a video on so you can see what it is like, in this video they are practicing how to fix your gun when it jams.

The second week was a little more diverse.  We spent one day practicing how to sneak around in a city without being seen.  We actually did this in Tel-Aviv and it was pretty funny.  We were a group of soldiers with full out face paint, M-16s, and night vision lurking in the shadows of a the biggest city in Israel.  You would be surprised how close you can get to people without them seeing you.  There was one couple who were literally 5 feet from me having an argument about whether or not they saw soldiers.  The woman was adamant "She saw 1...no 2...no 3 soldiers!"  And while her boyfriend was convincing her that he didn't see anyone I was laughing that she didn't see the other 5.  I have a hard time imagining this drill working anywhere in America.  I just can't think American citizens would take too kindly to soldiers sneaking around, more accurately I can't imagine them not freaking out.

The rest of the week we spent learning how to work with dogs, how to sweep a house (using paintball guns), and the specifics of how to surround a house and make an arrest. 

The Last Week of Training

For some reason unbeknownst to me, our commanders decided that our last week of training would also be one of the longest weeks of training. During a normal week we start Sunday afternoon or evening and finish Wednesday evening (When I refer to the "week" I mean the time that we actually are training. Usually Thursdays are spent cleaning and checking all of our gear). This week we started Saturday night and finished Thursday morning.

The premise of the week is to simulate what a week at war would be like. This particular war was with Syria. We were given a briefing on Friday so that we would know what our specific missions would be on Saturday night. Our entire company was going to walk 10 kilometers, and then split up into different assignments. My team, as the sniper/recon group, was charged with climbing a nearby mountain and offering both intel and covering fire on two parallel mounds where the Syrians had set up. At this point it was the job of two of the other teams to storm those hills.

So we set out on our mission Saturday night at midnight. Once again everyone with a bag that weighed somewhere close to 100 pounds. I didn't think it would be possible to have a bag heavier than the one I had carried in my individual navigation two weeks prior, but I was mistaken. I had all of the same personal gear, but this week instead of carrying my M-4 I brought the machine gun and all of the ammunition, which adds another about another 40 pounds.

Around 6 AM we finished our task and "crossed the border" in the search for a location we could set up camp during the afternoon. We arrived around 9 AM and were given our first break since setting out. What I didn't know was that it would be both short-lived and the only break we got for quite some time. An announcement came over the radio about 3 hours later that we were moving out. At the time I had been catching up on a night of lost sleep and when I looked at my watch I was in disbelief. We were being asked to pick up all of our gear and start walking again during the hottest part of the day! For those unfamiliar with the Middle East there are only two seasons - Summer and Winter. So just to be clear, we are already well into the summer at this point and this entire exercise was taking place in the desert. With all of that in mind, everyone packed up and started walking to another drill. In retrospect the first day was definitely the most physically and mentally challenging. The first 29 hours from Saturday at midnight until Monday at 5 in the morning I think we walked 24 of those hours.

The week proceeded much in the same way. We walked from drill to drill, at the end of which we would have a long march carrying "injured" soldiers. Normally, this would not be too terrible. When someone is injured 4 soldiers would carry that person on a stretcher. Unfortunately, my team did not have a functioning stretcher. At first we thought this was a good thing, perhaps we would simply not be asked to carry wounded soldiers. That, however, was not the case. On these marches that usually lasted anywhere from 4 - 7 kilometers, we carried our wounded brethren on our shoulders in the standard fireman's carry. This in and of itself often proves a difficult feat when scaling mountains, but when you have to do this with a gigantic bag already on your back it makes for rather slow traveling.

One night there actually was a kind of funny story, or maybe it was just funny to us in our delirium. We were given one portion of food rations (in said rations there are four cans of tuna, one can of corn, one can of olives, a small tin of sardines, one I can only describe as a kosher version of SPAM called loof, and a candy bar sized piece of halva (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halva)) for four people every 24 hours. Meaning that at some point in the middle of marching every day we would come to a point where we could refill our water and receive our rations for the next day. One night the guy in charge of the week decided to leave the food hidden by the side of the road with a replacement stretcher for my team. When we arrived to retrieve the food, five minutes after it had been hidden, we couldn't find anything. Our commander radioed to control trying to determine the exact location of the food, but we couldn't find it. Turns out, in the five minutes that the food was there a group of Bedouins came and took all of our food, and the stretcher (I like to think they opened the stretcher up, piled all the food on, and walked off).

The only thing that stands out as out of the ordinary was the last night. The last night we were helicoptered to a location (actually farther away from our eventual end point) where we than began a 16 kilometer hike to the top of a mountain which would symbolize the end of our training. At this point we were joined by various members of our team who had been sent out to various courses (such as commanders course). We walked to the base of the mountain, where we then opened up stretchers and raced the last 4 kilometers to the top. It was a pretty great feeling when we finally finished. My team made it to the top first and we celebrated with some food and one of my commanders brought a bottle of champagne. After a small ceremony we were told the buses were waiting for us at the bottom of the mountain, another 4 kilometers back down.

Before the week started I vividly remember telling the people I was sharing the food with that there was no need to bring the loof or the sardines because I would not be eating them and it was just extra weight. I also remember that by Tuesday night I was eating both my words and the sardines. We had been through a few other weeks in which we ate almost nothing, but I don't remember a week in which I felt as hungry as I did in that week. I was going to write some absurd analogy in which I explained that I was so hungry I would have probably eaten sand, but then I remembered that on the last day I reached the point that we had nothing to eat and I literally started to eat a packet of ketchup.

It was after this week that I really began to understand what people mean when they say that there are things that you will do that others won't be able to understand unless they have done it. When the week was finally over I had plenty of people ask me how it was and what we did, but there really isn't much to explain. I can say we walked...a lot (probably something like 120 kilometers over the course of the week), but it really doesn't begin to explain how difficult that trek was. Walking up and down mountains in the heat, with a bag that weighs half of your body weight, every few seconds trying to arrange something so it will sit better because if your bag is just a little off-center all the weight will be on one shoulder and what was difficult before reaches the brink preposterous.