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.

End of Training Individual Test - Close Combat (Krav Maga)

Just as a warning in case this post seems out of context it is actually a continuation of the previous post.

So, that being said, I'll pick up where I left off.  As the final part of our "Individual Test" we had a Krav Maga session that lasted from 11 PM until 6 AM the next morning.  As a reference, a normal session is usually somewhere between an hour and a half and two hours because it is two hours (or in this particular instance 7) of all-out physical exertion.  

Normally, we begin a lesson with a warm-up of about 30 minutes.  This includes wind sprints, push-ups, and various aggression drills.  On this night our "warm-up" lasted the better part of two hours, the majority of which I spent crab-walking.  This was my first Krav Maga session with the entire company, it is usually one team at a time, so there were several instructors who divided up the teams.  Each team did something a little bit different.  One team mostly sprinted, one hung from the pull-up bar the majority of the time (I'm not quite sure the purpose of this drill), and after a few sprints my team and one other team crab-walked for about an hour and a half (for those who are unfamiliar, the crab-walk is basically sitting down, lifting yourself off the ground with your arms and legs, and then walking on all fours).  It actually isn't to terrible, and probably preferable to sprints, except that after about ten minutes your joints start to ache, especially your elbows.  Needless to say, after an hour and a half I was pretty certain I would be struggling to keep my arms up to defend myself, let alone manage to throw a punch of my own.  What I hadn't bargained for was the amount of kicking that would go on in the next 5 hours.  By the time the session was over there were at least 10 people sitting on the side, and I don't think there was one person who wasn't limping.

After the warm-up everyone put on the appropriate gear and broke up into four circles for the combat portion of the test.  The general principle behind the test was simple - one person enters the circle and fights several combatants in a row, and often simultaneously, beyond the point of exhaustion and until the instructor is satisfied that he has squeezed every last drop of energy and aggression out of said individual (I tried to post a video, but it said it was loading for about two hours and in the end I don't think it worked, if I get a chance I may try again).  In my specific circle the instructor is someone I had never worked with before (he normally works exclusively with the reconnaissance team), and for some reason, I assume my size (the average Israeli is built more like a "David Beckham" than a "Brian Urlacher," to say the least) he seemed to take a liking to me.  Which in this setting is not a good thing.  Time and time again I was called on to enter the circle to face various opponents.  

Towards the end the instructor decided on a tournament style of combat.  Fights were held one-on-one and the winner advanced.  After two rounds I had made it to a three way finals.  Going into my first fight I decided I would try to mix things up a little.  With the thick vests everyone was wearing (there is a thinner version, but apparently for a 7 hour Krav Maga session the thinner version would lead to too many injuries) punches were extremely inefficient, and low kicks had to be well timed and well placed.  I figured I would try going with the knees.  Twenty seconds into the fight I realized my opponent had the same idea, and my left knee met bone-to-bone with his.  I had to take a few minutes to recuperate on the side, during which time I apparently forfeited my fight.  Meaning the third guy, one my buddies, was the crowned the champion of our circle, which turns out was a blessing in disguise.  He was then sent to all of the other circles as our representative.  Therefore, I was given a welcome break.

The third and final phase of the test was what is known as an "absorption exercise."  The idea being that absorbing punishment is a good way to teach you to take a hit, or more appropriately - a beating, and to teach you how to throw a punch (for the person doing the hitting).  So, my team stood up against a wall alternating between being the absorber and the one dishing out the punishment.  At this point everyone was both tired and nursing various injuries, when combined with the fact that at the end of the day the person you are beating is your friend made for a rather dangerous situation.  On the one hand, you have the option of not hitting your partner very hard.  However, on the other hand, if one of the 5 instructors or 8 commanders sees you not giving 100% they would take it upon themselves to show you what 100% is (and the person who is up against the wall really doesn't want that).  Mercifully, the session came to an end after about an hour and a half of the absorption exercise.  I actually have some video from this, but I think it is probably better if I save that for a different forum.

The End of Training Individual Test - Navigations

We have reached the final stretch. As I write this post I only have one more week of training left, which is actually hard to believe after being in training for the past year and 5 months, but after our last week I know that this upcoming week is going to be a doozy.

DISCLAIMER: This post is long, to quite long.

The last few weeks of training are meant to be a test of everything we have learned until this point. The tests are set up essentially in the same manner as the training itself. We start on the individual soldier level, then team, and finally work our way up to the entire company. This past week we had our individual test (I am sure there is a better translation, but it literally translates as "The Individual Summarization"). The week consisted of three navigations, krav maga, and a shooting test. I'll try my best to explain what transpired over the course of the week, but no matter what I say it won't really be able to do it justice - it was just that hard!

We were all given our routes and maps to study the weekend before the first navigation, which should probably have triggered some warning that this was not going to be just another navigation. After plotting out our route I soon learned why. Along the path to collecting our various points everyone was going to have to scale not one, but two extremely steep mountains (Mount Kamoon and Mount Chazon, for those who may be familiar). In addition to the challenge of navigating alone we were also going to be walking with all of the gear we would need for the week, plus a little extra. Normally, I would try to guesstimate for you how much I had to carry in my bag over the course of the week, but as it turns out I don't have to guess. After we had packed all of our food, water, clothes, radio, rain gear, shovel, more water, and various other gear we were all weighed. According to the scale my bag weighed 40 kilos (or 90 pounds for those of you, who like myself two years ago, have no idea how the metric system works.  You can see a good picture of the bag above).

Sunday night we waited for the sun to go down, and set out on our navigations around 8:30 PM. It was on this first navigation of the week that I learned two important lessons that I would use when planning routes for the rest of the week. First, whenever possible find paths. Second, if it means you have to walk an extra 4 or 5 miles - find paths! Our first navigation was between 25 and 30 kilometers (15 - 18 miles). Most of the time this would mean we would finish after about 7 hours, a pace of about 4 kilometers per hour. I think that even with the added weight it would have been possible to finish the navigation in a 3 or 4 kilometer per hour pace. The true problem, however, proved to be the extremely dense undergrowth (and over- and midgrowth for that matter). Making my way up and down mountains proved grueling. I actually had an internal debate (there is a lot of time for internal dialogue when navigating for hours alone) as to whether it was harder going up the mountain or down. At first glance it would seem obvious that going up a mountain would be more difficult, however, when there is no clear path between trees and boulders going down the mountain with an additional 90 pounds on your back can also prove to be rather challenging. The truth is, even the slightest miss-footing with a giant bag on your back usually means you are gonna take a tumble. Fortunately for me, most of the time I was able to lean back and fall on my bag. There were one or two occasions, however, in which my foot found a hole and I fell forward. All I can say is that in these particular occasions I was thankful there wasn't someone with a camera around. I would find myself in the awkward "turtle-like" position in which all of your weight is on your back and you simply can't move. I would spend a good 5 minutes rocking back and forth trying to right myself (although in retrospect I guess I could have just taken the bag off, but in my defense that was also a 5 to 10 minute ordeal).

Throughout the course of the navigation there are various points which everyone must cross, so that the commanders have an idea of where everyone was and at what time. One of these points just so happened to be at the top of a mountain. After climbing this mountain for about two hours, I finally reached the top. The disappointing part of getting to the top was that I had to say hello to my commander and then go right back down. After collecting all of my points, I started to make the hike to the ending point around 8 AM. Another 3 and half hours later, 15 hours after I started and in the sweltering heat I staggered to the end point. There I was greeted by my commander who handed me an envelope with the points for my next days navigation. When I arrived at 11:30 I assumed I was one of the last people to arrive (my radio actually didn't work, so I couldn't hear everyone who had been getting lost all night begging for help). As it turns out, there was someone on my team who didn't finish the first navigation until 5:30 PM, 21 hours after starting!!! After finishing I was told to divide my time between food, sleep, and study. I actually wasn't that hungry but I tried to eat a little so that I could cut down on the weight I was carrying, even if it was only a can of corn (I figured better not to carry it around all week).

At 10 PM we set out on our second navigation of the week. After the first night I had planned the majority of my second navigation on paths or next to roads. Don't ask me why, but for some reason I let one of my friends talk me into cutting through the woods down the mountain (I forgot to mention, but the end point of each navigation was the starting point for the next days navigation) for my first kilometer. I had originally planned on walking an extra 3 kilometers on a path (rule #2), but he gave me an "Aaah, its just a little foliage" and like an idiot I listened to him. Needless to say this was not a good idea. I spent the better part of an hour pushing my way through thorn bushes, until I came to what I can only describe as a 10-15 foot cliff. Of course I tried to go around, but as it turns there was no way around. I found one place where I could jump down, but I literally had to take my bag off and throw it over the cliff. I had to do this one or two more times, but I finally made it to the road. The rest of the first half of the navigation went pretty well, I just wish I could say the same about the second half.

Right when I was about to leave for my navigation the commander of our whole company came over and looked out my route. He was then kind enough to inform me that there was an army base that does not show up on the map but that I had planned to walk right through it, which of course would not be possible. As a result, I had to change my route at the last minute, which I am sure I don't have to tell you is never a good idea when you are navigating with only a compass and your memory. As I am sure you can imagine, the part of my navigation that I changed at the last minute just so happened to be the part where I got lost. I spent three hours at the top of a mountain stumbling over rocks and wishing I had a machete, while looking for one of my points. I eventually assumed I was not in the right place and started to make my way down the mountain. I eventually was able to figure out where I was (4 kilometers from my next point, 4 kilometers in the wrong direction. Meaning I would have to walk there and back, making it 8 kilometers). I was fully prepared to accept my fate and begin the march that would add an extra 2 hours to my navigation, but my commander informed me (I called him because my radio didn't work) he preferred I get to the end on time. It was about 6 kilometers away and I had a little more than an hour. It was definitely doable, but to steal a term from American army slang, I would have to "double-time" it. I finished this navigation at 8:30 AM and about 3 minutes before my time expired, once again in the heat of the day but the third person from the company to finish.

My third navigation was less eventful. I stuck to the roads and it paid off. It may have lengthened my navigation a bit, but in the end it definitely proved faster. There was one point that I didn't find (what I discovered later was that in my exhaustion I had misread the coordinates and placed the point on the wrong place on the map). I started this navigation at 7:30 PM and finished at 3:00 AM. What the navigation was lacking in adversities, it certainly made up for it at the end.

At 5 AM everyone who had reached the last point was woken up and we were told to put our gear back on. We were told that we would be climbing the mountain that we were sleeping next to. At first glance this may have come as a surprise because the mountain next to us looked more like a cliff face then a mountain that we could possibly climb. However, I new before we started the night that it would end like this. After the week we had just had there was no way our final point would be at the base of a mountain and not at the peak.

It just so happens that the mountain is somewhat famous in Israel. It is called Mount Arbel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Arbel). I found a particularly interesting quote on Wikipedia:

 "On the south side, there is a gradual prolonged climb through agricultural and pasture land while on the other, there is a very steep 400 meters drop. At the top of the steeper Northern side, there are metal handholds driven into the rock because the climb is so steep."

 I think it goes without saying that we went up the North side. I don't know if it was the lack of thorn bushes and other thickets, but it actually wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, the path was so steep that people had to take breaks every few minutes to sit down and catch their breath, but after about an hour and a half I had reached the top. I wish I could say that I had also finished the week, but it was just the end of the navigations - there was still krav maga.

(For those who made it this far, other than my mom, I'll spare you some reading and save the krav maga for the next post).