Army Life: Israeli teenagers to Israeli soldiers

I've been in the army for three weeks now, and I must say that I've been working hard. I've fired countless rounds in target practice, marched outside of the base with a bunch equipment on me, and learned about first aid and many other facets of soldiering. 

But all of that is what a soldier does, not what a soldier is. First and foremost, a soldier is someone who puts the good of someone else before his own.

Our commanders have expended much of our energy while trying to instill a sense of camraderie. For instance, when we are given time to perform a task, if even one person is only one second late, we are all punished. At meals no one is allowed to eat until everyone is seated with food.

In practice, the results have been mixed. After just a short time together, we are still learning about each other's personal preferences, pet peeves and pressure points. With the clock constantly clicking and commanders always down our backs, there is often much yelling between guys in the unit. At times, the fear of getting punished tramples the concern of the person next to you.

There have been some positive sides, however. When a solider is sent to guard duty during a meal, he can be sure that someone from the unit will bring him food back to his post. We have also started to proactively help each other and keep each other out of trouble. If someone sees somebody's dress is out of regulation or is about to violate an army rule, he'll point it out before a commander does.

While we still have a ways to go before we can be considered a "band of brothers", what was only a few weeks ago a random group of Israeli teenagers, is slowly but surely transforming into a unit of Israeli soldiers.