War is scary, not glorious
He started talking and was telling a story of his company going to capture a village in south Lebanon. I looked at my comp. commander, who was sitting on the ground with the rest of us. His face was illuminated with no small amount of respect and reverence. Here was his old commander that led him into battle, a very diminutive guy, and my beefy company commander looked mesmerized! It was hard to believe, at least until I heard the story of the battle. I guess I can't really write any of this, for one because I'm no war journalist, and secondly because you really can only hear it from the guy who lived it. Golani soldiers get hot girlfriends?
I've been wanting to post about this one guy in my unit and his girlfriend for, oh I don't know, maybe about four months now. Forever ago we were on a bus heading to a different base to do some training, and he used my cell phone to access an Israeli version of MySpace or Facebook. He wanted to show me pictures of his girlfriend. "OK," I thought. "This'll be interesting." Now, this guy is very nice. He's quiet and kind and well-behaved. He temper doesn't flare over every little thing, and he knows how to talk to people calmly. In short, he's basically un-Israeli. He's a good seed. However, his beauty is, how would you say, found on the inside. Don't get me wrong, he's not ugly by any means. I've seen him shirtless, and he may not be Brad Pitt, but he's in shape. He's an average-looking person. Masa Kumta - Beret March
Writing a blog entry about a march that begins at 7:30pm and ends the next day at 6am is probably harder than the hike itself. What can I say about it? I guess I'll just give a little background... The masa kumta (beret march, essentially) is the final hike in a long series of hikes that begin in the first month of basic training, and end, at least for certain infantry units, at the end of advanced training. That means that for the duration of your entire training period you have to face these marches. The purpose of a masa is clear: you do them in combat. Not every battle is found right outside your barrack's doors. Sometimes you've gotta hike a few miles out there, or a few back. Why do we open stretchers and load them up and hike miles and miles with them? Because at the end of most battles you've gotta get the wounded out, and there are always wounded. Of course, the masaot also build teamwork, esprit de corps, and give training a sort of backbone - not to mention a clear finale. R&R for Israeli infantry units
"You're going home for the weekend to rest. Go out and have fun. Drink a beer or two with your friends. Share stories. Eat too much food. Look for girls. You should feel like kings." Everyone seems to always ask me how much time I get off from the army. I really wanted to quote what my loquacious company commander once said before letting us go for a weekend, so I figured I'd just explain this part of an infantryman's service for some context. First of all, your typical IDF soldier gets to go home a lot. Jobnikim, non-combat soldiers, who are a vast majority of the army, can have any manner of schedule allowing them to go home often. Here are some of the typical schedules that explain why combat soldiers sometimes hate jobnikim: Joining the IDF? Here's some advice
Lately I've been getting an inordinate amount of emails from guys in America looking to join the army before, during, or after college. I suppose they search the net to see what it's like in the IDF, find my blog, and want to ask their questions. I can understand that. If I would have found a blog like mine two years ago, I think the author would've had to end up blocking my emails! I would've driven him crazy. And so, I've been finding myself lately thinking of all the advice I'd like to give to anyone considering the army. Sometimes I think I should tell them to not worry about getting in shape before joining, since you're going to be forced to push yourself past your limits anyway. But to counter that, I then realize that running and pushups and the like might help relieve the stress and anxiety inherent in such an adventure. The non-Jewish protectors of our state
While at a training base for all infantry units, I sat down to eat dinner in the dining hall next to some guys from the Givati Brigade. Givati is one of the few infantry brigades, and on my list of the best brigades, I'd rank it number two. It was my number two choice, but that's like someone saying Yale is their #2. It's an awesome unit. One of the reasons I love Givati is because it is, as far as I can tell, the place that many or most of the Druse and Beduins serving in infantry go. If you don't know, Druse is a religion that branched off from Islam a thousand years ago; Druse speak Arabic, and have an Arab culture. Their ethnic makeup is varied and complex, and I'm certainly no expert. An unknowing observer would, however, probably just classify them as Arab. Religion in the IDF
BlogCentral would like to welcome a new contributor to the Army Life blog: D.B. He was born and raised in Virginia, USA, and graduated from The College of William & Mary in Virginia in '07 with a degree in Government (Political Science). In September of 2007, D.B. made aliyah and is currently serving as a combat soldier in the Israeli Army, Golani infantry brigade. I studied in a Jewish seminary (yeshiva) a few years back, and at the time I was just beginning to consider the idea of serving in the IDF. This particular yeshiva is a "charedi" institution - essentially ultra-orthodox. Charedi yeshivas are generally not very 'Zionistic', and their opinion of young men serving in an army instead of spending all day, every day, studying Torah is fairly low. So, when I volunteered to a rabbi that I was interested in the IDF, the response wasn't warm, to say the least. The rhetoric thrown around was that the IDF is a "bad place for religious Jews." They liked to say that it's hard to be religious there, that it's hard to keep your level of faith, and that there are too many bad influences. At the time, I didn't have any other source of information. I didn't know what it's like to be an Orthodox Jew in the army, so I just took it for what it was worth: hyper-religious Jerusalemites judging what they had no experience in in the first place. I didn't know what to think, but I assumed that they were being slightly dramatic. Dilemmas at checkpoints
My last entry A Moral Army, generated many passionate responses, and I feel it necessary to add some context to the scene that I described at the checkpoint. A moral army
When armies begin to train combat soldiers, the main focus is on providing them with the skills necessary to fight the enemy. Soldiers are taught to shoot, run in formation, and treat wounded comrades. In this respect, the IDF is no different than any other army in the world. What separates this army from the rest is the moral emphasis placed on our training. During my three months in the army, I have sat in multiple classes dealing with the humanitarian and moral aspects of military service. The IDF teaches its soldiers that there are certain orders that must be refused. Needlessly causing lasting physical harm to civilians is one such example. "Just following orders" is an unacceptable answer here. A sense of accomplishment
Following my unit's completion of tironut (basic training), we were sent to guard a kibbutz just outside of Gaza. It was our first real mission as soldiers, the first time where we could feel that we were actually doing something of true importance. |
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