Week 18 – שבוע מאמן 3

During all the “practice weeks” we build on the material we learned in the last one, specifically how to open rooms. The first one was how to do it alone, the second with pairs, and this week, we learned how to do it as a group of 4. The classes were switched around a bit – there’s a set amount of sharpshooters, negevistim, etc. and each class needs it’s set amount so some people need to be shuffled. I stayed in my class, and got my official “chulia” – the group of 4 that I’m with.

We spent the day at the shooting range, improving our scores for the 05 training status check by doing drills like yahalam and Bochen Meah, and every so often, a “chulia” would be sent to the fake house on shooting range 1 to learn and drill opening a room together.

Back at the base, we put on full gear, with added weight in our packs and went on a 2 kilometer run as practice for the בוחן צוות.  We went to bed rather early, after being forced to drink 2 full water bottles, and had trouble sleeping because everything was shaping up for a הקפצה in the middle of the night. Thankfully we weren’t woken up in the middle of the night. But, after our 7 hours of sleep, at 4:30 in the morning, we were woken up to shouts of 5 מלחמה. We grabbed our big bags, which we had placed weight in the night before, and left for a 4 kilometer masa with stretchers. This was the makeup for the end of the masa we couldn’t complete the week before.

The masa itself wasnt too tough. We got back and were gifted the pins on our kumta. We were also told that we were now officially in אימון מתקדם – advanced training, which comes with special perks. We now refer to the commanders by their last names instead of Mefaked so and so, we switched to global times, meaning in theory there should be less opening stopwatches, and the greatest treat of all: during meal times, were allowed to go to shekem and the חלביה. The training is going to get a lot harder, and we’ll be out in the field most weeks, so when we’re on base, they’re okay spoiling us.

We shot at the shooting range a bit more throughout the day and had another fitness evaluation. I finally broke 10 pullups with an extra 7 kilo on me.

That night we had krav maga and did the most insane thing so far in krav maga: Maagal Krav – circle of combat. Essentially, one person goes in the middle of the circle and everyone else takes turns, without break, beating him up. You go 100%, no holding back. I got to see just how aggressive and violent some of my classmates can be and all I’ll say is, good they’re on our side. We wear protective gear, but you still feel the punches. It’s two minutes of mental and physical torture. There wasn’t enough time for me to enter the circle this first go around, but I still beat up some classmates.

Even though I had just returned from Shabbat, I was told that my Yom siddurim was on Tuesday, so I was woken up the next day at 4:30 to head out. I had my phone on me as we were heading out and was able to capture a video of another Machlaka getting woken up at 5 AM to ארבע קרב מגע.

It was also my first time leaving with the new pin on the kumta and the paratrooper wings on my uniform.

I spent the Yom siddurim relaxing, seeing friends, and buying some things I needed. I went to the Jerusalem cinematheque to see Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Gotta support local theaters. (Extra fun with a Spielberg)

I returned to base the next day at 4:30 PM and after waiting around for an hour or so and eating dinner, got hakpatzad to Krav Maga. Another round of Maagal Krav, this time I was in the middle. I started out strong, fighting back against the 3 people that jumped on me as soon as I went in. Pushing them off me and returning punches. The instructor secretly tells people to switch out so theres a constant onslaught of attackers. I fought them off for a bit, but after a minute, tired out like crazy. Someone tripped me up, and the last 20 seconds of my 2 minutes or so was spent on the ground just getting wailed on. Fun times. Character building for sure.

We woke up the next morning for the first time by ourselves. One person in the class was given a phone and we were told what time the מסדרים had to be ready. He set the alarm for 20 minutes before. What a great feeling waking up on your own instead of being surprised with shtayim bet. It changes the whole vibe of the morning; gives you a second to breathe and wake up normally.

We started Hagnam for a third time mid morning. Some people went to shmira, but the Mefakdim didn’t have much to do with the rest of us, so we waited around the pluga for a while. They also had us practice putting tourniquets on our classmates, something we’ll be refining over the next couple of months and practicing a bunch.

I had shmira from 2-4 in the morning and again from 8-10. I did shmira in the pluga at 8-10 and thank gd I was. The pluga was hakpatzad. They thought it was real at first – everyone running around, grabbing war equipment to head out. We learned after about half an hour that it was an evaluation of our Pluga and our base. There were senior army officials in the pluga watching us. (We figured it out after we saw lots of older soldiers with “falafels” on their shoulders). It was fun watching this all from the side as I stood guarding the armory.

Overall we had a chill week, especially now that we’re in advanced training. The dynamic has completely changed with the mefakdim; calling them by their last names, joking around with them. Going to shekem and chalavia during mealtimes. It makes the days way more manageable just being in an overall better state of mind. It’ll be a hard next couple of months ahead, so it’s a welcome change. We feel the end of training coming. It’s on the horizon, only 2 months away.

During my Yom Siddurim, I sent an email to a close friend and I want to share a portion of it here on the blog for posteritys sake and because it’s an experience I’ve been going through in the army.

I find myself living in nostalgia and memory quite often. I’ll probe around the corners and recesses of my mind, thinking back to my childhood and trying to recreate and remember events and core memories. Even weirder, it isn’t my childhood in Boca; I go back all the way to Las Vegas – pre 12 years old. I think about my childhood house, my bedroom with its little reading nook and the wooden headboard with sliding panels behind my head. I think about the view of the Red Rock mountains from my bedroom window and the walk through my kitchen to the cherry tree in my backyard. I think about the outdoor stage in the mountains where my family would bring picnic blankets and watch musicals and shows that were put on. I remember watching movies as a kid and I feel a rush of warm nostalgia. I remember how I used to act in my school’s theater productions; how I thought acting would be my career one day. I remember the library I would walk to on Shabbat to read comics with my dad and sleeping in the Sukkah in the cold.

What is all this? Is it a normal quarter-century phenomenon to start reminiscing on your childhood. Does your body just slip into this state of remembering? Now that you’ve passed another stage of growth, is this the mind’s way of screaming “Wait! Hold on! We still haven’t processed these things from your past!” Is my mind trying to tell me something or am I just thinking positively on a bygone time. I have no idea. But, everytime i get these random pangs of remembrance and they’ve run their course, I get this feeling of loss. This knowledge that that time and space is never coming back. I’m never going to be a kid again, looking at the world with innocent eyes, unaware of income and taxes and real-world responsibilities. I envy that kid during these memory escapades. Maybe this is my subconscious mind’s way of telling me that I haven’t really grown yet – that deep down I still am that kid.

I really have no idea. But this phenomenon has been really wonderful and strange to me, both a welcome experience and also one that, sometimes, I wish I could leave behind. Let me move on and focus on the world now. The army, Israel, everything else.

One things for sure. For as much physical work as there is, and as little time as we have to think, the army is definitely doing things to my subconscious. I’m happy I’m here, but it really is such an unusual experience I’m putting myself through.