Week 26

As training draws closer to an end, the weeks feel irrelevant. Like every week is just filler until the final week: Shavua milchama, the notoriously hard war simulation week.

The week started with a Yom Siddurim, which meant a nice extended weekend (the מ”פ must have wanted to get our Yom siddurim out of the way for the last month so we had it February 1).

I hadn’t seen my brother yet since he’d arrived in Israel for half a year, so I went to Efrat to grab lunch with him.

I went to a wedding that night, a nice end to the Yom Siddurim.

Monday we traveled to Shekef, a kfar close to base to meet the pluga. The kfar has a strip of abandoned houses that we used to run drills on. We ran תרגילי כיתה throughout the day, maneuvering from the forest nearby, raising a drone to scope out the house, and then moving in formation to capture the house.

Tuesday morning we measured ourselves for “Tacti” the uniforms well wear in the gdud. It was pretty exciting – a small indication that we’re near the end. We had krav maga in the pouring rain and then headed back to Shekef for a day of capturing houses again, this time as a מחלקה.

That night, 45 minutes after going to bed, we were woken up to חמש מלחמה. We rushed to get ready and then carried alunkot to the southern gate, 150 meters away and back. The מ”מ gave a speech about how we always need to be prepared no matter what and then we went back to bed. A quick, easy hakpatza. Sababa.

Wednesday was exciting – another step in training winding down and our acceptance to the gdud approaching: returning our gear from the past 6 months and getting brand new gear. New vests, knee braces, tactical gloves, etc. (Someone in my Machlaka actually organized a donation from a wealthy family friend to get us even better equipment but the standard of the new army equipment is still very high).

We woke up Thursday at 5 and drove straight to the ashkelon beach for a practice בוחן צוות. We ran without vests on but carrying an 80 kg stretcher 1.5 km.

We came back to base around 9 and had נוהל סופ”ש the entire day. Hours and hours of שפצורים on the new equipment and gun cleaning.

It was exciting leaving the next morning. This is the last יציאה before the final 21 day sprint to the end of training. I went on a date Friday morning and met up with Ilan and liora in Jerusalem before heading to modiin before shabbat.

I bought a few things to prepare for shavua milchama. Beyond the physical preparation, I wanted to have something to inspire me and push me foreard through the hard days, so I made a small card with pictures of my great- grandfather, grandather, father, and sister all in their army service.

Shabbat in modiin by family was just what I needed before this final stretch. The difficulty of Shavua milchama started to stress me out, especially after the difficulty of Shavua machlaka. I almost quit last time because of the mental strain and Friday night, I was deep in stressful, overthink about how crazy the 10 days of Shavua milchama will be. Spending time with family, with loved ones, joking with them and being able to share my concerns with them and get their advidc was exactly what I needed.

I can’t believe trainings almos over.  Yes there’s the shavua milchama and masa kumta before then , but I’m so close to the finish line. I’m so ready for everything to change. To be in the gdud, to feel more like a human, to have my phone throughout the day, just to have an overall entirely different perception of what the army is. It’s been the hardest 7 months of my life, mentally, physically ,socially. But it’s, without a doubt,  built me up. Made me stronger and more resilient. I plan on writing a long, post training reflection blog at the end. All that’s left is to finish the training itself.