Before I started my compulsory service in the Israeli Defence Force I got a facebook message from a friend saying “be safe, and moral”.
Two things ran through my mind in reading this statement.
Firstly, that my friend thinks that the army is like a sausage factory, where things go in alive, whole, free thinking, and come out as phallic objects filled with filth, snout and entrails.
Secondly, that my friend has enough respect to think of me as moral prior to enlisting, but not enough faith in me to avoid influence of the ‘rape, pillage, and burn’ mentality they supposedly teach there.
It’s possible that she confused the Israeli Army with a band of drunken Vikings. It is also possible that I am blowing her well-wishes out of proportion.
This is not a political blog so I am not going to go into what I do and do not think about the army. Instead I want to share my experience.
I recently finished basic training ‘02’, the second most basic training of the army. The training is for soldiers who will not be anywhere near combat during their service.
We learnt a bit of self-defence, how to shoot, learnt a little history, first aid, how to put on gas masks in the event of chemical warfare from our friendly neighbours, and how to wait.
Waiting is a skill I think I mastered in the month basic training.
The number crunch of the month:
50 sit ups
70 push ups
45 bullets shot
5 km of running
15km of walking
5.7 hours of sleep/night
12 showers
350 shekels earnt
And 212 hours of standing
At the end of the service, you are offered three jobs; fixing the wheels on tanks, fixing radios used in the war with Vietnam, or driving a truck. What great opportunities for my comrades, some of which have two physics degrees, some wuth aeronautical engineering degrees, many spoke more than 3 languages fluently including Arabic, some had officer training in the Russian army.
Your humble narrator was offered a job in the Education Core creating lessons aimed to strengthen the Jewish and Zionist identity of people in the army on the condition that he sign on another 6 months.
A short sob-story about being alone in the world and a sick dog got me out of signing more time. I am happy to be starting a job I am most probably passionate about and isn’t going to melt my mind anymore that basic training has.
As a reflection on the whole experience we say in the army “היה טוב, אבל טוב שהיה” “it was good, but it’s good that it was”. I made some great friends and the experience cleared up a lot of the concerns I had concerning the army.
