Towards the end of tironut,
soldiers are chosen for specific
roles within the kita
and are sent to a special course of training, taking on a position
for the rest of their service. I arrived on base early on Sunday
morning, eager to begin and make the best possible impression on my
instructors (as I mentioned briefly before, I was competing for a
spot).
As
soon as I was changed and ready to go, I lugged the equipment for the
shooting range onto my shoulders and trekked off to begin Course
Kalaim, the
sharpshooters course. For the rest of the week, we shot thousands of
bullets from the wee hours of the morning into the dwindling minutes
of the night. Standing, sitting, laying down, and propped on a table,
we managed to calibrate and learn our new rifles, becoming competent
kalaim.
While
the repetitive nature of the week makes it difficult to talk about, a
few things stick out in my mind as memorable throughout the duration
of the course.
I've
mentioned before how the chemistry and dynamic of the kita
has changed since beginning tironut
in two months ago (a period that seems like a lifetime!). This has
never been more evident than it was throughout the course of my
training. Due to the fact that I slept in a different room and spent
every day with the sharpshooters of the pluga (battalion),
I rarely saw the rest of my kita.
Despite doing interesting and often fun things, the moments of shavuz
(common army depression) were strong and plenty. The logical
explanation was the fact that I wasn't with my friends, the group of
guys with whom I've developed a bond I could never have imagined
before joining the army.
The
appreciation I have for my team grows greater every day. I know
understand more than ever how these friends become lifelong friends,
the fighters you would trust with your life in the heat of battle.
While the week was tough to get through, one of the most intensive to
date, the last day made everything worth it. Seeing the team after
being away from them the entire week, reliving new stories and jokes
made things seem right once again.
During
the course, I also completed the most difficult physical challenge of
the army (and consequently my life) so far. After hundreds of
shooting exercises, we were told we'd be going into the most infamous
of them all, Kriya Savlanoot
(patient kneeling). After receiving five bullets, we lowered into
matsav kriya (kneeling
position), seated on our back foot with our eyes focused on the
target. We were told to wait for the order to shoot one bullet and
keep the rifle completely still.
It's
difficult to explain the discomfort and pain of matsav
kriya. Besides for the aches and
pains in your back and arms, your back foot struggles to hold the
weight of your body, your knee restricting the blood flow to the rest
of your leg.
 |
| Matsav Kriya: Notice his body weight resting on his back foot. |
The
first twenty minutes were the most excruciatingly painful twenty
minutes of my life. I'm not ashamed to say I was close to tears (many
had passed that point), every muscle of my body screaming for a
break. As the first twenty minutes passed, my leg slowly began to
lose feeling, almost a blessing. At one point, I fell out of the
stance and onto the floor. Being unable to feel my leg on it's own, I
had to wait for the shooting instructor to place my foot back into
it's proper position for me.
Eventually,
after what seemed like a lifetime, we were told to fire our fifth and
final bullet and stand up. Fifty five minutes after the start of the
exercise, we all found ourselves struggling to stand, no feeling
whatsoever in our legs. While a torturous experience, I look back on
it with a smile, shocked and amazed at what the body can deal with
when there is no choice.
I
can't say I wasn't pleased for the week to end. I performed well
enough on the tests (both shooting and written) to earn the spot I
was competing for in my team (!!!) and am now a trained sharpshooter.
I
made the long trip home for a relaxing weekend before returning back
to base for what would become amongst the more disappointing weeks
I've had. This trend of a good week being followed by a bad one is
becoming old, to say the least! More on that in the next post.
-Brett
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