As my army service
progresses, I have found myself busier and busier each step of the
way. The increased pressure on time, especially during those precious
weekends off from the daily grind, can often cause a bit of
procrastination (or a lot in my case). I've certainly fallen victim
to this, having not posted in over a few months. For that, I
apologize, and hope to be quickly forgiven by all my readers. The
blog holds a very special place in my heart and I will be working on
updating it more often throughout the next phases of my life in the
army.
Without further ado, back
into it!
After completing the
grueling masa kumta,
the lone soldiers of Tzanchanim
were invited back to the training base for a two week ulpan.
With no complaints over the two weeks of relative calm and relaxation
after our insane eight months, we arrived back on the bach,
the red berets displayed proudly on our shoulders.
It's a
bit strange to explain the first time walking on the training base
with the beret. Shedding blood, sweat, and tears for the eight long
months ahead, the one thing that always kept us motivated throughout
our time as trainees was looking in awe at the red fabric on our
commanders' shoulders. I constantly looked so desperately into the
future, thinking just how long it would be until I had one of my very
own. Arriving onto the base to the longing eyes of the current
trainees as you walk by, after knowing that you were giving that very
look so soon before is simply an unreal feeling.
The
two weeks of jokes and laughs (and also a bit of Hebrew!) flew by and
before long, we were reunited with our unit on a base in the north to
begin “Imun Kayitz,”
summer training. Yes, right after our basic and advanced training, we
were taken with the rest of the Paratroopers Brigade to yet another
training regimen.
The
detailed explanation of our imun
will be dedicated to the next post. In this post, I'd like to give a
detailed explanation of how life works after the bach:
Within
each gdud of the
brigade, there are four different plugot
(companies) which each have a different specialty in combat. The
draft ascending from the bach
is the plugat maslool,
or training company. Being the only company without a specialty, the
job of the plugat maslool
is essentially to put to use everything learned on the training base
for the first time on the kav,
sort of an on-the-job training.
The
entire draft stays together during this period, including most of the
commanders and officers. After a period of three to four months,
after the end of our maslool in
the army, the plugat maslool
is broken up into the vatikot,
or older, specialized companies. The company a soldier is absorbed
into becomes his home for the rest of his service, with an entirely
new group of commanders and officers unique to that company. The
three possible companies are the Palchod, Mesayat, and
Mivtzayit companies, each with a
different specialty, though that's not entirely important for now.
Based
on the draft being released from the army at the same time as mine
being absorbed into the vatikot,
the two possible destinations for me were the Palchod or
the Mesayat, but more
on that later.
Now,
moving on to what the companies actually DO during the service.
Infantry
units, Tzanchanim
included, serve the borders of Israel in rotation. Each deployment on
the border can last anywhere from four to nine months. Between each
border is a specialized training regimen specific to the upcoming
assignment and lasting anywhere between one and three months.
Having
just finished up a six month deployment on the Gazan border,
Tzanchanim would be
heading into a three month imun
for our next assignment, the northern borders. The imun
is very much like many of the weeks of advanced training are. The
schedule is loaded with time in the shetach,
working in kita, the
machlakah, and even “War
Week”. More dreaded than “War Week” is
the targad, basically
a war week for all of the companies of 202. As you can imagine, I was
less than pleased to be hearing that after eight months of training,
we'd be headed right back into it.
Having
explained all the small details, the next few posts will detail life
in the imun and
beyond.
Keep
reading!
-Brett
No comments:
Post a Comment