-Prepare breakfast
-Wash dishes, begin
preparing lunch.
-More dishes. Dinner
preparations.
-Even more dishes.
-Clean the kitchen, wash
the bathrooms, take out the trash.
-Bed at 11:00 P.M.
-Spend the rest of the week
guarding 3-6 (3 hours on duty, 6 hours of rest).
-Repeat.
And so went week one of my
deployment, kav Hermon. A
typical week on the kav can
be mentally draining, compensating for the often lacking physical
involvement. The guard duties are mindless and while there are plenty
of hours to sleep most days, there are never more than five in a row.
The
tasks can vary greatly, but each week usually consists of the
following: kitchen duty, guard duty, emergency response team, and the
occasional operation (more on that later). Between the many menial
hours of guard duty, the quality of life is actually much improved on
kav to anything I've
experienced before in my service.
 |
| :'( Another kitchen duty, how sad. |
 |
| Exhaustion during another guard duty. |
Living
on a base with far fewer soldiers (one company or less) means better
food, better relations with commanders and officers, and generally a
less rigorous “army” lifestyle. Walking around in civilian
t-shirts, having phones on us whenever we'd like, more free time
during off-hours and a generally more relaxed demeanor are a few of
the more pleasant changes we got used to.
 |
| Some friends and I catching up on some smiles during free time. |
Going
from being screamed at endlessly for months during training, having
every minute of our days planned for us, literally being given one
hour of free time to use cellphones a night, and the general kader
(pointless physical work), to the lifestyle of the hapash
(simple soldier) on the
deployment is a huge change, but certainly not an unwelcomed one.
Being
the new platoon in the vatikot
also means receiving lots of slots to different courses. These can
include commander school, sniper school, medic school, or a variety
of other shorter courses. It means saying goodbye to plenty of
friends and can also mean lots of dissapointment in not receiving a
specific slot you were expecting.
Something
of a “turning point” in my as well as the other Americans'
service came in the form of one of these dissapointments. I was
informed that I was going to be sent to sniper school, something I
had always been interested in and was thrilled to have received.
Another American and I happily stood during standard equipment checks
before our leave from base to the course when our lieutenant summoned
us to his office.
After
over a year in the army, it's easy to sense when bad news is coming
and this was one of those moments. “I'm thrilled to have chosen you
two to become our snipers. You two are exactly the type of soldiers I
want in this position and I'm glad you're so eager to go,” he
began. “The thing is...” oh, the ever-present catch, “I can't
send either of you unless you sign an extra six months onto your
service.”
While
not entirely surprised at receiving bad news, I was certainly gutted.
I'd never heard of this happening in any other unit in the army. In
fact, friends from the garin
had left to sniper school that very month from Nachal
and previously from Kfir. “There
is no way to go around this. It's not just sniper school. In
Tzanchanim, a decision
has been reached that we can't send the Americans to any courses
unless they sign on extra time. I'm sorry to have to tell you this,
but I hope you strongly consider signing.”
Surprisingly
enough, even to myself, I considered the options. I offered to sign
on two months (the time of the course) and was turned down. In the
end, I couldn't bring myself to sign an extra six months of my life
for a two month course, effectively bringing an end to dreams of
commander school or really any life other than that of the hapash.
And
so began the disillusionment of the Americans in our unit. To us, it
simply did not seem fair. Leaving our entire lives at home to join
the unit, working the hardest of everyone with determination each and
every day, quite literally carrying the platoon on our backs on many
an occasion, and then this. We are bombarded with requests for
donations and to recruit Americans to the unit, we oblige, and then
this. After all we give to the unit, we are told that unless we sign
more of our lives away, we can never aspire to be anything other than
a hapash.
Unfortunately,
it was a breaking point for many of the Americans (myself included)
and things simply have not been the same since. While many of us
drafted for idealistic reasons, ones we still hold closely and
dearly, it's exceptionally difficult to give the same quality of work
with the same perseverance when you are receiving no recognition or
thanks in reward. You receive nothing in return while soldiers who
deserve it far less are being rewarded and advancing in the army.
It's a massive pill to swallow and quite frankly, it still hasn't
gone down easy.
It
took a lot for us to get used to the idea that this would be our
lives until the end of our service, but in time we got there. The
deployment was mostly eventful (I'll touch on it a bit more later)
and there were good days to be had as well. I hope I haven't given
too harsh an account of things here, just trying to be as honest as
possible with myself and with you, the readers.
Things
don't always go the way we plan, but we adjust. We don't throw in the
towel. Like every dark night, there is always hope for a brighter
morning.
More
to come!
-Brett
