Melinda wears Combat Boots…

Ok, so I actually just wore my own tennis shoes but I did have issued to me army green cargo pants (that could fit two of me!), button down, long sleeved army shirt (again, one size fits all motif), cargo belt with canteen and pouch, and a cap (thankfully, new).

If you didn’t know I participated this last week (Mar. 9-13) in a program designed for Israeli youth to introduce them to the Israeli army experience, aka Gadna. Military service is virtually automatic in Israel when you turn 18 (it can be delayed tho’ for a year or so to do civil service instead). Hence, all the other groups in our program were 16-17 year old kids. You go to a real military base (but it’s function is primarily the Gadna program) and basically do a 5 day, 4 night simulation of the military experience.

Once our bus pulled up outside of the gate to the base a commander got on the bus gave orders in Hebrew and it started. I wasn’t expecting that although I don’t know why not. We split into guys and girls and lined up with our luggage behind a petite young looking girl in uniform w/an M-16 slung over her shoulder with an expressionless face and followed her into the base. We stopped when she said and then proceeded to follow orders which consisted of lining up the luggage and running to the opposite side of the road to line up in two lines, then into a chet, then moving the luggage some, etc, etc. basically it was practice for what was to follow. The young, petite girl informed us she was our mefekedet (commander) and that was how we knew her up until the last 30 minutes of our stay on the base. In many ways, the Gadna experience reminded me of camp except that the counselors don’t laugh and smile with you (or each other, if they can help it) and if you laugh or smile you get to do push-ups. As we have a pretty light-hearted group, needless to say several have improved their upper arm strength!

Each day started early being in formation at 6:20 am and it didn’t stop until 9 pm in the evening with a one hour shatash (personal free time in which you can change out of your uniform, shower, and chill) and then lights out with your commander standing in your room to tell you a bedtime story…uh, ok, there was no bedtime story. As a sidenote, all Israeli soldiers are issued a M-16 that they are required to keep on them at all times (no, we didn’t get that issued to us) so you go to bed with a silhouette of a person with an M-16 strapped around them.

Under the commander, one does not just walk from point A to point B – rather so many seconds are dictated by the commander to run from A to B and get into either 2 lines or the chet formation (chet is a Hebrew letter that is more or less a vertical rectangle without a bottom) this is how you move your luggage, go to the mess hall, the next station, clean the rooms, etc; and you count down the time shouting as you do it (may I remind you that this is all in Hebrew so my counting backwards in Hebrew has quite improved). Basically, nothing you do is on your own time – your time is the commander’s time. I know that several of you reading this have served in the military and know better firsthand of what I’ve only had a taste of so I want to say thank you and bless you!

Yours truly had lessons on techniques in the field and in urban areas which included how to maneuver, carrying the wounded, protection from a grenade, did a night trek of 3 km carrying radios, jerrycans, and stretcher (w/weight) crouching, crawling, walking, running (the real military does 50 km – so glad we didn’t do a complete simulation); had lessons on firing and cleaning the M-16; a condensed simulation of physical fitness (Gibushim) which consisted of different stations in which your tzvet (squad?) either competed against the clock or against other squads: relay of carrying stretcher (of course w/weight); push-ups/sit-ups/running in place; relays of army crawling uphill on a very rocky road (no, my knees are not the same anymore); 200m dash (I most definitely didn’t dash); relay of carrying 4x4 beams around the bend, up the hill and down the stairs; relay of carrying bags of sand uphill and back down. The Gibushim was a fun day but exhausting to say the least!

That’s more or less the overview. I could write a short novel on all that happened but most wouldn't be that interesting. However, it was really fun and challenging - did I mention that I got the award for our combined group - it's in Hebrew so I'm not really sure what it's for but maybe I'll find out one day...