Dirt and Sun

by Avi King

The sound of my watch alarm woke me. It was the morning of my first day as an Israeli soldier. I checked the time. 6:45 AM. Really? It’s not even seven and I have to get up? I slowly got out of the provided sleeping bag and blankets and began to make my bed, which was much more difficult than usual. I had to fold each blanket a certain way, called the “eight fold.” I went over to Mickey for some assistance, but he just shrugged me off saying that he was too tired.

I headed back to my bed alone. I put on my green army pants, with my green belt and threw on my green army shirt with the sleeves rolled up to account for the increasing heat. When I was finally ready I went out to where my commander had told my tzevet (troop) to meet. All ten of us stood in formation waiting for his arrival.

We spotted him heading towards us and began to count down from ten in Hebrew to show that we were ready to receive him. “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, achshev mfaked!” He accepted our salute and told us that we had thirty seconds to form two lines in front of the dining hall. The sprint was difficult, as it was early in the morning, but we all made it in time.

“You have thirty minutes to eat and get ready for the day. Meet back by the flag in exactly thirty minutes, starting now.” He hit his watch, as did I.

The food wasn’t as bad as people had told me, but my plate was pretty bare, with only two pieces of bread and a few tater tots.

“So what do you think of the food?” I asked Elizabeth.

She glanced at me and continued eating in silence. I sat down and finished my meal. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. There was no noise, no eye contact, just me in a seat surrounded by walls.

That first day my commander ran us all over, showing us the layout of the base. It wasn’t that big, just a fenced-in area of about ten acres. There were buildings clumped together, our tents, the dining hall, and dirt everywhere.

“You have ten seconds to form two lines outside the basketball courts. Sheva shniot, sheva shniot, zu zu!”

Our tzevet took off running while counting down our time in Hebrew, “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.” As we completed our countdown we all said simultaneously, “achshev mfaked!”

The day continued like this, with our mfaked making us run from place to place, stopping us every few minutes to tell us a brief piece of history about the army.

During the afternoon our commander took us to our first weapons class, which was taught by the samelet (the leader of the commanders). The class was a nice break from all the running we had been doing. We were all happy that we could just sit down, but some of us were forced to stand because they were relaxing too much. I made sure not to let my fatigue sink me down into my seat.

“The Israeli army originally used the Uzi as its standard issue weapon, but there were many problems with it and eventually they changed over to the M-16, which is the gun you will all be learning about. By the end of this week, when you get to fire the weapon, you will know it inside out. Are there any questions?”

The room was silent. It was late and everyone wanted to go to sleep. The samelet dismissed us back to our commanders, who then dismissed us to our tents. My mind was full of thoughts. Why was everyone isolating themselves? I thought that in the army every soldier had at least one buddy. I was troubled by my situation and didn’t think that I would be able to sleep. However, I knew that I would need all the rest I could get, because the next day was going to require even more energy.

At 6:45 A.M. the sound of a steady beep woke me. It was day two of my four-day encounter with the army. I went through my morning routine in silence. There was no reason to speak; everyone was off doing their own thing. My tzevet greeted our mfaked and he ran us to breakfast.

“You will have exactly thirty minutes for breakfast. Afterwards we will meet by the flag. Today we are going to the deshe (field), so be sure to drink a lot of water during breakfast and throughout the day. You have thirty minutes, shloshim dakot, shloshim dakot, zu zu!”

When breakfast was over my troop formed a semicircle by the flag, awaiting our mfaked. He arrived quickly and we greeted him, “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, achshev mfaked!”

“We are now going to get on the bus and drive to the deshe. You have seven seconds to form two lines in front of the bus, sheva shniot, sheva shniot, zu zu!”

I got on the bus welcoming the cool air conditioning that made me forget about the ninety-degree morning air. Sadly, the bus ride lasted only five minutes and before I knew it I was back outside, awaiting the challenges the deshe had to offer.

The field had no shade, except for the picnic area, which was covered by a clump of trees. It was just mounds of rocky terrain.

My mfaked joined us outside, “You have ten seconds to form a semicircle by that tree over there,” he said pointing to a tree about twenty meters away. “Essare shniot essare shniot, zu zu!”

Only Mickey and I made it to the tree in time. When our mfaked arrived he told the whole tzevet to do twenty push-ups and twenty sit-ups. When we all finished we stood in the semicircle and awaited his instructions.

“Today we are going to go out into the field. It is very hot so it is important that every time I give you the opportunity to drink, you drink, no exceptions. Technically I’m not supposed to take you out into the field today because it is too hot, but I think you can handle it.”

Our mfaked ran us out to the field. I looked around, but there were no other tzevets out there, only ours. We started by learning how to do the crawl, which isn’t very difficult, but the fact that we were doing it on the hard packed dirt of the field made it painful. I could feel little rocks penetrate my skin; I looked around and figured that everyone else must be feeling the same thing, but no one said anything. The group was absolutely silent except for the occasional grunt and the counting. We had some competitions to see who could crawl the fastest.

We lined up on the ground, my commander shouted, “Zu zu!” and we where off. It was a long crawl. Thousands of tinny needles were attacking my bare arms and the sun was beating down with its relentless heat. Nevertheless, I was the first to complete the task, and as a reward my commander picked up a twig on the ground and gave it to me. I put it in my pocket for safekeeping as if it where a medal.

Finally our work in the field was over. I sat down with my troop and ate the dinner that was provided: bread, cheese, and a few vegetables. As I ate, I savored the day of hard work. Looking back on what I had accomplished, I was proud of the fact that I did every thing on my own and that I did it at a higher level than everyone else. When I got back to base and was dismissed for the evening, I had no trouble falling asleep.

6:45 AM, my alarm went off to welcome the third day. I was up and quickly ready. Nothing could stand in my way.

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, achshev mfaked!” My commander showed up right on schedule and ran us over to breakfast. It was our tzevet’s turn to clean the dining hall. This meant that we couldn’t eat until everyone else was finished and had left. According to our mfaked this was supposed to be a time where we could forget about all the responsibilities of the army and have a good time cleaning.

Half of the group was cleaning dishes in silence, while the other half, which included myself was cleaning the dining room floor. There was music playing, but other than that, the only sound that could be heard was that of the water being pushed around by our squeegees. I just concentrated on scrubbing that floor. It wasn’t that messy but I felt that it deserved a good strong rub down.

The cleaning was finally finished and our commander ran us over to the basketball courts for another weapons class. He brought over a practice M-16, which he disassembled and reassembled in less than twenty seconds.

“You will all be able to do this by the end of this lesson. It is important for you to know your weapon. The more you know about it the better you will be at shooting it.” He took the weapon apart again, this time much more slowly so we could see all the parts and how they fit together. We each had the chance to take it apart and put it back together.

Another mfakedet (female commander) came over to our group and challenged us to a competition between our two tzevets. Our commander accepted. The challenge was a relay race. One person would run to the weapon and disassemble it, once they returned; the next person would run to it and put it back together. As the event progressed my team was lagging; I knew I had to execute my task exceptionally well if I wanted to win. I ran over to the gun; my sweaty hands grabbed at the pieces of metal that made up the M-16. I finished in fifteen seconds and ran back to our group. We emerged victorious.

After lunch, our mfaked took us over to the bus. It was another short drive, with the much-welcomed air conditioning, to the shooting range. When we got there we had to wait under a tarp, which the commanders considered a tent. After the waiting for what felt like hours, it was my tzevet’s turn to shoot. I lay there with the cold gun in my shaking hands, awaiting the command for open fire.

“Ashar!”

The range was consumed by the thunderous sound of the guns, as each soldier emptied their clips at the targets fifty meters away.

My alarm went off greeting my final day in the Israeli Defense Force. Our mfaked ran us around in the morning asking us to do impossible tasks.

“You have one and a half seconds to form two lines over by the tent. Zu zu!”

We hustled as fast as we could but to no avail, “Twenty five push-ups. Go!”

The morning continued until it was time for our final ceremony. The whole plugat (the group of all the tzevets), made the fifteen-minute walk over to David Ben Gurion’s grave. It was a place to pay tribute to one of the founding fathers and protectors of Israel. As the group surrounded the grave we stood in salute and listened to Hatikva (Israel’s national anthem). Afterwards, the samelet gave a talk about how well we had done during the week. She then commenced giving out the awards. There was an award for best soldier in each tzevet. I was pretty confident that I had proven myself during the week, but my name wasn’t called for my troop. The world stopped, I don’t understand, I put in so much effort and I didn’t even get acknowledged for it? I stood in my spot still as a statue as I watched my fellow soldiers get recognized. After all the effort I had given and all the energy I put into my tzevet, I was going to come out with nothing.

I stood still while award after award was given. Then it came time for the final awards to be given to certain soldiers out of all the troops.

“The award for the top soldier goes to… Avi King.”

I froze. All of my hard work had actually paid off. There was finally some reward for everything that I had gone through that week. I ran over to the commanders and the samelet and shook every hand.

It was time to walk back to base, but we were no longer soldiers, just regular civilians. I stayed behind to spend a little more time at the grave. I went up to the headstone and placed a stone on it. I had a flash of the entire week and the toil that I went through. I recited the words of Hatikva one more time and finished paying my respects to an Israeli hero. I turned and left, walking alone down the dirt path.