Tank Commander's Course - Weeks 4-6

September 12

Tank Commander’s Course Weeks 4-6

We returned back to the base with the knowledge that we weren’t going to be going home for another three week stint, which makes the returning to the army a little harder because of the thought that one doesn’t see home for such an extended amount of time. These were considered to also be the three hardest weeks in the course because it was intense training all the time and it was continuous hours in the tank learning in gradual steps how to be a commander, finishing with our first time being a commander with live fire of multiple rockets. The challenge was going to be big, but the idea of getting to do this also seemed interesting, so we all tried to take on the point of view that it could possibly be fun. This is the attitude one has to take in situations like this because of the amount of time one will spend training and not seeing a shower or real food or home for such a long time. And you know what? It definitely pays off.

As we do with everything in the army, we led up to the final product in steps, learning from the base all the way to the big thing. The first week, we entered into the tanks without any movement and practiced the commands that we need to say to our other crew members in the tank and what we do in different situations, such as if an enemy soldier pops up on the side or when tanks are ready to fire at us. We then practiced our first movement in the tanks, travelling backwards and forwards and pretending to shoot at the enemy. The first time doing this was a wild experience, much more than it was driving the first time because your head is outside of the tank and you feel as though you’re flying in a way, floating on the Earth. I actually accomplished these tasks really quickly and really well, something I was proud of myself for. The only problem that in the army, that isn’t always the best thing because it meant that I was free to do other things such as…kitchen – the worst. I was placed there twice for the remainder of the first week with great dissatisfaction, but was happy to make it to the first Shabbat where I was able to rest up after a hard, physical week and to prepare for another one that was to follow.

Next, we returned immediately to the shetach with a similar week to follow, only this time we were going to be doing a full drill in the tank moving completely forward while practicing a full-on attack and firing most of the weapons on the tank, minus the rockets. This was going to be again challenging but also fun because we were going to taking that huge, expensive vehicle for a spin and using ample ammunition along the way. In addition, since we can’t all be commanders at the same time, we were able to practice the other positions many times over, making us even more experienced within the tank and understanding the roles of each position. Although each position is hard it its own way, they each have their really fun moments, ones that can’t really be described to someone who hasn’t tried them. But the one thing they all have in common is that if you do them while giving 100%, the experience is that much better. We finished the week having been a commander in the moving tank with firing for the first time, but we knew it was going to become more difficult with more things added on, but thankfully had another Shabbat to rest up before the upcoming week.

We didn’t waste any time on the third week, travelling to the shetach on Saturday night right after Shabbat ended. We woke up early on Sunday morning, got the tanks ready, and prepared for the most important week in the entire course, mostly due to the fact that it is with this week’s training that someone essentially finishes all of the necessary training to become a commander. But as stated earlier, we wanted to try having fun while also giving our all so that it wouldn’t feel like a mandatory week of training but more like an interesting and fun one. The first day I played to the role of water boy (bringing the people who were training water) and wasn’t involved much in the training because there wasn’t enough space for all of us to get the things done that we needed to. The next day, I started as the other members in the tank a few times, not looking as though I would get in my time as a commander (one needs to do both day and night for the training). Then, right before sunset, I was summoned to “prepare” my soldiers for our trek through the training, something that was also added to this week. Each time we were the commander, we had to run through what we were doing, how we were going to do it, and other bits and pieces such as information on the enemy or on our strength. I did a fairly good job but didn’t have any time to breathe, as I quickly did the night one as well. The reason they rushed me into finishing was because on the Tuesday of the week, it was a “fun day” for lone soldiers. This was really nice to partake in as they took us to the beach and just gave us a nice day off to relax and clear our minds and show their support for all that we do. It is a great feeling when people, other soldiers really, take time out of their days to show appreciation – it really makes you feel a little better on a daily basis with what you are doing.

We finished the “hardest part” of the course and in the end it wasn’t so bad after all. We were well on our way to the light at the end of the tunnel as we had finished half of the course and basically all of the necessary training as well. Although it was continuously going to be challenging, this was a positive reinforcement that we really could accomplish anything thrown our way, we just needed to take it easy and take it one step at a time. The weeks to follow aren’t supposed to be as difficult physically, but the challenge is always going to be present. But I know we are going to make it fun along the way and finish the rest of the course with pride and dignity for what we are becoming – commanders in the Israeli army.

Tank Commander's Course - Weeks 1-3

August 22, 2009

Because the world moves at turbo speed, it sometimes becomes difficult to even find time to breathe. My time in America flew and then I had to return from the dream life of vacation back to reality which is the army. No more waking up when I wanted to. No more eating what I wanted to when I wanted to. No more sleeping on a comfortable bed every night. I chose to make the transition fast in order to not allow myself second thoughts about the army thing, even though it didn’t really make a difference seeing that I had signed a two-year contract of sorts the October before. However, making a fast transition back into the army into an intense course, not just everyday training like I had done up until this point, changes the entire ballgame. This was going to be a commander’s course – a lot more was to be expected of me and it was going to be more challenging mentally and physically than ever before, with more responsibility being at the head of the new expectations.

I returned to base for the first time in a few weeks and it felt a little weird to be back but at the same time I was happy to see my friends again and tell them my “wild stories” as they called them from my time in the states. There wasn’t very much time for anything like that – the army doesn’t like to waste time, especially when they only have three months to train you to become a tank commander. We filled out all of our paperwork, learned the new rules for the course, and were off and rolling. The first two weeks were going to be just classes on the tank followed by a week of practical learning training about what we learned at a basic level, similar to what I had in basic training when I had 7 weeks of the tank driving course. The only difference was this was three weeks overall…on the entire tank…at a much higher level of learning because, let’s face it, knowing how to command a position and how to simply operate it at a simple level is very different. Talk about a two-week crash course in tanks that felt sometimes like it hit me head on like, well, a tank.

The classes started every day at 7:30 every morning and lasted until 10:00 every night, with an hour break for lunch and 30 minutes for dinner. And there wasn’t a theme of sorts to the day’s lessons – the material popped all over the place and didn’t focus on one position’s information. Let’s just say my brain was already exploding after one day’s worth of classes. And, in addition to the long day of classes, there was also nightly homework and a test every morning on everything that was learned the day before. Every night, the teachers, the girls who were specialized in different subjects, would come and help us with what we had learned. For me, this turned into almost a review in a private lesson format because of the amount of the information being thrown in our direction. Most people would finish all of their work by about 12 or 1 at night and head to bed. In case it wasn’t known, Hebrew is not my first language – therefore, it would take me much more time to not only finish the work, or even half of it. I averaged about three hours of sleep each night during the classes and I would go to sleep without having finished the work because, well, I knew I wouldn’t last on one hour of sleep.

Everyone was very helpful and really tried hard to make sure I understood what was going on. I even had two of my friends from my Garin who are tank instructors, Maor and Inbal (the latter actually taught one of my lessons), and this made things a lot easier. But changin the level of difficulty from almost impossible to very challenging doesn’t cause one to feel so confident in absorption of the material. I was receiving 50% and 60% on the tests – and let me say I was thrilled with myself. I was learning and could see it, and sure I wasn’t remembering everything but I was making progress. It was then I reminded myself that I just need to try my best and give it my all and that’s all anyone can ask of me, and the rest would work out. I also knew that once we left the classroom and got into the tanks and used our learning for practicality, I would start feeling more comfortable and I would be able to show that I knew what was going on and I wasn’t just some guy who didn’t understand anything.

The third week we finally left the classroom and went to start training and it was probably the happiest I had ever been to do something like this since starting the army. The commanders, or “gardeners” as they’re called in the course, were very surprised at how well I was doing, partly because during the lessons I was somewhat behind the other guys because of the language barrier. But I used the skills I had obtained throughout my service of watching really closely what to do and remembering what to say from when my friends would start their practicing and this is how I learned the best. I was even surprising myself with how well I did in certain things, specifically shooting from the tank for the first time and simply doing everything with the most energy (that I didn’t have) I could, such as the loading (which is all about will).

When it was all said and done, I felt like I had accomplished a lot in the first three weeks. However, this was the first step in what we were here to do and that was learning how to become tank commanders. What we had done up until this point was learning the other positions in the tank besides the commander. We were really just getting started and a lot lay ahead of us in terms of knowledge and training. It is somewhat humorous that within three weeks I was officially trained enough to be the other two positions in the tank when it had taken seven just to be a driver. That is a great picture of how the army works sometimes – they want to get their most bang for their buck and get the most results in the shortest amount of time possible. But from a basic standpoint, we all felt like within three weeks we were much more confident in what the tank can do and how we can use that knowledge to our advantage. We had passed this level and now it was on to the real deal – taking the reigns as the commander.