It was another Sunday morning where I woke up early after only going to sleep a few hours prior. I made my way down to beer sheva to begin another week in the army. I thought the week would be one of those routine weeks in the shetach; prepare all of our equipment, go to the desert at night, and begin training early in the morning. Little did I know things would be much different.

We finally arrived at the base early in the afternoon and began to prepare all of the equipment. We were finished by nightfall and, like almost everyone thought, we were going to make our way to the shetach. We put on our equipment and began to walk. With no bus in sight I was a little confused. I didn’t say anything and just kept walking. After walking for some time they stopped and said that they were joking and that it was time to go to sleep. A little weird at first, I accepted it and prepared for bed. Everyone was nervous that they were going to wake us up in the middle of the night. We therefore decided to sleep in our clothes. The funny thing was that it was just a normal night and they woke us up at the normal time, 5am.

The next day we prepared our stuff and saw the buses lined up. It was time for the shetach. This was not going to be a normal shetach week as it was a week known as shavua sedeut, one of the most difficult weeks during basic training. With all of our gear on our backs (it’s usually taken by a hummer) we boarded the tiyulit (the army transport bus) and headed down to the shetach. After driving for some time the bus stopped and we were given two minutes to disembark and get ready to hike. Everyone scattered off the bus and lined up. The head of our machlaka began to walk and we all followed. As we made our way in the knee high sand with all of our gear under the scorching sun that feeling of being in the army hit me; summer camp was over. After some time they stopped and made every other person fall to the ground, leaving the other half to carry them on their backs. Being the first one to have to fall, I watched our machlaka treck through the thick sand fearful of being dropped.

As the week went on we learned many valuable skills that will help us throughout out time in the army. We barely ate and slept, as we were given one box of food for 4 people for the entire day and we were woken up every morning by the alarming screatch of our commanders that someone had just launched a canister of mustard gas at us and that we had 20 seconds to put our gas masks on and run.

So things were tough, very tough, but I tried making the best of it and in the end it was a fun week. Ya, people say its hard, and it was, but why go on thinking aobut the difficulties, it was much better to have fun with everything. One afternoon we were instructed to build three trenches; one used as a stake out, one used to guard from, and the third to sleep in (yes, we had to sleep in a trench, all thirteen guys in my kitah). As we were building the trench used as a stake out, all the guys around me were down. . We all started laughing and having a good time. It definitely passed the time and allowed us to have a lot of fun.

Towards the end of the week we started to practice the different maneuvers we were taught and they incorporated in several games. One night we played capture the flag. The next day we had a race with the stretcher, water canteen, and radio. We had to run across a wadi from one hill to the next then crawl up the hill. My kitah one and we were given a can of Pringles, real food for a change.

We went to sleep the last night thinking we would have another day of practicing the maneuvers and running from both sides of the shetach. I couldn’t sleep much that night, as like the previous two nights, we had to sleep in full gear with our vests and guns strapped on us. I looked around and saw the mifakdim walking around waking everyone up. Having two minutes to get all of our equipment packed and get ready to move. After walking for thirty minutes, which seemed like hours, I heard sounds and gun shots from over the hill. Our mifaked told us that we had to go and capture the house, using all of the techniques we had learned over the week. We knew that it wasn’t real but it was the first time we, as a group, had to practice our tecnique and save the hostages in a tent. After taking down the “terrorists,” the commanders told us that two of our guys were shot. Half the group took one of the guys on the stretcher and began to walk. I, with three other guys, had to carry one of the soldiers that were “shot.” By now it was around 430 am and it seemed like we were up for ten hours.

The day went on and we had a competition amongst all of the kitot. They had four different events, including a stretcher run (which my kitah finished number one), walking with signs, building a trench, and taking a written test (which was basically given to me orally as it was hard to answer in Hebrew). The rest of the day comprised us of lying around and waiting for our masa samal, the hike with one of the head commanders. The hike began at nightfall and was basically a run. I was stuck in the back, way behind the people in the front. I tried advancing, but I was not allowed to. Towards the middle of the hike, I was asked by a friend of mine to pull him ahead. I took the opportunity and sprinted the ahead. I ended up running up and down the line pushing people along, having a fun time. People thought I was nuts because we were hiking with all of our gear on our backs. Little did they know I found out a way to make tea in my canteen so I had a small sugar rush to push me along.

We stayed on base for Shabbat again, this time a little less exciting. There’s a saying they have in the army, “For every Shabbat there’s motzey Shabbat.” Which is definitely true. After a restful Shabbat, we had little time to gear up and stand attention. We ran around a lot and did a lot of push ups with our heavy gear. When that was finished we went for a run to end the night.

The week that followed was shavua prat, where they taught us to take over a hill while being the commander of a group of four, all with live ammo. I missed the first two days of the week as I was sent to the kitchen to clean dishes all day Sunday, which happened to be a lot of fun, and then on Monday the army had a day for all of the lone soldiers where they took us to a beach near Haifa, where they had massages, surfing, sports, and lots of food. It was an amazing day. I met many different chayalim, who, like me, were in Israeli with no immediate family. It was a little humbling at first listening to some of the sacrifices some of the soldiers had to make. I met people from all over the world with the common goal of protecting the state of Israeli. IT really put my service into perspective as I saw that there are many people who agree with the ideals I try to live by and preach.

By Tuesday they took us to the shetach to do the different tests of shavua prat. I took my first Jeep ride which was awesome. When I got to the shetach they handed me a piece of paper and told me that I had to memorize it. This was one of the most difficult tasks I had to do because we had to use the phrases as we took over the hill. When it was my turn to shoot, I was a little nervous at first. Making my way up the hill, I felt more comfortable with the maneuver. When we were instructed to do it at night, I felt much better about the whole thing and really enjoyed the exercise.

The week ended with a nice Shabbat at my cousins house where I finally touched a bed for the first time in two weeks, had really good food, and slept. A nice ending to a long two weeks.

The last two weeks were definetly not easy, but I have to say that it wasn’t impossible. The key to getting through the everyday events is to have a positive attitude and go into everyday as if it’s going to be a lot of fun and that what you are doing is very important for the country. Everyone should have a wonderful week and a shana tovah.

-- Ari Platt