Expectation

Within my many books, I have a couple that deal at length with IDF training. One is from a jobnik (someone who has a fairly unintensive desk job), the other from a paratrooper. The difference is incredible.


The first book is Valérie Zenatti's When I Was A Soldier: One Girl's Real Story. She served around 1988 - 1990, and mainly complained about how she couldn't listen to music on the bus, she had to choose between calling home and taking a shower each night, and how ugly the army shoes and coats were. Some excerpts:

"No time to think any more. Every minute is accounted for, everytghing we do is under orders, without a moment's rest since this morning. Any form of initiative is inconceivable. We've learned how to fold the sheets and blankets properly (60 by 40cm). Beforehand, you have to shake the blankets really hard, and a great cloud of dust comes off them. I think they must dunk them in a bath of dust before each session. The asthmatics are lucky: they don't have to do it. As from tomorrow, we'll have at least one inspection a day. The lists of duties have been handed out: kitchen, sanitation block, night guard duties. Because we don't have our weapons yet and we haven't learned to shoot, we stand guard round our tents ... Not exactly useful, because there are other people ensuring the base is secure. but it seems to me that the words 'useful' and 'logical' don't have any tangible meaning. We follow our lessons and are given a hard life. Full stop."

"I should really be sleeping. But I've just finished my guard duty. It's very funny. We have to ask for the password - today it's 'coffee without sugar' - from everyone who comes into the tent area. I'm the legionnaire Valerix! If I had any magic potion I'd nip to the kitchens to give the cooks a few ideas. To be honest, the meals are disgusting. I've joined the club of yoghurt eaters. It's good for the figure, but the lack of sleep and the exercises make you so hungry. Luckily we've got our supplies of biscuits, which we've pooled together."

"Three of my room-mates have collapsed on to their beds. They're nibbling biscuits and noisily discussing their fruitless trip to the phone booths. They glance over at me a few times but not enough to interrupt their conversation. I open my book."



The second is Self-Portrait Of A Hero: The Letters Of Jonathan Netanyahu (1963-1976). This one needs a bit of background. Jonathan Netanyahu was the older brother of Benjamin Netanyahu (former Prime Minister of Israel) and is seen as one of the greatest soldiers in Israel's history. He later went on to command Sayeret Matkal (Israel's Delta Force) and was killed in Uganda while rescuing hostages from a hijacked plane (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Entebbe). He was expected to be a major leader in Israel, and there are those who feel the main reason Benjamin rose so high was because people automatically turned to him after Jonathan's death.

Of course, the hero of Operation Jonathan (it was posthumously named after him - there's even a road near me called Operation Jonathan Street) was a long ways away from the 18-year-old kid in the August 1964 paratroop basic training, although you can see some of what he would be.

In letters to his familly and girlfriend, Netanyahu talked about how tough their training was, they have no time to think about anything but their current task, and how the smallest things (such as sleeping under a roof) can seem like a great wonder. Some excerpts of his:

"Yesterday was the worst day. We exercised nonstop all day, and by evening everyone was thoroughly exhausted and praying for a good long sleep (i.e., four or five hours). We thought we'd earned it after being pushed so hard physically. But the officers had other ideas, for immediately after supper they started night training, which went on for a few hours. After the exercise, our hopes for a good sleep were dashed again when a five-mile high-speed march was announced [...] Well, after the march, which was extended by an extra mile, we came back to camp, and then again, instead of sleeping, we were put through a 'Tirtur,' the like of which we'd never had. ('Tirtur' means we have to run and fetch the cot, then the mattress, then the kitbag, then the mess tin, then put on our winter clothes, etc.--all in a matter of seconds.) [...] After that, when we had only a little over an hour left for sleep, it turned out that it was our squad's turn for guard duty." Note: this letter was written 32 days after he first showed up

"Just this minute we finished lunch; meat (a distressingly small amount) mixed with rice, beans, a pickle and an apple (not bad food, but not enough). Army food is so planned that all the calories you take in are immediately used up in work. If you don't eat your portion to the last crumb, you won't be able to move. Some guys faint from weakness"

"In a few weeks we'll go to jump school [...] We've gone down such a long road that this course is like a treat that's awarded at the end (that's the general feeling), and now we're like little kids who've been promised candy but haven't been given any. The course itself, they say, is the easiest part of our army service. That is, daytime training is not at all easy, but at least you sleep well at night and the food is excellent (the course is conducted in one of the central military bases, which has everything: food, showers, huts to sleep in, and more)."


Take a guess which one my training is going to be more like