A Week in "Gadna"

Gadna is a week long program that is meant to prepare people for the army and give them a taste of army life. Usually regular Israelis who are sixteen or seventeen participate in it, but this past week I did it with my garin. All the other garins from the whole country participated as well, which made it unique for gadna. We were on average older and also often needed translations for the orders we were given. When we arrived the garinim were split up and only one other person in my tzevet (group) of thirteen was from my garin.

Some highlights were being in the field for a night, learning how to maneuver both in the field and in an urban environment, and shooting on the firing range. Also, we got to wear a uniform the whole week which added to the experience. Other than that, while I enjoyed the week, there isn't much to write about. There was a lot of downtime where we weren't allowed to do anything but wait. That's not a complaint because it's in its own way a good preparation for army life. On the other hand, I was disappointed that the week wasn't physically challenging in the slightest. We only had one exercise session. I also would have liked to shoot the rifle more. As it was, we got only eleven bullets.

As for what the experience meant to me, I'm happy that I got a small taste of army life. I can say that now I have a slightly more concrete idea of what to expect. Since the entire gadna we were only with people from other garinim, I got to see what they were like. I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with my garin, because some other people were obnoxious and immature.

For example, a lot of guys look at joining the army as a video game (yeah you know if I don't get into flight school then I guess I'll just go to sayeret matkal or whatever), and don't get me started on the people who both come from very Israeli backgrounds and then use that as a means to get op on their high horse and act better than others. Hey, why aren't you guys speaking Hebrew to each other? Don't you know this is Israel? We're not in America anymore. You need to practice. Well excuse the fuck out of me that my parents didn't speak Hebrew to me during my whole childhood. I apologize that I had to start learning the language from scratch at seventeen. It isn't the same for me as it is for you to speak Hebrew. I actually have to work for it whereas you didn't have to work for it all. Don't act like you understand what a struggle it is to pick up the language, because you don't.

It was also interesting to see the roles that people fell into in an army environment. Even though gadna isn't particularly challenging, it was still revealing of people's personalities.  There were the type of people that didn't care, were always getting in trouble, and had to be constantly to reminded to do things. This type of person doesn't put in even one extra ounce of energy if he doesn't have to. There were the natural leaders who always took charge during group activities. There was the average person who always did what he was supposed to be but also took every opportunity to not work if the commander wasn't watching. This person also tended to complain about every little thing. This bed is uncomfortable, we didn't get enough food, we don't have enough free time, blah blah blah... Their were also the douche bag clowns who were always trying to antagonize the mefakdim, usually in a way that wasn't even funny, and who think that somehow they're going to be able to radically change once the "real" army starts. A lot of these people fall under the category of not taking the army seriously and thinking that they will be able to get into whatever unit they want, as if they could give the army orders. It doesn't surprise me that they always need to be the center of attention.

Now that I'm back on my kibbutz it feels great to relax a little bit. I understand how rejuvenating it must be for a combat soldier to get to come home once or twice a month for the weekend. Coming home to a normal shower with hot water, my own bed which isn't filled with dust, and an air-conditioned room, was incredibly refreshing. I also can't wait to go to the real army, because I feel like I could flourish in that environment. It didn't exhaust me like it did for a lot of people, but of course I recognize that gadna is a lot easier than the real army, and it was only one week. Whether the future holds good things or bad things, I feel a lot more excited about the start of my service, and am growing even more impatient because I want to start already.