"Avtash" Hebrew for Jobniks on Really Long Guard Duty

Tal, Yana, Yael, Dor, Matan,Lihi, Orr, Becky, Nastia
 Avtash May 2011 and Chris the Neshakit.

So on May 15 the Kaban finally called and told me that I need to do Avtash for 2 weeks. Avtash is guard duty on a closed base. It can be anywhere from a day to a month. People who have a month are usually on Rituk which is a punishment for people on open bases. You get sent to a closed base for a certain amount of days.

The schedule is stressful for some people because it is 4 hours on and then it could be anywhere from 4 to 12 hours off. 

For people who have a Kahas, Avtash can be hell. The kaban uses Avtash to see how people with a kahas adjust to being in stressful situations and on a closed base. I got mixed reactions from people when they heard I had to do avtash. From officers, I got positive reactions with them telling me how much fun it is and how I'm gonna have a blast. There were negative reactions as well which made me nervous. People would tell me how its horrible and you'll just want to die. It frightened me because they weren't exaggerating and they kept saying how it was hell.

My commander told me I'd be going to a "gadna" base called Guara. It is a base up north by Zihkron Yakov. Anyone who knows me, knows I love Zihkron Yakov. Its truely a beautiful place filled with history. They also have a nice little pub there called The Hobbit. My Tolkien obsession gets the better half of me sometimes.

A gadna base is a base where they have high school students from all over the world come for a week to learn about the Israeli Army and see what its like to be in basic training.

When I got there I didn't really have to do anything because I needed to go to the shooting range to update my file. Every soldier must go to the range every 6 months. Thanks to Nisim the wonderful former commander, I didn't go in a year. He told me I didn't need to go because I was the neshakit. BULLSHIT!  So the second day I went with one of the gadna goups. I shot before them then left. The day after that I started my guard duty shifts. In the end, the officers were right. It was so much fun. Not once did I think "oh god Im in hell." It was great! The people on base were soo nice so much to the point that I would love to be on a closed base. The avtash group was just absolutely amazing. We all became close friends in such a short amount of time. It was exactly what I've been searching for in the army. We closed the weekend together and it was just fun. We all took pictures and had a blast.

Nastia and I on patrol at 3am.

My M-16. Couldn't go anywhere without it for 2 weeks.

Pictures are illegal by the way. ;) The second group wasn't exactly my favorite. They weren't even on guard yet and they were already crying. Literally. They really did not want to be there. When it finally did start, they wouldn't come on time or anything. It was horrible and just so hard. Thank god I had friends on the base.
The entire 2 weeks I was there I was without a phone. On May 5th I bought the brand new Blackberry Curve 9300. I somehow killed it when continuing the setup in email installation when I got to Guara. Not fun. Especially during the second week. I finished my guard duty on wednesday after I finished the first week and returned my gun to Tel Hashomer and then returned back to Guara for the 2nd week. It was nice I didn't have to do anything.
After the second weekend started on Thursday, after everyone had left, I got a call from my friend Karin who I work with at Tel Hashomer saying that the Kaban called and I only needed a week. By that time everyone had left so there was nothing I could do about leaving, nor was there anything I wanted to do about it. I chose to stay on base and leave on Sunday. If anything it would show how much I wanted this and could do it. I enjoyed being on a closed base. It was so much more relaxing. It certainly was alot more fun that I got switched into an officers room with 3 really great girls. We had a fridge and AC. It was awesome.
...There was also a momma cat and 3 adorable kittens... Of course I enjoyed that.
Finally when Sunday came around I was sad that I had to go but also thankful because I really needed to get my blackberry fixed. So my first stop was taking my Blackberry back to where it came from.
I didn't get my blackberry back until a week and a half later. A few days after my birthday. That part kind of sucked. I would have loved having my blackberry on my birthday.
Going back to the day I returned to base, I got a wonderful review and recommendation from the second in command officer of the base. I also had a great recommendation from my commander. Next all I had to do was talk to the kaban.


The Kaban is a post within its own. What a friggen story.