Sunday, November 2, 2008

My 24th Birthday in the Israeli Army


My birthday was the 26th of October, and I was inducted into the Israeli Army on the 22nd. That was one hell of a birthday present. I've always wanted to be a soldier, especially for the only army in the world that I think is 100% imperative for the existence of the state it serves. So, ideologically I didn't need cake or toys or songs.

On the other hand, it was really tough spending your birthday getting yelled at.

On the 27th, a day after my birthday, my mem"mem (the commander of half the group of 100 soldiers in my course) pulled me aside and asked me why I didn't tell anyone that it was my birthday.

"Uh, I didn't want to get singled out..."

"Good idea," he said.

They did give me a break, however, and didn't put me on guard duty (shmira) during the middle of the night. On the upper left it says "mazaal tov to Daniel." On the right notice the times you have to do guard duty. The second night I had guard duty at 4:20 am.

The best present in the army is sleep, and I got exactly what I wanted this year!

3 comments:

Ethan said...

Daniel... great coverage. i'm being drafted in 9 days and It's nice to get a little bit of a preview. Any idea what assignments are available?

Anonymous said...

i completely forgot it was your birthday over a month ago!!!! i'm so sorry - happy [belated] birthday! i miss you and i hope you're doing well (i'm subscribing to the e-mail post notifications!)

Kenneth said...

Hi Danny, enjoyed reading ur blog even though Im not Jewish or American. Just read this post about your birthday. I wonder what the entry (schedule) in the picture means? sorry i dont read hebrew...hehe thanks