It’s just another regular Saturday night.

But not for us.  We prepare to head out to the mountains again, this time however, we are marching out there a good for a good twelve kilometers.  After ten kilometers, we reach our destination in the middle of a clearing.  They tell us we’ gonna be doing another two kilometers with a dude on a stretcher, first running back up the hill we just came down from, and then back down.  By this time, though, we’re used to the feeling of pushing oneself and continuous discomfort.  Our uniforms are soaking from sweat as we come back down for the finish, when after a brief rest and stretch, they tell us to go get our bags, which were two kilometers away from where we were.

The night seems like it’s been going on forever.  Our tents are put up neatly according to machlaka (divisions) and only then we get our sleep.  We can’t exactly shower either, and we’re all covered in dirt n’ sweat.  We would be spending the week here training; learning how to take over an area, mainly involving hills.  Basically, just a combination of running, dropping and shooting, y’know, fun stuff.  And once again we would be living off the wartime food, three meals a day.

Next day, our kita head down the long windy dirt path to the designated mountains we’d be using for our training.  First, we are split into pairs where we practice the exercise without ammo; running, shooting, dropping to cover fire while your partner runs on ahead and then catching up with him while he covers fire and so on.  All the meantime you’re shouting commands to each other.  And then we would have to do this all the way up the hill and under the supervision of the mefaked machlaka (commander of the company) with live ammo shooting at targets.  After which, we’d do this in a chulia (group of four), again, practicing with a dry run and then with live ammo.  You really gotta be careful when shooting uphill, though.  Aim at the wrong place and a bullet could rebound.  Night comes and we have to do it all again in the dark.  No problem for me, I am equipped with night vision scope.  Next day, we practiced doin’ this the whole kita together.

Not gonna lie, it was good fun.  The commanders told us it would be.

Lone Soldier