Cleaning Guns - Hatzerim Airbase (1996)

For a couple weeks I participated in the SAHAL program, which is essentially volunteering with the IDF.  You are helping out the military by doing the BS work that would normally be done by soldiers.  Here we are at Hatzerim Air Base in the Negev desert cleaning UZIs, M-16s, and Galils.  Our supervisor Oren, nicknamed "Vegas" by one of us because he had spent time there, was really nice - even though he would confide in me that American girls drove him up the wall, especially when you had to deal with a bunch of 'em at once. No shit, chaver!

The newest recruits had to sleep in those tents in the background.  Suckers!!  Also funny, the soldiers on the base who had screwed up and lost their gun (or misplaced it) had to walk around with fake guns painted red and made of wood!  Talk about shaming someone into never making a mistake again...

Sar El at Hatzerim Air Force Base (1996)

Here is the calendar from my Sar El experience in February/March 1996:

I was looking for pictures of my time there, but seem to have misplaced them. I had a good time on the base. I was the only guy out of half a dozen OTZMA participants, so I had an entire barracks all to myself. FINALLY...my own shower! My own bedroom! MY OWN TOILET!! All mine! For some reason, there was NOBODY else in the barrack (a huge building). I assume it was up for a refurb.

We spent our days cleaning guns with an IDF soldier the girls nicknamed "Vegas," because he grew up in Las Vegas...he didn't really like that. Lots of tiyulim (trips) and lectures, too.

The most memorable moment, though, was when we went to visit the Air Force museum and found a mannequin dressed an a soldier hanging from the helicopter skid. We posed, pretending to be hanging from the dude, making all sorts of crazy faces...and then we realized what we were doing: Posing and joking with a representation of Ron Arad, the Air Force hero taken hostage in Lebanon. Pretty fucking stupid, but would you have expected any more from a group of post-collegiate North Americans? No.

OTZMA X - Tiyul to the Shfela Plain (1996)

Part of my OTZMA experience (www.otzma.com) was a stint as a volunteer on Hatzerim Air Force Base.  During those weeks, we took a day-long tiyul (tour) of sites in the Shfela Plain.

For a .PDF of both sides of the document, click here:   http://www.divshare.com/download/8617935-855