The Curse Mountain - Chapter 2 (Part 3) (589 hits)
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Submitted by Avals (View user info) at 2005-03-12 13:57:30 EST
'The Curse Mountain' is the story of Gilad, a team-leader in the engineering company of the IDF's 'Givati' brigade. A sort of service diary, 'The Curse Mountain' describes Gilad's service in Lebanon, and was published on the 11th of May, 2001, in Yediot Ahronot.
Originally published in Hebrew, I have attempted to translate the article to English to the best of my abilities.
Chapter 1: http://www.ubersite.com/m/59575
Chapter 2 (Part 1): http://www.ubersite.com/m/59962
Chapter 2 (Part 2): http://www.ubersite.com/m/60385
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A Little Hot-Headed
When I got back from the officer's course, they didn't want to give me command of a team. The company commander said I was too irritable, too aggressive. "According to your marks you're good," he said, "but that's only in the professional plane. Beyond that you're shit as a human being; you're impulsive and hot-tempered. Irritable people can't lead a team."
True, I did assault an MP once. He caught me with muddy shoes on one of the days I came down from the Bufor. I told him, "You son of a bitch! I'm just coming back from 35 days in Lebanon. I haven't showered for weeks. At 6 am the traffic artery opened by surprise, and my commander told me, 'Run, Gilad, go now or you're not going out for another week'. So I came out running. So what is it, are you going to screw me for muddy shoes now?" But he - he didn't care where I came from; wrote down the complaint. And the worst part is that he knows me; he's from Tiberias, a neighbour of mine. I told him, "Oren, you've got a lot of confidence, huh? Put on the uniform, and got cocky? Take your ticket, rip it up, and disappear. We'll forget this whole thing ever happened." But he didn't listen and screwed me over. I mumbled that he's got 48 hours before he disappears; a few days later he got the shit beaten out of him. I'm still shocked. What a disgrace; a Tiberian writing up another Tiberian?
Another time I was tried for disobeying an order. We were on an ambush, and identified a terrorist squad; on the radio they told us to stay put, not to move forward. I thought to myself, if I move forward here, I've got a chance to make it big; that's exactly the difference between a zero and a hero. I ran forward. In the end, the terrorists got away. I got reprimanded for disobeying an order, but in the same breath I was commended for striving for contact. You see how rotten that is? They send you double messages with a wink.
Once I was tried for maliciously damaging army property. I got mad at someone and threw a radio and a few other small things at them.
With a personal record like that it's no wonder the company commander didn't want to give me command of soldiers. He wanted to make me a training officer; send me to be an instructor. I told him I don't do paper targets. "I'm not going to train soldiers in shooting, without first experiencing what it's like to command soldiers on the front," I explained. It took a few weeks. I pleaded, I rampaged, I yelled, I cried, I even demanded to leave the company. Fate's hand was that one of the commanders left suddenly. His father had passed away, and a course team became available. The company commander decided to give me a trial period. "It's because you're so eager," he told me. That's how I became a team-leader.
When I visited them for the first time they were in a brigade training base, still without any operational experience and without Lebanon on their record. It was a navigation exercise week, and I watched them from the side; didn't approach, didn't introduce myself. They had no idea I was their new commander. For two weeks I wandered around like that, with no bars on my uniform, listening in on their conversations. I heard, for example, one shouting at the other; "What the fuck are you doing, touching my stuff!" I was in shock. It's a team here, you loser; who's even asking you! Everyone touches everyone else's stuff; that's the whole point! Being a team is stealing Ben-Hamo's potato chips; pulling underwear from Bendori's bag; taking socks from Moti, because his socks are the cleanest, and everyone knows his mom uses the good softener. Being a team is when you run into the shower, take off your towel, and start getting slapped on the ass; everyone's pushing you out of the water. They weren't like that. My new team was comprised of frigid people, withdrawn from each other. They didn't have any unit life. It ate me up inside.
In the opening talk I let them know right off the bat how unexcited I was. First thing I did was announce that I was changing their Sergeant. "You and I can't broadcast on the same wavelength," I told him. "You're too heavy, too indifferent." I brought in Bendori, my friend, the same day.
I told them, "You're not attached to one another. You suffer from lack of dedication, you're sloppily dressed, your marksmanship scores are low." I dropped them to three hours of sleep a night, white nights every once in a while. They started crying that it's against regulation. I explained to them that you can't make a real army with the rules written in the book, sure as hell not in Lebanon. "Six hours of sleep, an hour for breakfast, an hour for lunch, an hour for dinner, and an hour's rest after every three hours in the sun - that's not a soldier, that's a kid with a toy gun," I told them.
When I went into one of the rooms and found a mess, I moved them into tents. When I happened to hear a soldier telling his mom on the cellphone, "Alright, enough already, shut up", I announced there will be no more cellphones in the team. I walked around and searched them out. They took a lot of shit from me, so they began to hate me. For the first time they had something in common - they all hated me.
For a month and a half I was in training with them, then we went up to the Bufor.
User Reviews
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-12-10 18:59:10 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by jumpinjellyfish (user info) at 2005-03-15 15:17:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Keep writing this...it's great!
Submitted by Avals (user info) at 2005-03-14 16:28:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-03-14 14:08:14 (#)
Ranking: 2
Well, I find it compelling. And I RULE!
* cough *
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Can't argue with the truth!
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-03-14 14:08:14 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Well, I find it compelling. And I RULE!
* cough *
Submitted by Avals (user info) at 2005-03-13 15:08:01 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Guess not. Oh well...
Submitted by Avals (user info) at 2005-03-13 12:04:37 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Anyone else? I plan on starting the next part today, so I'm just wondering if anyone else's even interested in reading it.
The next part marks the beginning of operations, incidentally.
Submitted by Wazza (user info) at 2005-03-12 23:07:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
cool man.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-03-12 22:29:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Cool.
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2005-03-12 17:12:28 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Cool.
That isn't a job that I would want.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-03-12 15:12:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Yay! I was wondering when you'd get to another of these. Interesting as usual.