Gaza 2014 pics

[gingertanker]

Well as there was some interest, here are most of the pictures I took with my phone during my time in Kerem Shalom, which was during the last half of op Protective Edge/Tzuk Eitan.

No action pictures, we saw no direct engagements(we held the line while standing IDF units were working inside Gaza). I think these however give some sort of a sense as to how normal soldiers spend their daily boring routine during war.

When the operation started I anticipated being called up, and jokingly sent this image on FB and other places with the caption: "I am ready, how about you". Every IDF reservist has a drawer somewhere in his house full of junk like this: military documents, spare kit and uniform etc:



And indeed, roughly two weeks after taking that image, and after two near mobilizations, I received the call. The call is made by an automated system, not human callers. It basically tells you exactly where you need to be and how long you may take, and specifies where near your home a military transport service will operate. I elected to take my own car, and so the morning after the call, I wore my uniform(which by the way is starting to feel tight...damn being 28 is not like being 18 now is it ?) and left. On the way out I asked my wife to take a picture, and requested that should I be killed, it would be published with the headline- "His last message for Hammas":


We spent our first 72 hours in a training base in southern Israel, however I do not have pictures from there, because my phone ran out of battery and there was no option to charge it. Generally it is a horrible place, very hot and dusty, and we really were eager to leave it. In any case in that base we received personal gear, did some training, but were told we will simply take the heavy equipment of the unit we will replace on the line. This was done to save money, and turned out to be a disaster logistically- the gear was used in combat conditions for 20 days more or less, and some was missing or broken.

Kerem Shalom is the name of a Kibbutz and several adjacent military outposts near it. We were stationed in one of them(I belong to the HQ company of an armored battalion. Here you can see the magnificent shaded area I constructed using the camo net from one of our venerable M113s. The shipping containers were used for our barracks:




As I mentioned we saw no direct combat, and spent most of our time guarding the border and the base. Here you can see me manning one of several guard posts on our perimeter(we were less than 1k from the border):






Naturally as the Signals Platoon, we also did quite alot of fixing up and replacing radios on the various vehicles used by the battalion. As I really don't care much for this work, I got my self assigned as security for different officers going about on HQ missions such as refueling tanks and other logistics runs. These are images of some of our AFVs, taken by me and friends:













Although there was some work between patrols, guard duties and radio maintenance, we had ALOT of down time, which we spent making coffee, talking sh*t, and so on. However, we also had ALOT of 120mm mortar fire coming our way on a daily basis. So alot of our down time was spent with helmets and flak jackets on:





This was even brought to the absurd when we were forced to wear helmets and flak jackets to the shower, as demonstrated by this guy:



But in any case, with or without helmets, we tried to enjoy each others company(this did not work all the time, after a week with the same people 24 hours some stuff gets old...), and we enjoyed very good logistic support both from the IDF and from civilians who donated food and other items:









We even had time and the mindset for foolish jokes-

Here I am posing with a donated "care package" sent to us from an Israeli supermarket chain. The joke: before we were mobilized I actually donated money for 1 such package at this supermarket, so basically I was getting my money back!



Here I am posing as a "Hammas Pin Up Girl"



While we did have some good times, generally the combination of the heat, hard work and constant shelling meant that by the end of it all, we were dead tired and missing home. Here a good friend and genius technician/radio sgt can be seen after falling asleep during a conversation on the day of our demobilization:



When I got home I went to sleep, but when I woke up, I went straight to the supermarket. That evening I cooked my self a steak, opened a beer and sent the following image to my friends from the platoon with the caption "Image of Victory!":



I hope you found some interest in these images. As I said, they may not be heroic action pictures, but they tell a story that is more common to war than you would imagine.

Cheers,

Amit.

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

I guess these things are relative. Never had anyone shoot at me or breakup your daily routine by shelling you enough to leave the message that we know you're there and we have the range. The "Old Man" was relieved by my career choice, as he saw too much of that in Italy, Korea and to a lesser degree in Vietnam (A very early adviser tour.) before the troops landed in his 28 year career. Our world was 4 to 4.5 hrs of sleep, work, training, drills more training and more drills all to prepare us for our job we hoped would never come to pass because we'd have nothing to come home too. You never saw more people concerned with the world news then us. But on the bright side we had "field day" Saturdays! The most fun was coming off the mid-watch, lay for about an hour/hour n half, be roused up by the beautiful sound of general quarters gong gong "Security Violation in ..." gong gong..., get that done then "Commence Field Day" (I remember when it meant a day of track events etc. on the last day of school!) when we grabbed our combat gear of buckets, sponges, "foxtails" and dust pans etc. in those four hours I promise there is no cleaner place on earth at 800ft give or take below the surface. This would be followed a gourmet lunch of sliders with or without cheese with fries. Those of a weaker constitution might find themselves back in the "heads" they just cleaned!?! If we got lucky we got a "family gram" where CINCLANTHOME had 35 words to let me know what happened over the last 2-3 weeks. Then things would slack off ending in movie and pizza night and Sunday "quiet" routine. But the job was always in the back of your head and we would do what we were trained to do. That's why the Providence was important to us, it's was always better to be the "Hunter Killer"! What would be strange to most is we never thought about the environment around us. It never was a thought until I saw the movie "ABYSS" and I got over it after a day or so. I suppose the bottom line is no matter where you served it was about routine, a flash of excitement as a relative term and routine again. I know I'd do it again without hesitation. Sometimes I still think about those "sliders w/cheese!

Gingertanker good to have you back. About that steak depending on thickness 4 to 6 minutes to a side, and leave it alone!?!

Not to worry I can say 800ft anything else...well I'd have to feed ya to the "fishies"!

Regards,
Pat

[gingertanker]

I actually found that during this "war", we had more free time. during training the schedule is filled to the brim by officers who find and invent ways to use our time...But during operations and even more so during emergency operations, all the BS is cut down to a minimum. So yes, there were a few days I did not sleep at all or have time to rest. But there were some days I had nothing at all to do. Those were harder frankly.

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

Command wide training was called GMT/General Military Training or as we would kindly refer to it as General Misuse of Time.

Regards,
Pat

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by gingertanker

I actually found that during this "war", we had more free time. during training the schedule is filled to the brim by officers who find and invent ways to use our time...But during operations and even more so during emergency operations, all the BS is cut down to a minimum. So yes, there were a few days I did not sleep at all or have time to rest. But there were some days I had nothing at all to do. Those were harder frankly.

I have to agree wholeheartedly with this.
Probably the thing I noticed most during "war" was the way the routine mounds of paperwork disappeared and things still got done without it. Amazing!