Honorable Discharge

Adam, we be done!

And just like that, I am now, and forever will be: Sergeant Daniel Flesch (Ret.).

My Israel Defense Force service is complete.  What I set out to do a year and a half ago is over.

I joined the IDF, went through the mandatory ulpan to learn Hebrew, tried out for and joined Tzanchanim (Paratroopers), worked hard, pushed myself beyond limits I didn't even dream of, jumped out of a plane six times, completed tours in the West Bank and the Lebanese border, and finished strongly and with pride.

From the beginning of a soldier's service, he knows exactly the date of his eventual release.  For my brothers-in-arms who drafted with me on December 15th, 2010 starting a year and a half service, we finished on June 14th, 2012.

The night of the 12th I took a train north to meet Adam and his girlfriend, Steph, at their kibbutz outside of Acko.  On the 13th, we had to be back at our base on the Lebanese border.  Why the 13th and not the 14th?  Because June 14th was a Thursday, and all the jobnikim we are dependent upon to be released leave base.  Thus, we released a day early from the IDF.

It's a much shorter trip from their kibbutz as opposed to leaving from Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.  We got up at a decent hour in the morning, hopped on a couple buses, and made it to base by noon.

All we had to do was this: turn in our Aleph equipment, collect a few signatures, and cut our choger.  This whole process could take literally thirty or forty minutes.  But, like all things in the army, nothing is ever easy.

We searched for the first office to obtain a signature, found out they had left for lunch, and then waited the next hour and a half until all the jobnikim got back from the lunch room and into their air conditioned offices.  We went to the medic's office for them to sign off on our health records, had the social worker soldier sign our paper, had her translate a few words from our officer for a quick and meaningless interview to review our service, and a few other places.  The hardest thing was turning in our equipment.

The day we went on chofshash, Adam, Gidon, Matthew and myself turned in our combat (Bet) equipment.  Now we had to turn in our Aleph equipment.  These items were given to us on the very first day in the military.  Now simply two uniform tops and bottoms, belt, jacket, beret and duffel bag needed to be returned.  Well, I wanted to keep the only Aleph uniform I had worn since the day I was accepted into Tzanchanim.  The one I would come to put on my confats for being an accomplished paratrooper, put on my seicat lochem for being an accomplished fighter, and put on my dargot for being promoted to sergeant.  And my red beret?  The one I earned after I worked harder than ever before, sweated, bled, broke bones, jumped out planes and received after completing a seventy kilometer, fifteen hour hike to Jerusalem carrying a heavy machine gun and nearly fifty percent of my body weight?  Yeah, sorry Mr. Jobnik, but you can go &%@$ yourself, I am not turning that in!

Well, unfortunately, as Adam pointed out, these guys have all the power and they just want us to recognize that.  So instead of having me yell at them, Adam quietly and kindly apologized for us "losing" our uniforms and not having our berets.  This whole charade took most of the afternoon, but at the end, the guy in charge of logistics relented and we got his signature.  Finally, around 3:30, we returned to the first office, ready for the final moments.

I have been issued three different identification cards while in the military.  The first I received on my first day in the army.  It's called a "choger," and identifies me as an enlisted soldier.  The second identity card I received is called a "teudat lochem."  After two years in the army, all combat soldier receive this card.  As I do not do three years, I and my other volunteering friends received ours in the mail about a month ago...after months and months of requests and haggling.  This card identifies me as a combat soldier.  For those who stay in Israel, I hear it is beneficial to have for applying to jobs.  But really, for me, the main perk is now I can travel on buses and trains for free when not in uniform.  Finally, on my last day in the army, every soldier receives a "teudat shichrur," a fighter's identity card.  It is a yellow/golden card with השחחרר משירות חובה בכבוד, or "released from compulsory military service with honor."  AKA: honorable discharge.

Upon receiving my teudat shichrur, I had to cut up my choger.  It was an incredible feeling.  My ties to the IDF were symbolically, as well as officially, cut.  I was awarded my teudat shichrur.  I received two documents, one recognizing the end of my service, the second exempting me from reserve duty for the rest of my life.

Adam and I could not have been happier.  We were on Cloud 9 walking out of that base.  We hugged and made it straight for the exit.  We walked out the shin gimmel (gate) and, like always leaving a base, waited for the bus.

And waited.....and waited....and waited....

Turns out the bus didn't come until after six.  But that gave me some time to call my parents and tell them the great news.  Gave me some time to hear from my brother as he called me from his work.  Gave me some time to exchange texts with my sister from her work.  Gave me some time to sweat outside in the heat of the Israeli summer sun.  Gave me some time to have a celebratory cigarette (sorry Mom).  Eventually, Gidon and Matthew met up with us as they also finished the release process.

Signatures? Check!

On the bus, Adam and I were surprised by how incredible the day felt.  For one thing, we were completely wiped out.  It sounds silly, and definitely is, but so true that even such simple and quick tasks with the military can completely drain you.  We just kicked back in the cool air conditioned bus and reminisced for a few minutes.  We thought back to a year and a half ago, to Mikveh Alon.  We thought back to over a year ago, the Tzanchanim gibbush, drafting into the Paratroopers, the first times we started to hang out.  We talked about War Week and the final hike for the beret.  Then Shechem and going home over New Years for a month on our meuchedet.  Then coming back and jumping out of a plane again for the Tarchat and then the hardest four days of our lives in the Targad.  Adam recalled seeing me one day (really the whole thing was like one very long day), laying on the ground, my back propped up against my heavy machine gun, eyelids closing, trying to catch a few minutes of elusive, heavenly sleep, and suddenly being ordered back on our feet to continue moving.  According to Adam, I looked around me, not believing the order to be true and in that moment completely hating everyone and everything, for they prevented me from a quick few minutes nap.  These things will never leave us.

I finally arrived back in Tel Aviv at midnight.  The day was over.  From the tzav rishon to the draft to the Paratroopers and the training and kav and training and kav, and then the release.  The sun had set on my service in the IDF.

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The guys: posin' before kayakin'

I traveled to Jerusalem the day after I left base on chofshash.  Spent a few days there then met up with Shmaya to spend Shabbat with Eliyahu and Jesse at Jesse's house in Rana'ana.  Since being released, Jesse has worked as a waiter at a restaurant on the beach in Herziliya.  I hadn't seen him in a few weeks and Eliyahu even longer than that.  Well, Eliyahu had returned to our unit from Commanders Course a few weeks before.  But I hadn't seen him in close to six months, so his presence still felt very fresh to us.  After the Shabbat, I bounced back and forth between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

The great thing about having the teudat lochem was being able to travel in civilian clothes.  I definitely took advantage of that.  One day, a bunch of us decided to go kayaking on the Jordan River up near Kiryat Shemonah.  During winter training, I had to reconnect with my unit on Sunday mornings in Kiryat Shemonah.  It felt weird and amazingly awesome to take the same bus north and walk into the same beit hachayal (soldier's house) as I did just a few months before.  But this time, I was in shorts and flip-flops and not dreading freezing on guard duty or in the shetach for the week.  It was an awesome day, hung out with some guys I again hadn't seen in a long time, and truly relaxed and enjoyed being free from the army.

The next day I went north again to a kibbutz near Tiberias to spend the evening with Sam at his kibbutz.  This Sam is from Oregon and drafted a few months before me.  He's part of a program called Garin Tzabar in which the group made aliyah, came to live with a group of individuals, received ulpan Hebrew lessons, drafted into the army together, and serve for two years.  The kibbutz was alright; the view of the Kinneret was incredible (much different than in the winter, now it is brown), and they had a pool, which was fun to go in with some girls when not exactly sober.

The next day, he came down to Tel Aviv to stay with a friend, and we partied it up for the next three nights.  Finally being able to go out and drink, dance, talk with girls without having the army in the back of your head every waking second was liberating.  Staying up until six in the morning was no problem because I got nothin' to do!

Until I called the army the previous Monday to ask when we were supposed to come and go through the release process.  On Wednesday, we came, we saw, we released.

Tomer and I chillin' on the beach

Now I've just been chilling with David, Amy and the girls in Tel Aviv.  My service has come full circle.  I still have my apartment in Jerusalem, but enjoy being in Tel Aviv.  There's the beach, night life, family, beach, girls, beach, girls...you get the idea.  Yesterday I spent the day at the beach with Tomer, one of my favorite Israelis from my unit.  I spoke Hebrew consistently for the first time in a while.  Now I've been working on putting my resume together.  Boy do I have some interesting things to add!  The vacation continues as my life after the army looms ahead.  For now, I'm enjoying the sun and sand.  And "How I Met Your Mother."  I'm already on season four...after starting it less than a week ago.

I need something to do.

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Adam and I had thought that the day we chofshashed would have been the most exciting because we were actually leaving our base.  We thought that the vacation we've been on the past couple weeks would have lessened the excitement of returning to base in our civilian clothes only to turn in a last few pieces of equipment.  But that wasn't the case.  We felt incredible.  A weight and burden and responsibility has been lifted from our shoulders.  It was an incredible thing to be able to call myself a soldier, a fighter and a paratrooper for Israel.  And I will always be that.  It may not be with a gun anymore.  But it will be with some new weapons.  I exchanged the assault rifle and machine gun for words and pens.  I will continue this fight.



Just as I will continue this blog.....