Chicago: Home At Last

With my bro back at Wrigley Field.  Home at last!

My journey has come to an end.  I set out from my home on November 3rd, 2010 and returned July 15th, 2012.  My journey has come full circle; I am sitting at my desk chair just as I did nearly two years ago.  Most importantly, I can finally sleep in my own bed in the comfort of my own home.

On Sunday, I went to an FIDF fundraiser.  A few soldiers spoke at the event.  They were all in reserve duty at this point, and none were lone soldiers.  One was an American who made aliyah (immigrated) and his family soon followed.  He lost an arm during Operation Caste Lead in Gaza in 2008, yet he continued to serve and maintains his combat status.  Very impressive.  I also met another soldier from a Chicago suburb who was home on his meuchedet, his time off to see his family.  He was two draft cycles after me and has since returned for the final few months of his service.  It was weird to think how I would have viewed these soldiers two years ago when I had no idea what I was about to get myself into.  I hear their stories now and can easily relate.  I look at their uniforms and can identify which ones are combat soldiers, what units they are in, know their ranks, even guess their weapon assignments.

However, most importantly, I know what they are going through.  I know how they feel having to go back to base on Sunday morning.  I know how excited they are to wake up, no matter the hour, at the end of the week to go home.  I know how long the days and weeks can seem, how cold and lonely the nights, how joyous and heartbreaking the moments.  I know what it feels like to be on a march that will not end, a guard duty that takes forever, and kitchen duty that makes you want to be anywhere else in the world.  These are the important things about a soldier's service.  It doesn't matter how many times he jumped out of a plane, or how many kilometers he hiked, or how many months he has left; what matters are the emotions involved in every situation and every experience.

So where to go from here?  It wasn't easy getting back into normalcy.  For one thing, I seem to have too much time on my hands.  I'm spending most of my time looking for employment.  Not everyone goes to the IDF looking for it to be a part of a career, but that is the case with me.  From my college studies, I love politics, in particular foreign and international security policy, and want to continue to be an advocate for Israel.

The rest of my time has been spent enjoying life back in America.  My brother and I had a great outing to Wrigleyville to watch the Cubs, then had a few drinks at bars in the area, and met up with high school friends for dinner.  I've been to the city a few times to see friends, gone to the movies, everything I should be doing.  It's now incredibly easy to have a conversation with my sister in LA.  Instead of a ten hour difference, we're back to the normal two hours.  My parents, brother and I drove to Indiana when my parents rode their tandem bike across the state.  I've reconnected with Rabbi Alter (who just had a baby girl, mazel tov!) and we've resumed our weekly learning.

I still receive emails from prospective soldiers.  I try to help them out the best I can, even though I'm often thinking how could one go through all that?  But for me, I've done it and while it certainly was the best experience of my life, it is something you probably could not pay me enough to repeat.  Aside from the physical pain--the broken bones, bruised limbs, aching muscles--it is the emotional toll that military service takes on you that would steer me clear.  Yet, military service I have done.  And I do feel connected in a certain way to servicemen and women throughout history.  As Adam and I have discussed, before the army, we would watch Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, or any military film, and be like, "wow, I can't imagine what it would be like to be in those situations.  I wonder how I would react.  How do those guys do it?"  Now, after jumping out of planes just like the guys on D-Day, after firing the same weapons, after being the same hummers and helicopters, after crawling through the same filth, I have a greater appreciation for what veterans have done and experienced, and I know how far from their grim and horrific reality my service really was.   We now know, more than any civilian, how much we don't know about war.

The army seems so far away at times.  But I look back at my pictures and video or read a blog post and am suddenly right back in that moment of excitement, fear, pain, joy, exhaustion, relief.  And of course I read the Facebook updates from the soldiers still in my company.  I am so thankful to be able to go to sleep knowing that no one will wake me up to guard in the middle of the night.  I like that the only dishes I have to clean will be the ones my family or I get dirty and it will take me minutes, not hours, to clean.  I am glad to have done my duty to be on guard for Israel and the Jewish people, I did my service, and passed the baton on to others.

Before I drag on too much.  I want to thank you for reading.  If you've stuck with me from my first post on October 29th, 2010, or read just a couple, I thank you.  This blog was meant originally as a way for family and friends to keep track of my journey.  Then it was a way for me to record everything that happened.  And finally, perhaps most importantly, it became a medium to teach and inform others about the IDF and Israel.  This is the last post of this blog...yes, I may try to start another personal blog or a different one with the Jerusalem Post (negotiations are ongoing).  I meant for it to come a few weeks ago, but I pushed it off.  I plan to write a book about my experience, drawing largely from this blog.  (If anyone has any suggestions or helpful advice, that would be most appreciated!)

If I didn't persuade you to suddenly become a supporter of Israel, or to pick up a pen and donate money, or to fly over to Israel and join the army, that's fine, it wasn't my intent.  My aim was to inform: I simply wrote what I saw, what I read, what I experienced, and what I felt.  Whether you support the IDF and Israel or not, I hope you can understand why I did what I did.  I hope you can respect what I and thousands of others have done in the pursuit of our beliefs and our passions.

And, although my story as a lone soldier in the IDF story is over, there are still hundreds of others still serving Israel away from their families.  Continue to pray for their well-being and their safety.  If you want to get involved, look to the FIDF, Lone Soldier Center, or Lone Soldier Project as ways to contribute money, time, or simply well wishes.  I have links on the right for many of these outlets.

If you want to get in touch with questions or advice about joining, I am more than happy to help.  I will continue to respond to any comments.

Again, I thank you.

Aleichem shalom! !עליכם שלום