CHAPTER 2

Changing Times

Noam

I, like all young people in Israel, was required to report to the army for a physical exam, psychological and aptitude testing at age seventeen. I got the highest rating on the physical exam, which made me fit to serve in field units. I was surprised at the results and submitted the ECG test results from four years earlier that showed a heart murmur. The military doctors reviewed the charts and sent me for extensive testing in a military hospital. The new test results confirmed that I was suited for field units.

I entered military service in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in late August 1961. After a few days of processing, I was called in for an interview and was offered a choice of infantry or corps of engineers as all other options were no longer available. I told the officer that these options were not much different and I preferred that the officer choose for me, which he did—corps of engineers. I was driven to the army base where my assigned unit was stationed. There I joined a company of new recruits, most of whom were high school graduates. The group was so diverse that in the beginning, it was hard to remember all the names of the countries from which they came. For the next six months I would go through basic training without going home on leave. Most of the grueling and long hours of training were in the dunes of the coastal plain or in the desert of southern Israel.

One particularly brutal training exercise was designed to teach soldiers how to behave in captivity. The company commander selected a small group of soldiers to play the role of the enemy. They were instructed to protect a hilltop perimeter and to capture anyone who tried to breech it. They dug two pits and filled them with thorns to serve as interrogation pits. Four soldiers were selected and instructed on interrogation techniques. The training exercise began when the platoon commander released three soldiers at a time with instructions to reach the hilltop undetected. I was in one of the last groups and used that to my advantage. As I got closer to the hill, I hid behind a bush and observed my friends from earlier groups being captured. After ensuring that I knew where the guards were hiding, I waited for the guard near me to start chasing another soldier. At that moment I made my move and ran uphill largely undetected. As I approached the top of the hill, I saw my bloodied friends stripped to their underwear near a pit. I thought I was safe, but someone grabbed me from behind and ordered me to strip down. I protested but quickly realized that the purpose of the exercise was to learn to be tough under interrogation. Years later I learned that this training exercise had been discontinued.

Once, while walking on a desert path on patrol, the others and I heard a rumbling noise. The company commander familiar with the area started yelling for everyone to get away from the path. Shortly after everyone was on safe ground, a wall of water rushed in through the path. Flash floods were known to run through dry creek beds after a rainstorm.

I took part in two drills with live ammunition. The first had two phases. The company’s task was to build a fortification on a hill at night and then attack it and take it the next day. The challenge, which was fitting for the engineering corps soldiers, was to build three-man foxholes connected by communication trenches on the rocky hill. To complete this task the company had to use explosives. Another soldier and I were selected to pre