Hot Summer: Reserve duty at the height of the heat

By ITAI SCHREMER
It always catches you in the middle of something. Its never really a good time. Sometime it falls out during exam season. Sometimes it falls out during the most stressful time at work. Sometimes it just falls out during a hot week. Extremely hot.
To put on the uniform means to feel tired immediately. It means to forget you are a citizen. It is to remember everything about your army service. In one moment you begin to think like a soldier. In army rules. In security mode. You are again a soldier.
Truth be told it is fun. To meet good people who come from such different backgrounds. All of us leave our work behind, our studies, our families, all of us leave everything and come out for more and more and more training.
An engineer and a student, a grocer and a doctor, an economist and a photographer- we all train together at the height of the heat at the peak of the intense Israeli summer. We eat our rations together, sleep in sleeping bags together, build tents together and suffer from the cold of the night together, all without cellphone battery, being eaten alive by mosquitoes- everything is done together. In reserves there is no importance given to your status in civilian life. There is no importance given to your ranking in the army. We are all together for one purpose- to train to be better so we can sacrifice our lives for the state of Israel at the moment we are called on.
It was hot. We traveled a lot. We passed our training sessions successfully and we are certainly more prepared for the day they will call us to serve. Despite the difficulties despite the conditions, there is no substitute for this training. There is no substitute for the nation of Israel who keeps showing its incredible stamina and beauty by consistently showing up for reserve duty every time. Always ready to serve. Always.