Life In The Army After Training

Mendy H.

New York, USA

Unit: Nachal, 931

Draft: Nov 2019

A day in the life of an Infantry Combat soldier

A lot of people looking to join the IDF, especially the ones looking to join combat units, focus all their pre-army preparation and decision making on the training of the units that they wish to join. However in essence most of your service is comprised of what happens after training, the day to day grind that we call שגרה(routine) . 

Training consists of two components: 4 months of basic training and 4 months of advanced training. I won’t be going into that part of the service. I will however be going into what happens afterward. 

Combat Units generally follow this basic rotation:

Kav/קו – which is when these units are physically guarding the citizens of Israel and their borders.

Imun/אימון– Preparation for the following the kav and in essence-war- should it god forbid happen.  

Soldiers on kav are what keep this country safe. They are the physical defense between the enemy and us. A day for the soldier on kav would look something like this:

• Wake Up: Can be any time in the morning hours. Depends on operational requirements and שמירות (guard duty).

• Opening up the base for the day- daily chores such as cleaning, uniform inspection, and delegation of tasks. 

• Guard Duty, Patrol, other operational tasks depending on the location of the kav.  

• Workouts – Can be in a group setting or a requirement to be done on your own.  

• Closing up: Cleaning before being released to go to sleep for the night. 

Now this schedule can be very flexible for a number of reasons. Guard duty happens at a different time for everyone. It can take place n the middle of the night as well as early morning. Another job that can sometimes happen is kitchen duty, in which case you will be the kitchen most of the day and will not be part of the rest the schedule. Meal times are also flexible depending on where the kav is. 

Imun as we said is the part of your service that you are training and preparing for war. Most of imun is generally spent in the שטח (fields). Therefore most of imun there isn’t a set schedule. Imun would generally consist of the following: 

• Training exercises in the framework of a כיתה -ten to twelve people.
• Training exercises in the framework of מחלקה – around thirty to forty people.
• Training exercises in the framework of a פלוגה – one hundred twenty people.
• Training in the framework of a גדוד – five/six hundred people. 

That being said, when you are not training you are on base following a basic, flexible schedule.

Which is: 

• Opening up the base for the day- daily chores such as cleaning, uniform inspection
• Workouts- Can be in a group setting or a requirement to be done on your own.
• Working and maintaining on your personal gear in preparation for training. 
• Closing up: Cleaning before being released to go to sleep for the night.