{"id":30063,"date":"2018-09-07T03:33:52","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T10:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=30063"},"modified":"2018-09-06T14:23:30","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T21:23:30","slug":"the-draft-a-dad-reflects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2018\/09\/07\/the-draft-a-dad-reflects\/","title":{"rendered":"The draft: a dad reflects"},"content":{"rendered":"

February 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

Collected the mail this morning. A few flyers and bills. And my son\u2019s draft notice. A quick double take. A flashback to my son playing with plastic dinosaurs. Then I texted my wife, \u201cIt\u2019s here.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few hours later, my son came home. \u201cHow was school? There\u2019s a letter for you on the table.\u201d Opening it, and with a surprising degree of nonchalance, he said, \u201cMy call-up.\u201d As if going into the army was an ordinary occurrence. \u201cAh, yeah. It\u2019s here.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few days later, I asked D if I could post a picture of his call-up on Facebook. \u201cDad, you can\u2019t post this stuff. It\u2019s, like, confidential.\u201d Duh. Of course.<\/p>\n

May 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

Picked my son up from Jerusalem. He was there for a series of pre-army tests. He couldn\u2019t stop talking about the cute chayelet<\/em> (army girls). Teenagers!<\/p>\n

October 2015-January 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

D interviewed for various roles in different divisions. None of interest. He wants something air force-specific. My wife and I helped him with a letter to the IAF manpower division. Emphasized<\/p>\n

his aircraft knowledge. His love of plane simulators. (How many times did we catch him \u201cflying\u201d instead of doing his homework?) His flying lesson (a 17th birthday gift).<\/p>\n

February-March 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Silence.<\/p>\n

April 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

The air force came knocking. Another interview. Another psychometric test. D felt he aced this one (pun intended).<\/p>\n

May 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Text message from the Israeli Air Force. Accepted. Not the specific role he wanted but within his window of satisfaction. Excitement. Trepidation. The air force is the darling of the military. Best conditions. High-tech environment. Much to my son\u2019s amusement, I don\u2019t really understand what he\u2019ll be doing.<\/p>\n

July 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

D called me at the office. Draft date pulled in. \u201cDad, we need to change our holiday plans \u2013 three weeks and I\u2019m in.\u201d New York will have to wait. Improvising, we quickly made other travel arrangements. A week later, we were in northern Italy. My son a reluctant traveler. He\u2019d rather be home with his friends sharing the excitement of the draft.<\/p>\n

August 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Took D for a buzz cut. His beautiful golden locks. Gone. I also had a buzz cut. My less beautiful grey locks. Gone. Solidarity.<\/p>\n

We threw a draft bash. Lots of friends and family. I toasted: \u201cWe are celebrating your draft \u2026 into the world\u2019s best air force\u2026. I can\u2019t tell you how proud we are\u2026. You obtained a role \u2013 and I still don\u2019t get it \u2013 that is meaningful and challenging, with great responsibility and opportunity. Embrace it. Be safe and strong. Keep us safe and strong. D, sweet child of mine. May God make you like Ephraim and Menashe \u2026 and establish peace for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Draft day, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

We traveled in two cars. My wife. Our daughter. My mother-in-law. D\u2019s friends. His girlfriend. And, of course, the cadet. We arrived at the induction centre at 0800 hours. Despite living in Israel for more than 22 years, I\u2019m still amazed by the informality. Sometimes disguised as chaos. My Canadian self still says lines. Order. Please. Excuse me. The security appeared to be in disarray. Then I remembered I\u2019m on an army base. Umm \u2026 can\u2019t get more secure than that.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of young recruits. Balagan<\/em>. Israeli flags waving overhead. Old ladies passing out amulets with the prayer for the Israeli army. Sephardi grandmothers spraying water into the crowd to wash away the evil eye.<\/p>\n

Much too quickly my son\u2019s name was called. Won\u2019t forget the apprehensive \u201cI guess it\u2019s my turn\u201d look on his face. Nor the tears flowing from my wife\u2019s almond-shaped eyes. Nor the tears flowing from my daughter\u2019s green eyes. Nor my mother-in-law\u2019s \u201cshouldn\u2019t there be peace by now?\u201d hunched and saddened look. I took D aside. Covered his head with my hand. Recited the blessing for a son. Then, like at a beach party, his friends hoisted him on their shoulders. Carried him forward. Innocence. Bravado. Another generation coming of age in Israel.<\/p>\n

He walked the final distance alone. Oversized backpack. Buzz cut. Excitement. Trepidation. Then disappeared into the military transport and his next three years. Actually, two years and eight months, but who\u2019s counting.<\/p>\n

Bruce Brown<\/strong> has been living in Israel for a long time and is the proud father of two Sabras, one currently a sergeant in the Israeli Air Force. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February 2015 Collected the mail this morning. A few flyers and bills. And my son\u2019s draft notice. A quick double take. A flashback to my son playing with plastic dinosaurs. Then I texted my wife, \u201cIt\u2019s here.\u201d A few hours later, my son came home. \u201cHow was school? There\u2019s a letter for you on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5777,5864,1739,4330,7579],"class_list":["post-30063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-op-ed","tag-army","tag-children","tag-idf","tag-israel","tag-parenting"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}