Upon arrival, I travelled straight to my unit in southern Israel. The civilian support effort is enormous. I was picked up and taken to my unit by random civilians. When I arrived at my unit I was assigned a new team and commander to head up the battalion’s sniper team. This made me very happy as the hunting season started early for me.
My issues rifle is the “Barak” HTR2000 in .338 Lapua Magnum. With the rifle, I received the Leupold Mark 6 MRAD Tremor II along with a night vision. Although my entire kit was about 47kg, I was very happy my issued rifle. A great caliber to put down bad people with at up to 1200m.
The following day the team went to the ranges to zero and practice.
After 16 very intense days in Israel we are still working hard daily. Our unit was on the ground the day after the attack and was assigned to guard the kibbutzim around the Gaza Strip. We got to see first-hand the carnage that was caused by the terrorists. Destroyed homes, blood on the walls, bullet and bomb holes everywhere.
One of the strongest scenes I saw was at Kfar Aza. A home we toured had blood stains all over the children’s room and furniture pushed to the windows. From what we saw, it was apparent that there was a struggle to keep the terrorists out that eventually failed.
Now we are training with the entire battalion and waiting for future orders. Spirits are high in the unit and the professional level is close to its peak.
The enemy is and will be paying a very high price.
