"The Israeli army struck me. At first I did not understand how such an army fights. It combined the most incompatible things, which in the Soviet army was not. Firstly, we shot a huge number of cartridges, so that our possession of weapons became automatic. Secondly, the whole ideology of the army was the opposite of the Soviet. The soldier was taught not how to die, "killing a hundred enemies", but how to survive and defeat yourself. The soldier was inspired that his country needs life, his close people and himself. We were taught how to survive on the battlefield, what to do when the machine gun refused to fight. The soldier trained how to survive and act when he was left alone, in which direction to move and how to look for water in the desert. Everyone knew where the enemy was, and where - his troops. He had sufficient information about the place he was in. Before the battle, the soldier was checked "Notebook of the prisoner", where he described all the information about his health and about him. They taught that it is necessary to say everything you know at interrogations, but you need to know less. In the Israeli army, everyone wore the same uniform - soldiers and officers, there were no orders and medals and did not even give military honor. Nobody knew how to go about marching, and there was no time for it.
During the battle, the commanders, including senior officers, always stood in the tank towers, so that they were all seen in battle. It was not a law, it was a tradition. The Soviet team "was not going forward", there was an Israeli team "behind me". I was amazed when, during a difficult military situation during the war in Lebanon, my driver was frightened, the battalion commander jumped off his armored personnel carrier and on foot himself led the tank behind him - the same as in the movie. I asked him why he did it. He explained that this is an unwritten duty of each officer and commander.
When we were encamped in a combat situation, guard duty was carried at night by soldiers and officers. Only mechanics-drivers of tanks and armored personnel carriers were released from it.
The whole system of military training, into which a combat unit is organized with the appeal of a group of servicemen and exists before the retirement of these guys in age, has a very important psychological aspect. Then this regiment disbanded or was completely replaced by another appeal. When a young man is called up, grows and makes mistakes, passing through wars with his friends, they become his second family. This explains why a multimillionaire from New York arrives on his own plane to fight a gunner in his tank. This is not a paradox, but a very correct construction of the system. In our regiment and in our crew there were people of different social groups and opportunities - wealthy and poor. Served together with holders of several academic degrees and soldiers who did not have them. It did not matter to us, since we were a fighting brotherhood, united by other principles. We were never bored With each other.
The call was always carried out in the same way - both for war and for doctrines. After a phone call or a summons, everyone pulled out a storage bag with uniforms from the pantry, changed clothes, said goodbye to his family. We immediately went to our base, where already filled tanks. Everyone received personal weapons, then commanders signed for the reception of tanks and other military equipment. Tractors loaded, and we went to fight. Along the way, crew members who lived near the border with Lebanon were waiting. They were at the agreed places on the roadside. It was usually during the war. The difference between civil and military life was felt only in the first day after the draft, which, usually, was difficult to bear. After a warm and soft home bed and a suit with a tie, get used to the tarpaulin fireproof overalls on the naked body and sleep under the tank pretty hard. At one point life turned over. Adaptation took about a day. The system of training and training was original and intensive. The logic of this system is beginning to be understood later. The first one and a half days you were continuously trained and trained at various courses. After the "set load", insomnia and fatigue, when we began to fall asleep on the go, the order was given: "Take up combat places on tanks! »Maneuvers began. The second part of the call - the carrying out of routine army service: the protection of borders, military camps, the performance of various functions of the military police. This gave a complete picture of what was happening in the state. Our civil opinion evolved independently and independently.
Thus, one of the most important values ??of Israel was created - the non-adherence of extraneous influence on the formation of the civil position of a member of the Israeli society on all civil and military issues. A citizen of our country, solving for himself the question of the need to start a war, unlike an American or Russian citizen, sends to the war himself or his child. This practically excludes the effectiveness of brainwashing by the media, increases civil consciousness and objectivity of judgment. An Israeli citizen is indeed an inseparable part of his country. He knows everything that happens in the state and in the army, and forms his own, independent, point of view on all state problems. In this, in my opinion, is the uniqueness of democracy and the strength of the State of Israel ".
Leonid Tokarsky, "My icebreaker or science survive" Original.