During my 4 weeks tour I've made a lot of friends, either with my fellow volunteers or the Israeli military personnel, a friendship that will last a lifetime. I was assigned to the quartermaster of Bat Zap and the job was "tough", but most rewarding. My buddy Marc and I had to move furniture, sorting out uniforms, polishing over a hundred pair boots, gardening, brick-laying, cleaning the store-rooms and the care of the assault rifles, not one day the same job. I'll never forget Jelena, the quartermaster's corporal, who was always serving us cups of mint tea after we had moved some heavy surplus in the heat of the day. Todah Rabbah Jelena and Alex !
In my last week the base commander found out I'm a professional painting artist so it was obvious he assigned me to do some painting jobs. With great pleasure I've painted a large Sar El sign and the batallion's logo, it made me the crazy painter of Bat Zap. This coming summer of 2003 I will return for another tour and I promise to add some more color to the Bat Zap base.
Warm regards to Lt. col. Moshe Biton, major Yuval, families Shuster & Lowenstein, Mark Richman, Lilo Kirn, Marc Berenbach, my buddies of room 15, Louis & JC from SA and all other comrades!