The Journey of Being in the Army From 18-23 Years Old
About Ido Kalev
Ido Kalev is a father of two daughters. One of them is me, Lior. He is a very selfless and strong man who has taught me a lot about life. He is a dog lover!! Ido joined the Israeli IDF at a young age. Lets see how much of an impact it was to who he is now.
Before you joined the army, what were you expecting or feeling?
“I was very positive and excited. Even though normally people would be worried about missing their families or other things like that. A year before I went, I prepared myself mentally and physically so I would have no regrets. It was very difficult to be accepted into the best unit I was aiming for. My friends and I did not think about the war or the things that could happen, we focused on being the best at the age of eighteen. So a year before, I was with a group of eight guys. We trained and did very difficult things. We learnt how to aim, we ran a lot on the beach, we worked out in the gym, we trained a lot of martial arts, we swam in the ocean in winter, we ran with sand bags and more very challenging stuff. All of that, we did every day for a full year until we officially joined the IDF.”
Was being in the army similar to what you thought it would be?
“Since I wanted a specific unit, I knew a lot about it since I studied it for quite a while. You can have some expectations but you will never really know until you're actually There. So I never really knew what to exactly expect. But I always knew that there would be good times and bad times.”
Would you change anything about how the army affected your identity?
“I am happy with what I did in the army because it gave more security to my country. Even though a lot of things went with me through the years, I wouldn't say I'd do things any differently.”
Do you think everyone in Israel needs to go to the army as they grow up?
“Everyone has the right to go or to not go. But since Israel is surrounded by conflicts, it's very important for people to be in the army and to defend our country. It is important to keep a peaceful atmosphere between Israel and other countries. Otherwise it's a big threat to the state of Israel and we have to have a strong IDF.”
How do you think the IDF made you who you are now?
“Joining something like that when you're basically a kid is very hard since you have very complicated things to deal with. But at the same time, you become more mature. Which is good. But the bad thing is that you're doing things that can mark you for the rest of your life if you're in the war unit.”
“I wanted to be in the best unit there is because all my friends wanted to as well, which turned into a competition full of motivation”
- Ido Kalev
Did the army make you follow a specific path in life?
“Yes! After I finished the army I joined the security agency. Although I can’t talk a lot about it since it’s very confidential, I became a security manager for the state of Israel. Being that, I was given a lot of missions in different countries. So every Israeli airplane that flies to different places is secure on the way there and back. And also, when I was given a mission in Ukraine, I met Lena, my wife. So I definitely got something very positive out of all that.”
Would you change anything about how the israeli army works?
“There are things that you could change everywhere. I won't go into specific private detail, but for example, If you're sent on a hard mission, it doesn't matter if you fail it or succeed. Because you will see very hard things. It's clearly not something you can change since you can't bring people back to life or always be able to protect them. But what can and should be changed is how the army doesn't give much support after you leave. People that had to do very hard things to protect Israel, are supposed to get a lot of support. And that irritates me since I already learnt what could happen if they don't get support. Some soldiers did bad things to themselves. That needs change.”
