The guest author of our Aliyah Diary, Nathan (who has never fired a gun in his life) received this letter last week after expressing an interest in joining the Civil Guard Bicycle Unit. He will do it:
Dear Natan,
In terms of moving forward in becoming a Civil Guard Member and
joining the Bicycle Unit, here are the steps:
Application Form 6012 - Please fill out both pages and fax it back to me. You can also pass on a hard copy to me or rescan it and email it. This is the first step.
Background Check - After receiving and processing Form 6012, the police will conduct a cursory background check on you.
Rights and Responsibilities Lecture(s) - Should the background check not find anything disqualifying, you will be invited to Rights and Responsibilities Lecture(s). These cover issues such as: legal authority, conducting operations, detaining suspects, making arrests, using communications equipment etc. This information is taught lecture style in groups of between 1 and 3 classroom meetings. After the last meeting, you are "sworn in" and receive a temporary Civil Guard ID. This allows you to go unarmed on patrols with more senior and experienced officers. Keep in mind that most of what you need to know you learn on the job.
Firearms Training - You will be invited to the next scheduled firearms training sessions. They usually include a night-time classroom training session (dry fire) and a daytime actual shooting qualification at a firing range (wet). The dry fire classroom training is usually held at an area school where you are acquainted with the weapons, view their field stripping and learn the basics of safety and marksmanship. General Civil Guards people train only on the .30 caliber M1 Carbine. Bicycle and other special unit volunteers also train on pistols like the 9 mm FN Mk.III and the 22 caliber Beretta 71 (and sometimes on the Micro-Galil Assault rifle
though this weapon has little use in the bicycle unit). This extra instruction may require you staying on after the general Civil Guards
have completed their training on the carbine. I have prepared some
English language guidebooks for using each of these weapons which I will give to you at the proper time. The "dry-fire" training is followed within usually less than a week by "wet" training either at a commercial range (indoor) or at the regional police firing range (outdoor) in Bareket. You will be required to demonstrate some (minimal) proficiency on the weapons (Rifles at about 30 meters, Pistols at about 10 meters) in order to be qualified to carry aweapon. You must repeat weapons training at least once every two years.
On the Job Training - You will be paired with senior and experienced officers (starting with me) for the first six months of your service, during which as a rule you will ride unarmed.
Thanks and Shavua tov,
