Humorous Fatalism

Humor on the base is wry and unchecked. Usually, we put the unavoidable aches and pains down a buttonhole, just to teach them a lesson. This justified redress for reason finds its written expression on the bathroom stalls. For example, while minding my business one time in the hallowed stalls of B-slash (everything has an acronym in the army/Israel, and this is my Elat-area negev base, Bet Sefer L'Shiryon)...

"When you are drafted, you are issued, along with your kitbag and uniforms, one fly. This fly must be on you at all times. It is part of your army gear. Why, then, are there so many flies? Well, many times soldiers leave the base for some reason, medical or leisure, or perhaps they are KIA, and the fly remains alive. And so, the flies accumulate, and are divided amongst the remaining soldiers."

or more poetically rendered,

"Millions of pregnant flies can't be wrong - B-slash is the place to be!"

But other tensions also find their productive release in jokes (Manhattanites and other college
grads, read "the jocular"). For example, the Loader in the tank is probably the most dangerous, seeing as how there are so many ways to die by Lady Luck, not to mention the Sly Chance ("Sylvester"), or the avoidable, sometimes smelly, Frank Accident. There is a saying [amongst Gunners] that is hilariously funny [to Gunners] that translates something like so,

"If the Loader errs, the Loader dies. But if the Gunner errs...the Loader dies!" Hyuk!

I am a tank Loader, and this is my story.