The IDF has made changes to the “preferences of service” form filled out by recruits eligible for combat positions – adding more options that will require them to choose between less popular units, such as Combat Intelligence Collection Corps or Military Police soldiers responsible for Judea and Samaria passages.
The new questionnaire, the first in seven years, puts an emphasis on the needs of the military and places less importance on the private desires of the soldier, who is now forced to mark options for units that are not necessarily sought-after.
In addition, in the coming months, IDF’s GOC Army Headquarters will implement “a friend brings a friend” method, enabling candidates for combat positions to choose a number of people with whom they would like to serve in military teams in various combat roles in the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps, the Armored Corps, the Artillery Corps, and the Combat Engineering Corps. The move is designed to encourage recruitment and increase motivation to serve in the IDF ground forces.
Up until now, recruits had filled out a request for service placement with their peers on draft day, and will now do so while filling out the service preference questionnaire, which they receive several months after getting a first draft notice.
The candidates for military service will now have to rank in order of preference three clusters of choices: The infantry branch (which includes the Golani Infantry Brigade, the Kfir Brigade, the Nahal and Givati), the ground forces (including the Armored Corps, Artillery Corps, and Combat Engineering Corps) and a group of branches including the Israel Border Police, the Home Front Command Search and Rescue unit, the Air Defense Division (including the Iron Dome, and Arrow, Patriot and Magic Wand systems), and the Military Police Passages.
The candidate will be required to choose three options among the infantry branch, three options among the ground forces and two options among the other branches. Up until now, the candidates were able to choose among all units according to their order of preference.
As in the previous forms, the questionnaire will open with a question regarding the level of motivation to serve in combat units, from 1 to 5. The IDF say that they consider this question to be the best indicator of a soldier’s durability in combat units. “We prefer to send a soldier who marked ‘5’ to serve in combat units such as the Armored Corps even if he preferred to serve in the infantry, as past experience has shown that such a candidate will serve a full service as an Armored Corps soldier.”
The Adjutant General Branch has boasted in recent years that the majority of candidates were placed into one of the three units they marked as preferable in their questionnaire.
“In 90 percent of the cases, the candidates for service were placed in one of the two units they had marked,” a senior source in the Adjutant General Branch told Ynet. “The new questionnaire is more detailed. It will allow for an optimization between the desire of the candidate and the needs of the army, which will remain the number one priority in the placement settings.”
