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yes, it is once again the time of the year (in finland at least) when young boys are off to military to be stalked by grunty's pantless mar... erhm*cough* i mean trained to become men...

unfortunately for me, i'm in the age group that is going there today... and by 6pm this evening(+2greenwich) i have officially become a soldier of finnish army...

what it means is, that i'll be around here a lot less than usually(like anyone's even noticed me lurking around and sp*mming)

well if i take the positive way of thinking, it's only 362 days and a wake up so it's really not that long

just wondering if there are other unfortunate souls that have to live in the constant fear of grunty and his marines

Bummer man, compulsory service sucks big time. Just follow Beldin's lead and you should get through okay.

well i do have my capybara army... any sh*t from some sergeant, and he may find his privates trapped in a screwbench with a padlock, in a burning house with only a knife to reach onto...

Which would be getting so wasted he cant do anything?
Hey best of luck with this, as Pakistan does force you to join, i have no clue what you are going to go through.
But if it includes pantless marines.
Best of luck.

i'm fairly sure that was a rhetorical question CM but i'll give some info...

1. you can either choose the military or social work or you can go to jail...

if you choose military (like about 85% does i think might be less) you are there from 6-12 months depending your line of "work" and if you go to officer training

the social work lasts 270days nothing much about it, i have no further detail about it...

i don't know how much the jail time lasts(forgotten) but that's very rare choice, only some extrememists go to jail(most choose the social work)

2. there are (thank god for that) no marines in the garrison where i'm going(luckily in the same town where i live) and even less pantless one's, but who knows if grunty decides to make a visit with the aid of the topless paratroopers so i guess anything is possible...

3. the only real problem i'm having is that in winter it's cold as in north pole (can get to -40 celcius some genius can work it into fahrenheit if interested) and there's much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much much snow in here and i hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate hate the skiing(i'm not bad at it, and i have good physics i just hate the fact you get sweaty, and since you are wearing very heavy clothes due to the weasel-shrinkin' weather, after you stop you get extremely cold...

Just to make it clear - I think Ode was refering to THIS.


No worries,

Beldin

That was the one @Beldin.

Wait beldin wasnt wasted?
How is that possible?

Originally posted by CM
Wait beldin wasnt wasted?
How is that possible?

I WAS quite stoned most of the time...I just kept it down while on duty...I DO have some scruples - not many I give you that, but I DO have them...

No worries,

Beldin

Too bad Locke.
I'm glad they stopped this obligated army stuff here in Holland some years ago. But it could be fun if you like that stuff...

How about a update after your first week or so?

Have fun Locke, it will be one of those experiences that you'll remember for the rest of your life.

Actually this is also this time of the year that boys at Cyprus are obligated to serve the army, the only difference is that they have to serve for a whole of 26 months!!!!!. Luckily i've finished with that a while ago but the day after tomorrow my brother will join as well.

Anyway good luck with it Locke.

@rob-hin:here's an update after first week.... some discussed about army in the thread "bloody peace time armies" you can find linkmasters link on this thread...

yep military sucks we have to get up 5:20am have breakfast and then off to marching or practicing shooting with the assault-rifle. it's kind of ironic how when you're a kid you always wanted to play war (or whatever you call it) and after you actually get a real gun, you notice it's not that great... it makes helluva noice, we have to have two sets of "mufflers" in our ears (can't think of another word) and we have to clean the weapon everytime you shoot blanks with it (we have real bullet target practicing next week) some of the assistant instructors are plain ****s, though some are better than the others.

the following text is not to be taken personally in any way and i do not mean to offend anyone, please delete the following if it's unappropriate, since i won't be able to...

the thing that is the most frustrating are the people who are little bit slow on the attic so to speak. they don't march in the right order, don't know how to make their beds army style, don't know how to clean their weapons... well they may not all be little slow, some may have the wrong attitude, but if you come to a voluntary army service, you should do what you have to do, and pay attention when things are taught... it's understandable that some learn slower than others, but there are some cases in the garrison where i'm at that go over the top. we do help each other out, but after a week the army and others expects everyone to know what has been teached to them... i wouldn't care about this at all, but it's those few individuals that prevent us from getting forward in the march training, so that we could have some liberty to walk around...
there are about 5 of those guys out of a 100, and it's not that great, since in the army, it's not the individual that gets the sh*t as we say it in the finnish army, it's the whole bunch of us that are restricted because of them...

i'm pretty confident you get used to the "life-style" since i'm planning being there a year(maybe more if i get to the reserve officer school, so i would be an officer) (like lieutenant but lower by a notch) but it still sucks, we don't have holidays for the first three or four weeks... the only reason i'm writing this is because we got releave for a football game(3 of us, me and my two friends). have to be back at 12:00pm(night) i'm going in at 11:00 so i can get some sleep (luxurious 6 hours after unpacking etc.) one might get used to it, but you have to be really dedicated to actually like it/enjoy it. plus we have some stupid rules like, we can't go to the hallway without a jacket(like in army t-shirt etc.)
but those rules go away after we swore an oath to the finnish military(3 weeks IIRC) we have to cycle 350km/218miles to get there and have to stand 2 and a half hours once we get there... we had a standing of about an hour and people were fainting all over the whole place(there are 650 new cadets where i'm at) i was one of them, though because of my knee... i once wrecked it in football and it has been bothering me in some things ever since, apparantly standing in a row without moving was one of them, because i suddenly almost fell flat on my face... it was kind of interesting experience, in a way since i've never fainted before in my life...

well that's the update part if anyone is interested, but isn't anyone else really going through the same sh*t that i am???

Originally posted by Locke Da'averan

there are about 5 of those guys out of a 100, and it's not that great, since in the army, it's not the individual that gets the sh*t as we say it in the finnish army, it's the whole bunch of us that are restricted because of them...

I believe this is to teach you to work as a group. (If I understand right)

Is it fair...for a army I would say it is. Remember one day one of these 5 might have to guard/protect you or your family.

(I base this on the assumption that they have to pass. In the US, ones who can't cut it are discharged. But it takes a lot to get to this point. I don't know how it would work in your country. Maybe discharged and sent to do community service instead?

Originally posted by Weasel


I believe this is to teach you to work as a group. (If I understand right)

Is it fair...for a army I would say it is. Remember one day one of these 5 might have to guard/protect you or your family.

(I base this on the assumption that they have to pass. In the US, ones who can't cut it are discharged. But it takes a lot to get to this point. I don't know how it would work in your country. Maybe discharged and sent to do community service instead?

don't get me wrong, we all help each other out in there, actually we helped each other from the day one, before we even knew each others...
in example, this one guy, who didn't learn from the first time how to put clothes in the right places/make an acceptable bed, i showed him everyday couple times a day, well when ever he asked, i helped. but the fact is, he didn't learn it properly, he did improve his skills, but he wasn't able to do almost anything independently. after a week, he still hadn't learned(my opinion is he had never had to do anything by himself, someone had always done it for him, but that is just speculation(and no, i didn't do that, i instructed him how to do it by himself, but he still wasn't able to))

it was little bit frustrating to over and over taught him after the first week, but what made it hard, was that i had to do the same things myself, and i was sometimes late because i had to instruct him how to do it.

well he did leave, he had an old foot injury that came out after a small practice march(2miles) and had to leave(he was releaved until the year 2004)

the problem was that in the army, they show things once, then you practice them, after that you have to know how to do it. we do repeat the lessons couple days later, but this guy didn't learn those things for some reason, so in my opinion there was no way he would've made it even if his foot hadn't broken

i'm not the perfect soldier, i make mistakes and stuff, but you can get pretty far, by simply listening what you are taught and being thorough in your given orders.

after 3 weeks the army still sucks, but i'm still going to be there 12 months/1 year for some reason(maybe i should make an appointment on CE's couch) being a grunt sucks badly, and it pisses everyone off so badly, we've had cases of I.F.C. (identified flying chair) and banging doors etc. the weekend off(which i'm at atm) was exactly the thing that everyone needed, couple more weeks and they would've had to bring bodybags for the trainers...

Thats an interesting little viewpoint of finnish army life

Do you have any ideas when you get to serve oversea's and if so where? Probably one of the best points of life in the defense force, the ability to travel and see the world.