(no subject)
Well.
I still live! In case anyone was wondering. And as anyone living in southern Finland can attest : we had -great- weather all week. A bit chilly at 2 AM when sitting by your foxhole and freezing your butt off, but less so when running around in a trench shouting "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" (or well, the Finnish equivalent ^_^) and throwing grenades (well, actually just sticks) around the corners. Yarrgh, gotta kill 'em Russians! And jus' to make it funnier, we'll do it over and over and over again. Weeh.
No, seriously. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The cycling there was...bad at times...but it wasn't murder. Once there, we started with a lot of shootings. Two were especially fun. In one, two people were to attack an "enemy position", with targets popping up in front. Way cool. Waaaaay coooooool. In the other, we were defending a position, shooting targets popping up in front of us. Also SOooOoO cooooooOoool! It was, really. Bang, bang, bang! Adrenaline pumping makes your aim that much better. And them guns : they're actually pretty damned good. I used to think there'd be this dangerous kickback and stuff : but no. They'll do what you say, and shoot where you point. Me likey.
Oh, and then we had another practice, where we shot two bullets standing, then quickly down on a knee and another double shot. Good fun and all, although from further than 50 meters I couldn't hit a wall unless I had more than a split second to aim and fire (four bullets too, to boot). But MAN did we shoot a lot of bullets. Even did a clip in full ABC-protection gear (including the gas-mask. I swear : you can't see a rabbit's ass in that thing).
In short, the shootings were fun. What was less fun was the acute lack of sleep. Two terms in Finnish (the Belgian guy learned 'em, so so can you) you'll need : väijy and kipinä. Väijy is when you're sent to a forward observation post, maybe 200-400 meters from the tents. There you will lie still, without eating, drinking, talking, smoking or doing anything except watching for movement for two hours, upon which you'll hopefully be relieved. Kipinä, also known as a "närpostkarl" (that's Swedish though) is the tent-watch. Basically he guards the tent and the nearest area around it, AND keeps the stove burning (kipinä is Finnish for spark). These are generally one to one and a half hour shifts of, once more, staring into the darkness. Not so bad though, as long as you don't have both of 'em the same night. Either way, you're lucky if you get 2-4 hours sleep a night. I calculated a total of cirka 8 hours total of sleep from Tuesday to Friday.
I dunno. It could've been worse, I suppose. What I realise now is that, the army doesn't actually need 6 months to teach you all it knows. We've been repeating the same things over and over and over again, and I believe we'll -continue- to repeat them over and over and over again. Maybe we'll learn, maybe we won't. I'm personally not inspired at all to learn this blather, since whatever: we'll repeat it tomorrow anyway, why listen now? The only thing you really need to learn is how to handle your gun : the gun is sometimes loaded with actual ammo, and if you don't know how to care for it, you might get yourself or someone else seriously hurt. Another thing might be grenades : rumour has it, one will be allowed to throw a live grenade at some point. Maybe just mulliradio (=gossip among recruits), and I suppose it depends on the platoon instructor, but if it's true, then learning exactly how to hold the grenade through all the stages of its arming and throwing will be VERY important.
See, if there was a war going, and I was in boot-camp, about to be sent forward to the front in a couple of months, I'd be listening to every single piece of advice anyone gave me on how to stay alive like it was the secret to the question to the meaning of life. If you get my drift. Or if I was planning on joining the ATU, or sent to Kosovo or someplace to work with KFOR (Finland has a very large detachment over there, y'know). Basically, if the things that are taught to me had any future use what-so-ever. They won't, though. Only reason I'm learning is...well...part because of expectations, part because I don't want to be shouted at. And part because I'm ordered to learn these things, yeah?
This made me think of another thing...I believe at least 80-85% of the males in conscription age still pick it up and finish the army, and I believe it's always been like this. Sure, it's quite different now from when for instance the last generation went in (my father's army experience seems quite different : and no surprise there, really, it was a long time ago), but nonetheless it means that 80-85% of the Finnish male population have regular training as soldiers at a very impressionable age. Most of those I live with, including my petty officer, live at home. With their mothers. Some haven't finished High School (or equivalent), most are teenagers with no jobs or further education. I'm not saying I'm any different, of course. I too will be affected by all of this. For some period in their life, most men of Finland have worn army green and been taught how to be an effective soldier. One would think that this would, in some way, affect the mentality of the whole nation. A nation of...soldiers?
An odd thought, but there you go. As a disclaimer, I believe in the song "Universal Soldier" by Donovan more than anything the Finnish army says.
*hums*
He's five foot-two, and he's six feet-four,
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He's all of thirty-one, and he's only seventeen,
He's been a soldier for a thousand years.
He'a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn't kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me my friend and me for you.
And he's fighting for Canada,
He's fighting for France,
He's fighting for the USA,
And he's fighting for the Russians,
And he's fighting for Japan,
And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.
And he's fighting for Democracy,
He's fighting for the Reds,
He says it's for the peace of all.
He's the one who must decide,
Who's to live and who's to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.
But without him,
How would Hitler have condemned him at Labau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
He's the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.
He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from here and there and you and me,
And brothers can't you see,
This is not the way we put an end to war.
Peace out.
I still live! In case anyone was wondering. And as anyone living in southern Finland can attest : we had -great- weather all week. A bit chilly at 2 AM when sitting by your foxhole and freezing your butt off, but less so when running around in a trench shouting "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" (or well, the Finnish equivalent ^_^) and throwing grenades (well, actually just sticks) around the corners. Yarrgh, gotta kill 'em Russians! And jus' to make it funnier, we'll do it over and over and over again. Weeh.
No, seriously. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The cycling there was...bad at times...but it wasn't murder. Once there, we started with a lot of shootings. Two were especially fun. In one, two people were to attack an "enemy position", with targets popping up in front. Way cool. Waaaaay coooooool. In the other, we were defending a position, shooting targets popping up in front of us. Also SOooOoO cooooooOoool! It was, really. Bang, bang, bang! Adrenaline pumping makes your aim that much better. And them guns : they're actually pretty damned good. I used to think there'd be this dangerous kickback and stuff : but no. They'll do what you say, and shoot where you point. Me likey.
Oh, and then we had another practice, where we shot two bullets standing, then quickly down on a knee and another double shot. Good fun and all, although from further than 50 meters I couldn't hit a wall unless I had more than a split second to aim and fire (four bullets too, to boot). But MAN did we shoot a lot of bullets. Even did a clip in full ABC-protection gear (including the gas-mask. I swear : you can't see a rabbit's ass in that thing).
In short, the shootings were fun. What was less fun was the acute lack of sleep. Two terms in Finnish (the Belgian guy learned 'em, so so can you) you'll need : väijy and kipinä. Väijy is when you're sent to a forward observation post, maybe 200-400 meters from the tents. There you will lie still, without eating, drinking, talking, smoking or doing anything except watching for movement for two hours, upon which you'll hopefully be relieved. Kipinä, also known as a "närpostkarl" (that's Swedish though) is the tent-watch. Basically he guards the tent and the nearest area around it, AND keeps the stove burning (kipinä is Finnish for spark). These are generally one to one and a half hour shifts of, once more, staring into the darkness. Not so bad though, as long as you don't have both of 'em the same night. Either way, you're lucky if you get 2-4 hours sleep a night. I calculated a total of cirka 8 hours total of sleep from Tuesday to Friday.
I dunno. It could've been worse, I suppose. What I realise now is that, the army doesn't actually need 6 months to teach you all it knows. We've been repeating the same things over and over and over again, and I believe we'll -continue- to repeat them over and over and over again. Maybe we'll learn, maybe we won't. I'm personally not inspired at all to learn this blather, since whatever: we'll repeat it tomorrow anyway, why listen now? The only thing you really need to learn is how to handle your gun : the gun is sometimes loaded with actual ammo, and if you don't know how to care for it, you might get yourself or someone else seriously hurt. Another thing might be grenades : rumour has it, one will be allowed to throw a live grenade at some point. Maybe just mulliradio (=gossip among recruits), and I suppose it depends on the platoon instructor, but if it's true, then learning exactly how to hold the grenade through all the stages of its arming and throwing will be VERY important.
See, if there was a war going, and I was in boot-camp, about to be sent forward to the front in a couple of months, I'd be listening to every single piece of advice anyone gave me on how to stay alive like it was the secret to the question to the meaning of life. If you get my drift. Or if I was planning on joining the ATU, or sent to Kosovo or someplace to work with KFOR (Finland has a very large detachment over there, y'know). Basically, if the things that are taught to me had any future use what-so-ever. They won't, though. Only reason I'm learning is...well...part because of expectations, part because I don't want to be shouted at. And part because I'm ordered to learn these things, yeah?
This made me think of another thing...I believe at least 80-85% of the males in conscription age still pick it up and finish the army, and I believe it's always been like this. Sure, it's quite different now from when for instance the last generation went in (my father's army experience seems quite different : and no surprise there, really, it was a long time ago), but nonetheless it means that 80-85% of the Finnish male population have regular training as soldiers at a very impressionable age. Most of those I live with, including my petty officer, live at home. With their mothers. Some haven't finished High School (or equivalent), most are teenagers with no jobs or further education. I'm not saying I'm any different, of course. I too will be affected by all of this. For some period in their life, most men of Finland have worn army green and been taught how to be an effective soldier. One would think that this would, in some way, affect the mentality of the whole nation. A nation of...soldiers?
An odd thought, but there you go. As a disclaimer, I believe in the song "Universal Soldier" by Donovan more than anything the Finnish army says.
*hums*
He's five foot-two, and he's six feet-four,
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He's all of thirty-one, and he's only seventeen,
He's been a soldier for a thousand years.
He'a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn't kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me my friend and me for you.
And he's fighting for Canada,
He's fighting for France,
He's fighting for the USA,
And he's fighting for the Russians,
And he's fighting for Japan,
And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.
And he's fighting for Democracy,
He's fighting for the Reds,
He says it's for the peace of all.
He's the one who must decide,
Who's to live and who's to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.
But without him,
How would Hitler have condemned him at Labau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
He's the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.
He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from here and there and you and me,
And brothers can't you see,
This is not the way we put an end to war.
Peace out.