The Army Diary

Dreadnought · Post by **Dreadnought** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:31 am

So what's the deal with this ray-dee-ey-shun I've heard so much about?

PiP · Post by **PiP** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:41 am

VasikkA · Post by **VasikkA** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:41 am

Hint: subatomic particles on the move

Nameless_One · Post by **Nameless_One** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 11:57 am

Hint: There are total five subatomic particles

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 8:37 am

Date: October 13th 2007

Progress: 27 % (265/362 days left)

Rank: NCO Student

Situated at: 3rd Jaeger Company, Kainuu Jaeger Battalion,Kainuu Brigade

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK, it's been almost a month and no diary entries. A lot has happened since the
last time I wrote. We spent a week camping in the woods, firing all sorts of funky
weapons, including machineguns and antitank-weapons. The camp went well, except
that I managed to tear my trousers into pieces, but luckily a major (!), our
Company Chief, saw me with my torn pants and personally delivered me new ones. It
was funny to see a big shot like him running through the woods with camo-pants in
his hands shouting my name

Good stuff. We also had the chance to test explosives.
I must've blown up around twelve kilos of TNT that day.

Next week we had plenty of theoretical exams and leadership tests of all sorts,
we had an orienteering competition and a cross-country race etc. I studied squad's
defence and detachment a lot, because both have plenty of details that squad leader
should be aware about. It really paid off in the exams. Our "leader-tasks" were also
reviewed and my one week as a platoon commander went really well, got good grades from
that one.

Then we were ranked in order of our test results. 14 best out of 88 Rifleman NCOs were
chosen to the Reserve Officer School - I was third. So next week, either Thursday or
Friday, I'll take a bus ride to Hamina, the city where ROS (RUK in Finnish) is
situated. Before that I will get promoted to Private First Class, a rank which I will
hold for a day or so before being promoted to Officer Student. Again, if the ranks
make you confused, you can check the list from here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_military_ranks

I will let you know how it feels like to hang around at the "academy". Plenty of
so called tower rumors (people always exaggerate what happens in the military) circle
around about the Reserve Officer School and I'm going to find out if there's anything
true about them at all. More updates in a few weeks!

Amis · Post by **Amis** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 11:07 pm

A dude in my school was in the mortar accident in vekara was it about half a year ago?

Dreadnought · Post by **Dreadnought** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:51 pm

Soldiers are made to die. If they survive, they fail because they're cowards and traitors.

Thor Kaufman · Post by **Thor Kaufman** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 1:05 pm

Opa war SturmfÃ¼hrer bei der SS...

How's your Wehrmacht rank going, Kash?

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 7:28 pm

Officer student at the moment... I'm going to join the officer ranks on January 25th '08.

PiP · Post by **PiP** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 9:00 pm

carry on

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 9:22 am

We even got this stylish M/83- officer's "party" uniform. Haven't taken a mugshot of myself wearing it yet, but here's what I found from the interweb:

No idea who they are, but it should give you the idea how it looks.

VasikkA · Post by **VasikkA** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 1:01 pm

Nothing beats drinking yourself unconscious in a military uniform.

Nameless_One · Post by **Nameless_One** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:03 am

VasikkA wrote:Nothing beats drinking yourself unconscious in a military uniform.

...and making some trouble with that (

) head, taking by the authorities

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:09 am

Date: October 29th 2007

Progress: 31 % (249/362 days left)

Rank: Officer Student

Situated at: 2nd Company, Infantry reserve officer training course,Reserve Officer School

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good times! I began my studies at the so called "academy of war" for reserve officers
here in Finland. The first two - three days were a bit depressing, since everything
was new and it felt like it was basic training period all over again, learning how to
cope with just every-day activities. After that everything's gone smoothly.

The city, Hamina, is beautiful and has a long history of being a garrison town. It's
basically a symbiosis of a town and a military base - there are two pubs closer to
our barracks than the catering center. Civilian roads cross the base and to move from
point A to point B within the garrison we often take a shortcut through civilian area.
It's supposedly a city of rain - we even got three sets of raincoats - but some sort
of a historical record has been set, because there was no rain last week. Everyone
joked about the rain before we left, that there's only two options in Hamina: it
either rains vertically or horizontally.

I'm currently situated at the so called "Axe Company" or "Gentlemen Company", how ever
you want to call it. It doesn't have such tight rules and regulations as many other
companies in ROS, but we're required to indoctrinate inner discipline to our minds.
There are plenty of detailed things that we're not supposed to do and we must somehow
show example to other companies how a true gentlemen officer behaves etc. It's all OK
by my standards, it doesn't require anything more from me than behaving just like I've
always behaved. Good manners aren't that hard to master, really.

Training has been very theoretical so far, but in a week we'll have our first camp,
concerning platoon's defence and rapid entrenching. From what I've read from the course
schedule, there should be nothing ahead that I couldn't overcome, but some weeks will
be rough physically and mentally. The over-used term sisu will prove it's worth then.

I also managed to reach a rather high goal: I was chosen to the board of student's union.
As the general secretary I got myself a shared office with the Chairman, a mahogany desk
and all. It's a lot of hard work and most of my free time will be spent on student's union
work, but I'm not complaining. Only the selected few have the chance to take part in
this work and it will be a notable benefit for me in the future. Oh, and by the way, it
feels really good to be saluted. Damn, I enjoyed it when the first PFC saluted me when
passing by. I guess the euphoria will wear off after a week or two.

Hopefully next time I update I will upload some photos as well. Stay tuned!

Dreadnought · Post by **Dreadnought** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:10 am

Whenever I see a soldier I see a tool. Like a screwdriver. A APC is like a toolbox. And war is like a hardware store.

Nameless_One · Post by **Nameless_One** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:13 am

Dreadnought wrote:Whenever I see a soldier I see a tool. Like a screwdriver. A APC is like a toolbox. And war is like a hardware store.

There is nothin` to add

Dreadnought · Post by **Dreadnought** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:15 am

Well technically it's AN APC. I said A APC. :an hero:

Nameless_One · Post by **Nameless_One** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:43 am

Well technically it`s not an hero but a hero.

Dreadnought · Post by **Dreadnought** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:46 am

O RLY?

Nameless_One · Post by **Nameless_One** » Mon Oct 29, 2007 9:54 am

YEP EXTLY