Here goes, i got home around midnight for a couple of days and have time to update with some short notes i made daily about what's going on. I'm currently a recruit in the pioneer (engineer) company at the uusimaa brigade that trains combat pioneers, coastal jaegers (marine commandos), mortar crews, military police, drivers, scouts and much much much more but that's unimportant for now. the first 8 weeks are basic training which is the same for everyone in every unit everywhere in finland where you learn basics like formations, weapons handling, general stuff like how to greet others, ranks...but you'll see more from the notes. my english isn't good enough to have all the words i need but hopefully you'll understand what i'm talking about. ;)
The engineer company started out with 90 recruits out of which around 25 will become underofficers, another 10 drivers (362 days service), 10 military police (270 days) and the rest in different tasks like combat engineer etc (180 days). the brigade i'm at got 750 new recruits the day i joined and has a staff of about 200 + the earlier conscripts (underofficers) that are about 200.
Day 1 - I didn't sleep at all, i've never been nervous or so about anything hindering my sleep but this time i just couldn't fall asleep and so i had rested perhaps 2 hours when i got up at 5am to prepare for going to the bus. well i brought all my stuff and got on the bus at 6am heading for the uusimaa brigade, i couldn't sleep in the bus during the trip either because it's uncomfortable...
after a 7,5 hour ride we arrived at the gates and entered what will be our home for most of the next 6-12 months. we got placed in units, filled in craploads of forms and got sent to our rooms, or "cottages" directly translated. there are 12 recruits living in each room and this was our first meeting, nobody knew each other and we all come from different parts of the country. either way we ended up being 11 recruits in room "Taipale" since 1 guy never arrived, apparently he got C-papers which means you're in a condition where you can't fulfill your service.
there are A,B,C,E and T papers. a perfectly healthy person will have A papers. B papers are for people with lots of allergies, asthma as such which restricts what you can do but doesn't hinder service. B-men get sent to the 2nd coast company - drivers, cooks, field medics and such. they take part in training too but not the really heavy stuff, long marches etc. C papers means you're free from service in times of peace. E papers means you have something temporarily hindering service, for example a broken leg and moves your service forward a year or 2, T-papers means turvallisuusriski or safety risk, for yourself or others. mental disorders and such.
went a bit off topic there...anyway the 11 of us met there and waited until we got taken to the..."rustis", i don't know what the english name would be but it's the material storage where the army has all the clothing, sleeping bags, field flasks...you name it, everything we will need. obviosly it's kinda random at first and you could get some pieces of clothing size M and others XXL at the same time. anyway we stuffed all the things in bags and carried them out to the waiting trucks that brought them back up to our company's building where we more or less stuffed it all into our lockers in complete chaos.
by the way the building where the engineer company is supposed to be situated is currently being renovated (if that's the word) so we live in another building, the one in the worst shape in the entire area. day 2 a door fell off a locker but that's another story.
well we waited again until our room foremen (each room has 2 corporals that are in charge of that room and their basic knowledge of things. they answer questions, tell us about all kinds of things we need to learn, take us where we need to go etc. they're in charge of that we do things right, that the schedule holds and the order in the unit, if anything goes wrong it's them who take the crap from the higher-ups.) oh yea, the corporals are conscripts just like us from the earlier "group" that entered the army this summer and were selected for underofficer education.
This first meeting they introduced themselves, ours are corporal Carlsson, a swede who probably has a finnish parent and therefore chose to serve in the finnish army. we asked him why he didn't join the swedish professional army instead since they get real salaries and we get 4,40 euros per day...he said the finnish army is harder but i don't know much about him, i don't need to, he's a cool guy. the other one is corporal Berlin, a large guy who always walks around with a knife in his belt, i'd say he's quite a good guy too though he may be a bit arrogant.
The first day they taught us basic things about how to speak to superiors, some of the basic ranks so we wouldn't go around calling a lieutenant corporal or something and such. we got harassed all day by corporals jumping inside the room at which point you have to jump up screaming HUOMIO! (attention) and stand in asento (i don't know the name in english but heels together, straighten your back, hands at the sides and cheek up.)
we also had some basic marching in formations to and from dinner etc, just real basics. this day very few of us had time to finish dinner though, the longer i'm in the army the more it seems like you're always in a hurry somewhere to wait. for example they scream 10 minutes to dinner (all garbage gotta go out, right clothes on, rush to the toilet, room has to look proper...), then 5 minutes (nobody in the corridors or even outside the rooms), 3 minutes (all lockers closed and locked), 2 minutes (everybody has to sit still on their little chair thing and shut up), 1 min ("asento" sitting) and at 0 min get ready, line up quick as beep and march outside, then setup formation, stand still and shut up still. if you forgot to hide your shoelaces or the collar isn't properly folded or a pocket is open or you even took the wrong pair of gloves you're gonna get shouted at.
then march off to dinner, line up outside and wait until it's your turn to go in. there are a lot of procedures around it but it's too long to explain everything.
all in all that's pretty much what day 1 was like, get to meet the people around you, pick up some equipment and learn some basics. and i was freaking tired...at 9pm it's "styrkegranskning", pretty much checking everybody is present and everything looks proper. the moment it's over it's "10 min until "pinkka" and "punkka" granskning".
that means the sheet you have on top of your bed during the day has to be folded exactly right, and i mean exactly. i'll show a picture of it later buit it has blue, light blue and white stripes and squares in lines, they have to go straight when it's folded in the exact right way, blue line has to meet blue line and blue dot light blue dot. no white may be seen in between or it looks like "a chess board", then it has to be the exact right size to fit your chair and it has to be even...with no gaps anywhere. either way as i said i'll explain that later.
"punkka" is your bed which also has to be exactly right and even. if anything is wrong it's "blown up" by the corporals checking which means it's thrown around randomly, a bed flipped upside down or something similar and then you have to redo it. (so far we haven't been passed any faster than 40 minutes but at least we haven't had our entire bed carried off yet like someone in another room...)
at 10 pm it's silence and lights out until they wake you up again at 5:45.
shorter notes from here on, not as much to explain.
Day 2 - no sleep again...for any of us which makes it no sleep for 2 days for me and a looooong bus ride and stuff. felt a bit zombie like in the morning but you don't have much time to worry about that when you have 10 min to get up, find the right clothes in your locker, change clothes and make the bed in the proper army way...or more like 7 min. it was freaking cold outside but you can't move anyway standing there in formation. it's about -10 degrees every day and we stand there in t-shirt, polo and the M05 army uniform on without moving. also since the collar has to be folded properly nothing covers the throat/neck...whatever it's called no matter how cold it is...
anyway after breakfast we had a lesson about health care with the doctor in charge of the brigade. what to do if you become sick etc etc. then dinner and then vaccination, dunno the english names of the things they protected against but lethal things that you may get in this type of place living close to each other during harsh conditions. thanks to the vaccination we were free from service outside for the rest of the day and heavy service outside the next.
we still didn't get any free time though because the corporals are too busy beating the basics into us but some freedom is starting to show, we're finally allowed to walk by ourselves from dinner up to the unit as long as we stick to the time limits. (aka we don't need to wait for everyone and walk back in formation)
Day 3 - lession with the person in charge of social issues, don't know the english name for that either, "socialkurator". either way we got told what to do and where to go with all kinds of problems.
then we had our first lesson in "closed formation" or "closed ranks" with lieutenant Ahola, i don't know what the english term is here either but just basic stuff our corporals had pretty much taught us already. Asento (directly translated position), Lepo (rest), Ojennus (correct, means making the lines in a formation straight and involves all kinds of stuff that would take another 500 words to explain in detail).
then we had a "welcome party" where the higher-ups were present and introduced up to brigade commander Commodore Anders Gardberg and they all held speeches, the food consisted of a glass of juice and a hotdog looking thing.
we practiced more greetings and ranks with our corporals and had an IQ test (figures, numbers and words and you had to do as many as you could within a time limit. there were 40 of each and i finished 30 in figures, 36 in maths and 35 in words) we had our first period of "free" time, a stunning 45 minutes. it's "free" because you still have to bounce up every time someone higher enters and keep the room proper and all that stuff but it's the only time any civilian material can be brought out. (books, phones, computers, candy...)
Day 4 - lesson with military "diakon" ... actually i forgot his name but he's some kind of field priest and talked about religion, religious meetings and clubs in the army and kindly informed me i have to go to these d**n meetings and masses (if that's the name) as well since i'm part of the church even if i'm an atheist. uuuuughh....
then more lessons with lieutenant Ahola about "dejour" tasks. we will all have to sit there at a desk in the company at night sooner or later and take care of all kinds of stuff, people coming and going, guarding the weapons and equipments and be ready if something happens pretty much and record it all in a book.
After the lessons we marched off to pick up our rifles, STG-62s (stormgevär 62, assault rifle 62).
Mine's # 638959 and made by Sako in 1990 (yes we really really need to learn the weapon number) and i named it (as we also had to, and a female name) to Freyja (look it up). my first impressions...it's larger and heavier than i had thought. when you have it on your back the stock reaches down to your thighs and the weapon ends slightly above your shoulder. it's 3,5 kg in itself and 4,3 kg with a full clip attached. we carried them back to the unit and put them in their racks (that the "dejour" holds the keys to). they're keeping a very close eye on the rifles and they're all counted when they exit or enter so we know exactly how many we have where. not very surprising perhaps considering we have over 100 assault rifles in our little building.
Day 5 - lessons in weapon "care", how to take care of it properly. picking it apart and together over and over, filling and emptying a clip, what to do if it jams, how to clean it and oil it in again etc. the goals are that every man has to be able to pick the weapon apart in 5 seconds and back together in 15 as well as fill a clip with 30 bullets in less than 35 seconds, i can't do it yet but i have a feeling we're gonna get some more practice. cleaning it is a real pain. EVERY time it's been outside, wet or used you have to clean it and it doesn't really matter how much you try to wipe, there's always more dirt somewhere so it takes like an hour.
Then "closed ranks/formation" lessons with sergeant Kuusinen. repeat last lesson and then...Käännös vasempaan/oikeaan....PÄIN (turn left/right). may sound easy enough but you need to do it the military way and all this will be practiced until you instinctively react to the commands without thinking.
an example of how to turn like this (all commands are done from the asento position).
officer: ASENTO!
- everybody heels together, cheek up and all that
officer: käännös oikeaan...
- prepare to move but stand still until the "execution command"
officer : ...PÄIN (towards)
- when turning right (from heels together) you lift the toes on your right foot and the heel of your left foot. place 70% of your weight on the right leg and turn 90 degrees, then wait about 0,5 seconds and move the left foot forward heels together.
Day 6 - more repetition of weapon handling stuff and learn how to aim and shooting stance. really a crapload to think about, not like a movie where you whip your gun out and burst 100 bullets without reloading killing everyone (or noone if you're a bad guy). how to aim...there's a rear sight that's pretty much a black metal piece with a small hole in it and a front sigh which is a metal ring with a small "rod" in the middle. when you aim you look through the rear sight hole (it's something like 2mm in diameter) and place the front ring in the middle of it and the rod in the front ring on the target.
that's not all though, you need the right stance for stability, you have to find a position you can keep for 20 minutes without it being uncomfortable and that's not easy....either way let's skip that part.
when you fire you have to aim quite quickly, after 4-5 seconds your eye looses focus and the target becomes blurry. so shooting stance and aim quickly. then you have to keep the gun exactly straight or the bullets will strafe off to the side, second you have to keep it in the right position against the shoulder and push it towards you with your left hand. when löaying down you also need to press the rifle left or right since the clip isn't an exact fit and the rifle can tilt slightly left or right unless you hold it down. the right hand should be relaxed and only concentrate on firing by squeezing reeeeally slowly, if you press it quickly the bullets will spread over a much larger pattern and you miss the target. then there's breathing as well. when you look through the sight you can see it go up and down when you're breathing so you have to time that exactly right too or the bullets will go low or high.
went on a DP-jog. (10 times and you get to go home for a day). 5km run and OMG i'm in bad shape...had to stop after 3 km, oh hell what has happened to me, i used to run so easily back in the days. time to get in shape quickly.
Day 7 - more aiming practice and shooting stance. then the "coin test". you load the rifle (without ammo) and press the trigger with a coin placed on the top of the front sight and it's supposed to stay there without falling off. if you make it you place the coin on a small bar thing on the right side of the rifle (the one you pull back to reload) and try to keep it there. anyone who made it got through that night's "pinkka and punkka granskning" for free. i made it after 3 attempts (the harder one) but maybe it was just luck. a few others made it as well but far from all. then we had a knowledge test of ranks, names of the higher ups, the STG's parts and specs and all kinds of such stuff.
Day 8 - info about the driver education, you get a C and CE driver's license for free which is all good but i'm not interested...next we had a psychology and character test. do you lie often, hear voices, have stomach aches etc etc. more than 500 questions.
aiming practice with a laser rifle, a STG 62 rifle that aimed at a target with a laser and you could see where it hit, no squeezing firing or recoil though so it's quite easy. just have to see where you hit and adjust to hit 10s.
then a visit for everyone to the hospital again for health check part 1. so far we haven't been allowed to run much or such since we have to pass the examination first. lenght, weight, length around the waist, pulse and blood preassure. 177 cm, 52 kg, 72 cm, pulse 101 and blood preassure 135/85. d**n i'm too skinny...
first visit to the "soldathem", soldier's home...a volountary organization where they sell candy, and all kinds of useful things and serve coffee and all kinds of baked stuff cheap where we can go during our free time in the evening to talk or just take it easy with some coffee. the soldier's home counts as civil area so you don't need to care about grades and such either. really cool place but the lines are quite long with hundreds of people that want in.
Day 9 - One of my room mates quit...a swede with a finnish citizenship, he switched to civil service instead. i don't know if he couldn't take it or if he had other reasons but oh well. 10 out of 12 left. visit to the dentist and health check part 2...sat there waiting for hours and then in a proper military way we were suddenly late somewhere and had to rush fast as hell. apparently nothing wrong with either me or my teeth though.
packed our combat belts, never thought we could get all that equipment showed down in it. rain clothes, field flask, food...can thing, gas mask, ear protectors (whatever the name is), 3 clips, field spade, some kind of thing to put on the ground and lie on, plastic bags for the food can thing, equipment for taking care of the rifle, a ton of clothes and more. as well as the clothes you wear and your rifle of course. heavy as fk for someone my weight, can only look forward to running around with this kind and worse backpack in the future. btw the finnish belt has been voted to the second worst in the world, not surprised...
It was wet....very much so with snow everywhere and 1 or 2 degrees on the plus side. we marched off with all the equipment to a field to practice shooting with "smällpatroner" (translated...dunno really, loose bullets?)
they look like real bullets but they're blue and have a wooden core. they don't actually fire but break down, you get some recoil and such though. it's training ammo. after testing a few and learning how to behave at the shooting range under the guidance of sergeant Kuusinen we marched back to fix our weapons....oh hell i never want to fire those again, took 90 minutes to get it clean again.
Day 10 - the day at the shooting range with live ammo. my platoon was first up to fire. we got 3 bullets each and followed all procedures and fired, then went to the targets and sergeant kuusinen and premier lieutenant lepistö checked all targets and "gave advice". i think the word "flamed" people who didn't shoot well enough would be fitting here. my rounds went to hell too, 1 in the target and 2 hit the bank under the target so we adjusted the rear sight up by 1mm (1mm makes 32 centimeters from 150 meters which is the range we shot from). i knew the result was horrible but also thought it was due to the sights more than me. some others shot to hell too and a few got ok results.
second round, adjusted sights. 3 rounds in the target within a 10 centimeter in diameter circle. a bit high and to the right though in the 6-8 point area. (8 centimeters right and 13 centimeters above the middle) adjusted front sight 4 clicks rights and rear sight 0,5mm down.
round 3, 5 bullets and adjusted sights. 4 bullets in the target but now they went slightly low and to the left instead, fk...6-9 point area. slightly closer to the middle than the earlier 3 on average but slightly further from each other on a line climbing slightly to the right which means i didn't hold the rifle exactly straight.
all in all my sights aren't properly adjusted yet but that's all the time we had and even though the sights aren't perfect i shot all 7 bullets in a row within 15 centimeters of the middle of the target after the sights were adjusted from 150 meters with an assault rifle.
from this i realized something new again, holy CRAP rifles are accurate. you think an assault rifle is spray & pray but if an amateur like me can hit a target like that... (every bullet would have hit a person from 150 meters away)
to give you an example of what i'm talking about...i told you how to aim before, the front sight looks like this (\) <- if you put the line straight and cut it in half it's pretty much right. the tiny rod you have left in the middle covers about HALF of the entire target you see through the sights from 150 meters away, and you can still place the bullets right in the target without fail.
some had their sights adjusted well and the best shot 9,9,9,10 with his 4 last bullets but the lieutenant still wasn't happy, it's not good enough for a finnish soldier yet but we'll practice a lot.
after that we had other tasks all day while carrying that fkn belt around. lessons in use of hand grenades and their types, how to put one together or take it apart...same lessons about KES 66 (light anti tank thing), low ready, high ready (stances with rifle), field lunch (twice, just to train) and then home after a loooong day. and when we got home guess what we did...that's right, clean your weapon first of all. then all of a sudden the sergeant says we have 2 minutes to put the rifle back together, in it's rack and get the right equipment out of the locker and on...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.
Day 11 - everything hurt...everything. well no time to complain, up fast as hell and get ready for breakfast again. we had lessons for 8 hours straight in a cold building with even colder breaks outside every 90 min. the lessons were about WHY we have a defense force, how it works, why it works etc and about practical things like marches (how to prepare before, what to do under and after) and about how to deal with frost-bite, how to avoid it, deal with it and treat it and much more but i was so tired i can't really remember what. then we had some map reading lessons around the brigade's area before we got back to the unit to fix our lockers so they all look exactly the same, clean the room and ourselves etc before "loma" (vacation) friday 16:00. got on the bus for another 7,5 hour trip home and on monday i'm going back.
if you have any questions just ask, i had to avoid being TOO specific in many parts since it would have been twice as long and it's already a GIANT wall of text. diary continues when i return to the army, i'll take my computer with me so i'll be able to update almost daily.
/Recruit Holm, Uusimaa brigade, Engineer company, 1st Platoon