Finnish army service diary. 10.01.2011->

[baltic]

In case you didn't know I'll be leaving in...it's 12 days here now. on the 10th of january 6:15 am for the finnish army and my time of service in it. the finnish army is based on a conscript service, every male finnish citizen over the age of 18 has to complete either military service  or civil service, the last option is to be sentenced to jail for 168 days, 80% choose to go through the military training. females can also volounteer to serve if they wish. the finnish army is a defense force, with other words it's not meant to travel anywhere else in the world but only to defend it's own territory.


Anyway the purpose of this topic. i'm planning to keep this as a diary of what my military service is like, i'll make notes daily and update it along with pictures whenever i get home and can get it done. hopefully some of you may find it interesting to see what it's like. since there are still a few days until i'm leaving though i decided to start this topic with some basic info about the finnish army and service.


Finland is a small country with a population of only 5,3 million. yet our military history is legendary around the world and the finns respected and looked up to worldwide, by those who know history. sadly this story is unknown to or ignored by many, however we finns have no greater pride than what our veterans and their accomplishments that defy logic. if you have no idea what i'm talking about i'd ask you to look up the "winter war" and "continuation war" fought between finland and the soviet union, if i start talking about it this topic will become 5 times the planned length right off the bat so either look it up or if you wish to know, just ask and i'll tell you all i know. meanwhile here's the first part of an english documentary about the winter war on youtube, the other parts can all be found there if you wish to watch them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuEACrnubT4&feature=related

if you become really interested in learning more about this conflict these finnish war movies are highly recommended:
-Talvisota (winter war)
-Beyond the front line (continuation war)
-Tali-ihantala 1942 (continuation war)

they can all be found in their entirety on youtube with english subtitles. war movies are very different depending on where they're from. for example american war movies tend to include glory...honor and heroes. finnish war movies are more down to earth, they show what war is really like, there is no honor or glory on the battlefield, only death and destruction, fear and sorrow. but also the unyielding will to resist that is today known as the finnish "sisu", a word that lacks english translation but is such a big part of the finnish spirit.



then off to modern times where i will serve, first this small tribute video i found on youtube about the modern finnish army. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAr3kKJyKs4&feature=related

and then on to some technical info, it may not be spot on because it's all from my memory but it should be close.

the finnish army is as mentioned based on a conscript system. the army has some 20,000 active personnel and a 400,000 man reserve. in case of war and full mobilization over 1 million men will be called to arms. every man will serve for 6, 9 or 12 months depending on specialization and unit before placed in the reserve from where you may be called at any time in case of crisis or partial mobilization.

the finnish army training is known to be tough, and it's soldiers top notch. we're a small nation and as such need to rely on quality rather than quantity. the terrain and climate of our country is our best defense. a country covered by dense forests with relatively few roads. a country with a climate that is quite warm in summer, very wet in autumn and spring and with extreme cold, ice, dark and deep snow in winter. our troops and equipment is made and trained to withstand these extreme conditions and use it to our advantage.

infantry - our infantry that consist of about 400,000 men are equipped with the finnish made sako valmet RK-62 and RK-95 assault rifles, also known as the STG-62 and STG-95. these rifles were developed from the Ak-47 because of it's outstanding capabilities in extreme conditions. -40 degree cold, sand and mud, all the mechanisms of an AK will still work pretty much no matter what happens. the finnish RK has of course been vastly improved from the old AK but is in all significant aspects the same. it also uses 7,62 ammo which will go through a tree unlike standard nato 5,56 ammo, that's a huge advantage in a terrain that's covered by forest.

airforce - the airforce is very small and only has about 60 combat aircraft. the fighter of choice being F-18 hornets, of course upgraded for cold resistance and more. despite of, or perhaps because of the small size the finnish airforce is one of the best in the world. only the absolute best of the best can become pilots. every year 40 recruits are chosen for pilot training, out of 30,000 conscripts. perfect vision, physical fitness, etc are a requirment.

navy - the navy has no submarines because of WW2 terms but has about 30 surface vessels. this includes minelayers and other larger ship types but the main force are the new high-tech and stealthy Hamina class ship of which we currently have 4. they're pretty small but extremely fast and agile as well as well armed.

artillery and vehicles - finland has the largest artillery in europe with about 800 guns and over 2000 mortars, for tanks we have about 260 combat tanks, the main ones being german Leopard 2A4s, we also have russian BMP-2s and swedish CV90s as IFVs and finnish APCs and trucks produced by the finnish patria (the AMV) and sisu.


and then the more personal part where this diary will actually start, with me.
i won't find out what unit i will be in until i arrive there on the 10th of january, however i did have a form to fill out my preferences in and so i will most likely be either a coastal jaeger (marine commando) or combat engineer at the Uusimaa brigade in southern finland. the marine commando training is also known to be one of the hardest in the finnish army with physical fitness requirments that exceed those of the US delta force and the combat pioneers trained here have a training that's as tough physically but perhaps not mentally as the marine commando training.

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[Borg!]

physical fitness requirments that exceed those of the US delta force

I beg to differ.

[baltic]

physical fitness requirments that exceed those of the US delta force

I beg to differ.

well i can't prove it since i can't find where i got the info...maybe it was from the army papers they sent me, i dunno. but either way i guess i'll find out if i end up there.
some short info on coastal jaeger (marine commando) training in english from wiki:

Training

Commando training is one of the toughest given to any type of infantry in Finland. The main elements of commando training are combat training, weapons handling, endurance and mobility. Although training is tough for all commandos, NCOs and officers are drilled considerably harder than privates during their time at the Amphibious Warfare School. For privates the training is 6 months and encompasses only the fundamental elements of marine warfare. NCO and officer training lasts for 12 months. Physically, commando training places emphasis on endurance rather than short term fitness. For example, a commando candidate is more likely to spend his time marching with a heavy rucksack than doing push-ups. Marches are usually carried out with "full field equipment" (meaning 40-60kg depending on the task of the soldier) and can be as long as 80-90km. However, most commando candidates find the mental part of the training most challenging. Instructors go out of their way to put as much mental pressure on the soldiers as possible. This is always combined with high levels of sleep deprivation. NCO and officer trainees can go with as little as 2-4h of sleep during a 4 day exercise. The difference in length, quality and intensity of private compared to NCO and Officer training is reflected in the units sent for international duty. These usually consist almost exclusively of NCOs and Officers.


The Green Beret


Commandos can obtain the right to wear the green beret (commando green beret with a golden sea eagle) by reaching the required standards in shooting, running, swimming, a gym test, participating in all major exercises and, most importantly, completing the beret march. The beret march is approximately 70km in length over which the commando candidates must navigate themselves carrying 40-45kg of combat equipment. Every 5-10km the candidates are stopped to complete tasks given to them by instructors. Typical tasks are medical evacuation of "wounded" soldiers, shooting, weapons handling or map reading. At one point of the march candidates are put on a boat and driven to an unknown location. They must then locate themselves on a map and find their way back to the route of the march.

[Saturn 7]

You will probably find that many countries will boast that their special forces are the best, alot of it due to national bias.  Short of putting them up against each other it's not an easy arguement to resolve.  One major factor that probably needs considering, is combat experience.  You will also find different forces have greater experience in different areas to others. Another factor that confuses the issue is equipment and back-up. A well funded army has greater potential but that doesnt necessarily mean it's soldiers are better, more likely the soldiers have to rely much more on initiative.
Just my uneducated opinion on the matter before the Finish/Aussie/American conflict starts! Presume we would have to wait some considerable time for any of the sides to get anywhere near each other!!)

[baltic]

probably true, but stop calling finnish finish and finns fins. 

our marine commandos aren't exactly special forces though, every unit has a certain task and coastal jaegers are only one among them but our elite marine infantry. our army has proved to do pretty well without good equipment in the past though, if we could do it again today is a different question. ;)

[baltic]

alright, the bus for the army leaves in 11h 30min so this is the last you'll see of me in a while. i might take my Eee PC with me and in that case i'll be able to update quite often but if not the next you'll hear from me is in 2-3 weeks.

my SO account will be taken care of by someone else, any friends should know they may get attacked. i don't control the actions and choices of the new player.

good luck and cya later!

[baltic]

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

[Borg!]

Hehe this is quite interresting from a personal standpoint. The heels together back straight is called position of attention in marine jargon. Also you will realize that the military is all about "hurry up and wait", because as a whole you need to make time hacks and it's better to be 15 minutes early then 5 minutes late.

Also not to brag or anything but I hit black from 500 meters away. Get to my level

[baltic]

i will i will the finnish standard for shooting when you leave the army is that you can hit a target the size of a hand from 150 meters away with 80% accuracy in daylight and 70% in dark, i'll get some more time to practice, next wednesday is a shooting day again.

my platoon's "trainer" lieutenant Ahola said the most important thing for a finnish soldier is the shooting.

[Borg!]

I could probably hit a quarter from 150 meters away. it's really not that far. wind, and the natural drop of the bullet don't take effect at that close of a range. also if you want to be even more accurate look at the front sight tip when you're shooting, and not the target itself. If you understand what I mean.

[baltic]

yea i know, they're just basic requirments for what everyone has to be able to do when they finish their service. there are other requirments too...like running 2700 meters in cooper test (12min), 2800 for underofficers and the time limits for picking apart and putting together the weapon and such.

i'll probably become quite a bit better at shooting but d**n those rifles have accuracy when an amateur like me would hit a person with ease...with sights that still aren't perfect.

[The-Joe]

Running, target practice, that brings back memories. I was in the army 13 years ago. However, the best lesson you learn there is discipline.

[baltic]

Day 12 - at home, vacation

Day 13 - at home, vacation

Day 14 - at home, vacation. back by bus at 16:00 (4pm) and arrived just after midnight.

Day 15 - lessons and info about the military police education, "closed ranks" with weapon grip training. (like how to hold it, throw it forward or back on to the back etc. it all has to look good and everyone has to do it perfectly at the same time...
next we got our army skiis, the best thing i can say of them is that they are slightly better than wooden planks from a fence...but not much. next we had to start packing our combat belts for tomorrow...

Day 16 - "shooting day". pretty much means you all go to the shooting range a whole day, you'll be shooting for about an hour and the rest is combat education with the corporals or higher ups. this time we practiced and learned about firing positions, ways of advancing alone or together with a "combat pair" and ... "tetsaus". i don't know what it's called in english but this is hell, if i believed there was a literal hell i'd bet this is the way you travel in there.

"tetsaus" means you're lying on your stomach on the ground advancing by using your elbows, knees and toes. it may not sound hard but add a backpack that weighs 1/3 of your own body weight, half a meter of snow and a 3,5 kg rifle you have to hold up with 1 hand while moving. this is seriously the worst thing ever...we kept at it for about an hour and you just wanted to lay down and die. once we were finally done sergeant nyman arrived and corporal carlsson who held the education joked that we lacked motivation.

serg nyman: "oh you lack motivation...maybe we should create some then. 15 laps "tetsing" from here to there, time for this...10 minutes. and if you fail we do it on the other side" (which was 1 meter deep snow).
needless to say we failed, the fastest one made 3 laps in those 15 minutes so we did it again, one lap crawling in that deep fkn snow. time for this...5 minutes, failed again and so we did another lap...

Day 17 - the result of yesterday's training is that i once again hurt all over, have 17!! new bruises on different parts of my body like knees, hips, shoulders, arms etc etc. i couldn't even lift my left arm properly for the next 2 days. next we had to listen to more christian stuff from the military priest thing and "some" of us had trouble staying awake, we were tired as hell and the lessons "field jesus" as we call him holds aren't exactly...interesting.
then lessons about first aid and evacuation...which involved some more "tetsaus" where you tried to drag another person with you, some lifting another guy and running with him (forest gump) and the usual stuff. in the evening we had to practice singing psalms with field jesus....sigh.

Day 18 - "nasse day". aka gas mask day. learning about it, how to use it, pick it apart and back together, clean it and put on and take off the mask and protective clothes over and over again...then we tested it in a tent filled with tear gas, luckily it worked.

Day 19 - shooting day again. we were in a hurry right from the morning, had 5 min to eat and get on the trucks, first time we rode on them. they're called "RASI" and take 16 ppl, nopt exactly a comfortable ride but interesting. the trucks are huge like any vehicle in the army apparently and you sit in...well we've all seen movies where soldiers sit in lines in some metal seats whether it's in a vehicle or a plane...that's what it looked like, except it was pitch black, luckily we have helmets, your head keeps hitting the sides of the metal seat constantly...
next we got there for shooting, "sitting stance" ...well sitting on your knees. range 150 meters and over 90 points for the best grade. apparently i suck at this and shot 53 which is fail...need at least 60 to pass but oh well was the first time. at least every bullet hit the target, maybe my sights are still off or my stance just isn't good yet, every single one hit to the right of the middle point.

then more combat education...high ready and low ready, tetsaus...oh come on, not again. and then marched back to the unit. everything is always done in full field equipment of course, we never take off the combat belts for anything but eating or shooting so my back and shoulders are really breaking, like the tetsaus isn't enough. i hate it so so so much i can't even describe what i feel.

Day 18 - MKT-test ... muscle condition test. included 5 tests. each test can give 0-3 points, there is a limit you must reach for each point. for example the first test where you stand on a line feet together and jump as far as you can. 2 meters for 1 point, 2,40 for 3 points. anything under 2 meters is 0 points. i think i jumped about 2,05m. (for those who don't know meters, i'm 1,78 meters tall myself so it's slightly longer than you.
second test was stomach muscles - sit-ups, 32 in 60 seconds for 1 point. 48 for max. proper sit-ups ofc, no cheating. hands behind your head and up so your elbows touch your knees, then down so your shoulders touch the ground and back up...i failed miserably and got 16.
third test, arm heaves or whatever it's call in english. hand from a metal bar with straight arms, lift yourself and place your head above the bar, back down to straight arms, up... i only got 4 times. needed 8 for 1 point and 20 for max. nobody got more than 19 though.
4th test, back muscles - lie down on your stomach, hands behind your head and lift your upper body 40-50 cm (half a meter) from the ground, then back down, up... apparently the only muscles i have. 40 for 1 point, 60 (which is what i got) for max. time limit 1 min.
5th test - arm presses, again...proper ones, no cheating. down so your elbows are on the level of the shoulders and back up. i got 17 which was fail as well...22 for 1 point, 38 for max. time limit 1 min.
so i think i scored 4 points....out of 15, which is terrible but i've always been weak. i think i completed a bit more than i would have before my service begun though, let's see how the result changes until next time in a few months.


then we had a weekly test of the theoretical stuff we've learned again which i think i did pretty well in.

Day 19 - "physical training". some sports and running around mainly this time. then more "closed ranks" with the same subjects as before, weapon handling/grips, marching etc etc.
then lessons about the different choices we have again. drivers, field medics, combat pioneers etc etc.

Day 20 - first aid lessons again, bandages, more evacuation and such. pretty much an extension of the first lesson with new stuff. one of my room mates got sick with fever and another got B papers and will probably be moved soon too...
lessons about "health security" or whatever was next, the doctor in charge of the brigade talking about all kinds of stuff we may or may not get and blablabla...

Day 21 - first exercise sleeping out in the wild for a day so to speak. first a skiing march to the location.

premier lieutenant Lepistö: "today we're gonna have a short 2-3 km skiing march to learn how to use military skiis". yea...I disagree, 5 hours later we arrive at our destination. how far did we skii? no freaking idea. the we had more combat education. firing positions, combat pairs, advancing and such once again. the weather was ok...around -2 degrees perhaps so not too cold nor warm enough for the snow to melt. for some reason we didn't setup the tents til it was dark so...we had to setup tents we've never seen before without being able to see what we did.

first we had to dig away all the snow with our little field spades, that only took a few centuries since they're small and we needed to completely empty an area of 6 meters in diameter with 1 meter deep snow. after that we setup the tent, chopped wooden logs and all that and settled in...10 ppl in 1 little tent. it's not what you'd call "little space". it's no space whatsoever. 10 ppl, sleeping bags, boots, rifles and everything showed into the same tent. if you shaped your arm like an L your elbow was touching the guy behind you and the hand the guy in front of you. your legs had to be folded up too because there was no space to keep them. it wasn't exactly the most cozy and comfortable night ever i guess...plus all our clothes were wet. snow suit, regular M05 uniform, gloves, socks, boots etc and no space to dry anything larger than the gloves. the suits were shnowed into the bag used to store the sleeping bag and used as a pillow. we also had guard turns of course, 1 hour each. mine was between 4 and 5 am and getting dressed in and out of the tent without waking anyone was kind of...difficult at the very least.

Day 22 - woke up and had 10 minutes to get dressed, everything packed and out of the tent. then we took down the tent and had to fill the place where the tent had been with snow again...which proved to be troublesome since it had all frozen...had to actually hack the snow with metal spades for ages.

after breakfast we marched off to the shooting range, the temperature was rising to positive and the snow started to melt...it also started snowing so everything got soaking wet. we were then shooting for 5 hours, lying down and getting even more wet over and over. all 3 layers of gloves were wet. the snow suit and M05 as well...actually everything. and it was still fkn cold so you almost froze to death...then we took our skiis again and went home to clean our weapons and try to dry our equipment...

Day 23 - skiing competition. everyone felt a bit half dead and were still exhausted but today we had to skii 5km on time with those military skiis...i took it quite easy, mainly because i had nothing left to give though. at 16:00 we had our second vacation and i got on the bus home...



well that's it for another 2 weeks of the army, a lot more physical than the first 2...i've never been hit by a bus but i'd imagine i'd feel somewhat similar to how i feel right now...

i'll end it with a short introduction of the room mates i have in "cottage Taipale" for future uses.
12 ppl live in every room as i mentioned at some time, right now we're down to 9 and soon maybe 8 but i'll tell you what i know of the original ones.

Eskandari - he's originally from somewhere in the middle east judging from his looks and some weird language i heard him speak on the phone one day. either way he's probably lived in finland most if not all of his life since he speaks perfect finnish. he's not very good at swedish though which is why he is here, to learn. he's a cool guy and the best (fastest) in the company at picking apart and putting together a rifle-

Falck - he's probably the most fit guy in our room, he's quite short but sturdy. i don't know too much about him personally or what he does in civil life.

Finne - the one who lived the closest to me, he got B papers for his asthma and was moved to another company though...he was a hunter and the one who knew the most about guns and such.

Forsman - the overweight guy in our room, he's fun though and keeps bragging about the little place he lives in no matter what the subject. everything from where you can find the best kebab to which bar is the best. he has a will of steel though, in physical shape i guess he's even behind me for now but he really doesn't give up, even when he's completely exhausted he keeps moving on willpower alone.

Fredriksson - the man of the ladies...that's a long story though. he's a normal guy who wants to get out of the army in 180 days to keep moving on with his life and work. his education had something to do with electrical systems and such and he's been working with installing them in houses until his service.

Furuby - a swede, he was the fun guy who was always the slowest and did stuff wrong. he had a habit of walking out of the room without anyone noticing him disappearing. we weren't picking on him or anything, not at all, we all got along well but he was a bit of a weird guy. he switched to civil service after a couple of weeks though. if it was because he couldn't take it or something else i dunno.

x (dunno his name) - he never arrived for his service, seems he got some medical papers that let him skip service just before it began.

Gustafsson - gustafsson is the "180-man" who write tests worse than what he actually could in order to avoid "362", aka 1-year service as a NCO. he's the new guy who's always the slowest and makes mistakes that we can all laugh about. life would be boring without him. every corporal knows his name by now.

Hansson - hansson is a leader, he's aiming for 362 service and i bet he'll get there. he's also in very good shape and a handball player in the finnish championship league which gets him outside the gates then and then for matches or practice. he reads books and has lots of info about interesting subjects at all times. oh...and he also plays guitar.

Heinonen - Heinonen is a calm guy, he looks pretty much like the stereotype of a stupid farmer but he's farm from it. he likes music a lot and reads books about some of his favourites and he's also very very intelligent. once he gets out he's gonna study maths at university level. heinonen has also done a lot of sports and kicked everyones' asses in the skiing competition, however he got B papers because of his heel that he somehow damaged during his sports career and may be moved to another company like Finne was.

Holm, Jan - funnily he has the exacy same initials as me JM Holm which makes for fun situations and trouble for the corporals. also means they remember our names though. this guy likes music a lot and plays guitar like hansson which they discuss from time to time in words i don't understand. apart from that he's a cool guy that does what he needs to and stays in the middle so to say.

Holm, Jimmy - me, i don't know what to say about myself really. i'm in pretty bad physical shape and don't really excel in any other area either, other than one. it seems i pick up theoretical info much faster than any other member of our room. for example if we have to read 20 pages for a test or study ranks i can read it once or twice and i know it while the others keep reading and reading and still forget parts of it.
my own plans are to get as high as possible in the army, 362 service as a NCO and if i can even reserve officer school to become a lieutenant after my service. it's possible i might follow a military career path after my service as well.

[blakranger51]

Skiing...coolest part of the Finnish army. Part of how they beat the Russians in the winter war.

Also Baltic i don't know if you already posted this, but this guy is...just wow. Go Finland, that's about all I can say.

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

[baltic]

Yeah blak, Häyhä is a legend and his attitude just makes him greater. his achievements are heroic and incredible yet he didn't see himself as anyone special.