Wish me luck

As it turned out, I am not yet too old. I was summoned for a week long military training exercise last week, and I cannot say that I enjoyed it. During the first three days I was able to sleep some five hours and rushing to my foxhole with my PKM in the middle of the night with torrential rain, was far from pleasant. But I did it. We did well enough, hence our platoon members were asked to re-enlist for active duty. Most of us did so. I did not. I was the only one in my squad to say no.

My platoon commander said to me that he wishes to see me again at January (our deployment time), I ignored him. My squad leader said to me in front of my squad that he will accept no other squad support weapon operator than me. I ignored him. But I could not evade the look in the eyes of my brothers, and when my squad leader confronted me in private, to say the same again. I had no other choice, but to follow my brothers and sing a 3 + 3 year contract. Maybe, I will graduate some other time. At least, this time I am not a coward.

 

You re-upped? Good luck to you!

Do you know where you will be deployed? Hopefully not Afghanistan.

 

Yes, I did, and I still feel good about it. I haven’t cut my hair in ten years, so that is going to sting. I am a reservist so I should be able to keep my beard. Place of deployment: unknown. Although, the only places where Finnish troops are currently deployed: Kosovo and Afghanistan. The Balkan mission is already wrapped up, so the only alternative seems to be Afghan. Unless there is going to be some peacekeeping mission in middle-east after the Arab spring. At January I will know more, most likely it is Afghan.

 

Well good luck to you.

I have nothing but respect for those who enter the military.
I hate people shouting at me and would hate them shooting at me so it was never an option for me.

Keep your head down.

 

Good luck to you- I knew I'm too old (being 53 and doing 14 years) but try to make sure you all come back in one piece...

 

You may be put into garrison to replace an active unit that gets deployed. On the other hand, older people are more stable in combat and seem to adapt better when they return from deployment. In any case, the P.T. will be good for you.

 

Good luck, God bless and don't over think your training, just let it kick in.

*Salutes*

 

Good Luck, Rocktoy. After doing 8 years and then being out 8 years and gettng my Bachelor's Degree I tried to go back in as an Officer.

Thank goodness they changed the rules on age waivers for Officers (and no, I was not doing any more time as an enlisted man).

It is a hard, but rewarding life, and you have my respect.

Mark

 

Take care.

 

That is a possibility, a reasonable possibility. We (our company) are spending this fall training weird stuff like how to assist local police forces in crowd control and or hostage situations, how to help the fire brigade putting down forest fires and how to help the border guard in their daily duties. So we might be just an auxiliary unit.

Then again, they gave us almost entire personal gear (40kg ~ 80 pounds?) from socks to sporks, from helmets to vests, from pants to winter camo to be stored in our homes. I do not know how it is in other countries, but in Finland military equipment and gear is usually stored in barracks. To me that suggest only one thing: rapid deployment. Feel free to correct me.

Well they said they wanted us, because we had “life-experience” and the “cool judgment”, but then again it could be just propaganda. Nevertheless, I’m in. What comes to the P.T (I am guessing it stands for physical training?) you couldn’t be more right. We had a fitness test and the only part I passed was the body mass index: 182 cm / 68 kg. No idea what that is in imperial. Anyway, at least I’m not fat. : )

I was or never will be anything but an enlisted. No offence. In Finland everyone starts as enlisted, some rise to petty officers, few of those rise to officers. We have no West Point an sich, that is a kind of a is short cut. Every petty and or officer is risen from the ranks, but isn’t that the very same you did? Or did I misunderstand. I would follow our second lieutenant Haimi through the gates of Hell and beyond the gates of Heaven, as would our entire squad. Being that kind of a leader is beyond my understanding, I guess I am more of a follower, than a leader. What I meant to say: it is beyond my capabilities to be such a leader, way too many responsibilities and too little charisma.

Being a soldier is the most important part of who I am. Sad as it may be, that was the only time I had a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose. Ever since I have been drifting, and now I have the possibility to re-join. How could I say no?

 

When you were issued a full compliment of gear were you also advised to prepare a ready ruck?
In the unit I served in we knew we were rapid deployment because we had to have one ready at all times.

I'm hoping you get to fill in for the younger soldiers when they get deployed, no offense meant.

There came a time in my military career when I had to "Leave that stuff to the young and the bold".

Your comment about following your leader to hell and back really hit a soft spot, this old sargent only had a few that would "go anywhere, do anything" just because I said it needed to happen.

God bless and good on ya!

 

40 kilos is more like 88 pounds ( 1 kilogram ~ 2.2 pounds )

I doubt rapid deployment since, as Sirchet suggests, you would be told to have a portion of your gear ready to walk out the door. Finland is not near any crisis areas. The only thing I can think of is terrorism, Russia or maybe economic rioting.

Riot duty sucks. You often sympathize with the views of the people you are stopping, but you don't think burning down their own neighborhood will help.

Your gear may be at home because they need the barracks for other troops, or you will deployed elsewhere shortly. The armed forces can be used for many duties, like police or construction, far more cheaply than civilians.

Of course, they won't tell YOU anything.

Getting your raggedy old ass back in shape might be the best thing your country ever does for you.

 

Think again. Who would be so dumb as to deploy troops into nuclear-armed state's territory?

 

As a matter of fact, we were. I have a full backpack ready for domestic duty and all the rest close at hand. According to our contract we are supposed to be ready in 24h for domestic deployment and 48h for abroad duty. We even got a nice government stamped paper to show for our current and/or future employers. (The great thing in enlisting/serving in Finland is that enlisting is not a legal reason to sack or not to hire. If I am sacked or not hired for a job I applied for, because I am simultaneously serving the Fatherland I can always meet the employer in court of law. If they fail to show without reasonable doubt that I was sacked/not hired by any other reason than my service pro patria, they must pay compensation to me and to the state. One of the many perks of a nation with a “conscript” army).

No offence taken. Finland does not send teens to war. We have a conscript army, every citizen that are not medically proven unfit must serve no less than 180 days and no more than 365 days in a row after they are 18 years of age and before 28 years of age. Service is mandatory to all males and volunteer for all women that pass the psychological and physical tests, during peacetime, during wartime no segregation exists.
Those currently serving as conscripts cannot be deployed beyond our borders under the current constitution. All Finnish troop serving abroad are either career officers or fully served reservists (like me).

Be that as it may, being one of the brothers will stick with you till the day you die and hopefully beyond. Salute!

No offence, being that kind of a leader is difficult. It must be earned. A squad/platoon leader cannot think about himself, nor solely about the mission; his first, last and only thought must be his troops. Leading a troop of Finns is always tricky, men who are thought to be independent from the cradle, men who are not easily willing to abide anyone’s orders, freemen as they are. But they will follow a flawless example of a superior. Do not take that too easily, my (our) squad leader (Sergeant Laitinen) was replaced by corporal Alasaarela, even as the latter had served only a half of what the former did, the former lacked the trust of the troops. And that is all which matters, no? Ever since the civil war (1917-1918) by Jäger officers we have grown accustomed to been lead by personal example, and as we are petty and jealous, no man shall be more brave than I am. My point exactly, as long as my CO’s courage holds so does mine. That is the burden of leadership, I wish never to carry.

 

Uh...not INTO, but against troops FROM. Check the history 1939-45. Not that I'm aware of anything going on. And I'm sure Vlad would check with me first before doing anything.

As far as it NOT being dumb before nuclear weapons: Napoleon and Hitler.