Oh, oh, you're in the army now

[petefarrell360]

Good luck mate, take care.
Pete

[redline]

yeah I agree with Pete all the very best , once you get settled the time will fly by ,

Shame you don't live a bit nearer , I would have happily looked after your car for you while your away lol

[Ronnie]

Cheers, Fuse - have a good time!

The GLT is looking NICE - particularly like that whip antenna on the tail

[Fuse]

Hello again. Two weeks behind and it hasn't been too bad. First couple days were quite hectic because everything was unclear etc.. but it settled down in few days.

We wake up at 6:15AM every morning, sometimes at 5:30AM and we've got a 3 to 5km of running before breakfast three times a week. Breakfast is at 6:45AM.

It has been basic training for now, formation drills, lessons about basic military practices, basic weapon training (our service rifle is the RK-62, 7.62mm fully automatic assault rifle), physichal tests, basic equipment training etc..

I'm assigned to the 2nd section of the 1st anti-aircraft battery at the Karelia Brigade. Luckily we got good group leaders (Corporals, serving 12 months) who do their duties right but aren't complete assholes..

Some platoons/sections got group leaders who think they're some kind of big bosses around and act like complete assholes, though in reality they're the lowest rank of non commissioned officers who just follow lieutenant's orders and haven't got anything to say about what happens.

Basic training season is same at all warfare areas and it lasts about eight weeks and after that you know if you serve six or twelve months. After the basic training season the specializing in your own warfare area begins.

We spent few nights at the woods near the shooting range at near the city of Hamina, we had our first shooting practices there. Of course we've got our own shooting ranges etc.. at the Karelia Brigade also, but we went to Hamina so we can practice the camping also. It was pouring sleet all the time..

Though when you heat the stove of the army tent red and hot it was warm and comfy inside. Tents can accomodate about 20 people, everyone takes turns on heating the stove, 1h per shift. I got the 4AM to 5AM shift.

I used a weapon for the first time in my life, (well if you don't count the BB gun) i'm quite surprised by the results, from the knee I shot 85 out of 100 with the RK-62 in single fire mode (10 shots, targets at the range of 150 meters)

I also put on the full combat kit for the first time, it consists of the combat kit and the field kit and together they weight around 40kg. At first you feel like a tin soldier with it because movement is quite limited with it.

We've got quite nice free time activites etc.. at the Karelia Brigade, there's a small shop, coffee house, pizza place, swimming hall, running track, computer room, band room and even a small arcade. Free time starts usually around 6PM and lasts to 8:30PM if there's no evening service assigned.

Controlled evening activites start at 8:30PM which means you have to make your bed so that there's not a single wrinkle on your pillow or your blanket and your bedcover must be folded on the chair exactly so that the white and blue squares on the bedcover line up correctly in every side and there are no gaps between the folds.

Before that there are few minutes of time to go wash your teeth. Though controlled evening activities usually end at the 9:30PM so there's 30 minutes of time to do whatever you want before the silent hour (silent hour lasts from 10PM to 11PM, during that it's not allowed to walk in corridors) so there's enough time to take a shower etc.. after that. Same thing at the morning when you wake up but the bedcover is put on the bed and there must be no wrinkles on the bed.

Sounds stupid and crazy and it definately is, but they make us do it so there's something to do (because when it's service time, they say there should never be time when a soldier hasn't got anything to do ) and people settle down around the evening and morning hours.

They say it's because it teaches us the correct military precision but I think it's just there to annoy us and make sure we don't have too much free time before the silent hour or the breakfast.

Luckily after the basic traning season we don't have anymore controlled evening or morning activities.

I don't have any pics yet but I'm going to take my camera with me when I go back tomorrow.

[Ronnie]

Came across some information recently on Finland's illustrious military past

http://www.exile.ru/2006-December-29/war_nerd.html

The stuff about Finland starts about half way down the article. I'm guessing they're going to train you hard!

[petefarrell360]

Wow, that sounds like it's pretty hard work, never a moments rest! At least it's allowing you to learn new things and experience a different way of life!

I really don't think it would suit me at all! Still, stick at it mate, and enjoy it! The shooting would interest me though!

Take care mate and keep us up to date.

Pete

[Fuse]

Hello again. Basic training season is finally over.

I'm going to serve 6 months so I come home at 6th of August.

Now it's been much more easier than during the basic training season, we don't have controlled evening/morning activities anymore and general atmosphere is much more relaxed and not so hectic. Also we don't have anymore basic infantry training anymore because our area is the anti aircraft, so it's been also more interesting now.

I was assigned to the fire control of the anti aircraft battery, for men serving 6 months it means you are basically going to do same things which men in signal batallion do, play with radios, radars, operate and build the communcations etc... Which is more than fine by me, lot's of equipments means we go everywhere with trucks or APCs, not too many foot marches for us.

There's also more free time now and we wake up at 6.25AM now if there's no physical excercises before breakfast.

At the next week we will get to know our specific duty for the rest of the service. I'm trying to get on to the mobile communications station, I'm pretty sure I will because of my experience with computers and electronics.

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/kalustoesitte ... 202YVI.JPG
http://www.mil.fi/maavoimat/joukot/karpr/vipa_2.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisu_XA-180#XA-200_series

It's got air conditioning etc.. so it would be a nice place to be when weather gets warmer. It's built on Sisu XA-203 APC, normal XA-203 weights about 13000kg and the communications version weights about 22 000kg so it's not the lightest vehicle around. Though it's got engine with over 1000Nm of torque.

[redline]

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/kalustoesitte ... 202YVI.JPG

whats it like for drifting ?


glad things are going o.k. for you

[jtbo]

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/kalustoesitte ... 202YVI.JPG

whats it like for drifting ?


glad things are going o.k. for you

Drifting on ice and snow possible but really not too good

Fuse, don't eat too much, watch your weight now as you don't burn as much energy in a day as before

Congrats from gold too

[Fuse]

http://tietokannat.mil.fi/kalustoesitte ... 202YVI.JPG

whats it like for drifting ?

Haha I don't know, probably not too good for drifting.

Though those normal versions are quite quick for a vehicle that heavy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4861xAqbqg

With XA-185 you can also drive in water

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5v9tDrLoqc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qMZJDhH9Jg

And you can almost climb a wall with one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2YYykgN5Ag

Fuse, don't eat too much, watch your weight now as you don't burn as much energy in a day as before

That's true btw. At first I always took too much food on the plate and didn't finish it.

Congrats from gold too

Thanks.

[Chris_C]

Yeah, well done for the gold mate, glad it's all going OK for you!

[petefarrell360]

Yeah, glad it's going well, looks like there are lots of cool toys to play with and new experiences! Enjoy and take care.

Pete

[Fuse]

'llo! Going home at the next friday! Time has gone by fast, it feels like it was just yesterday when I was at our first basic training season camps at the winter when it was -37 celsius degrees (about -35 degrees fahrenheit) outside.. Damn it was cold.. food froze at camps if you didn't eat it fast enough. and you had to keep the stove at the tent red hot all the time at nights. Though there wasn't too much time to spent in the tent or sleep because so many people were reported in as sick and we had shortage of men so you got like 45min rest and then go to watch shift for one to two hours and then again 45min rest etc...

Now we had our final battle practice couple of weeks ago and it was more like +30 celsius degrees. Too hot, not nice either when you are wearing camo suit and a combat vest.

Lots of new experiences.. I'm glad I chose the military instead of public service, so many things you can't experience in "normal life."

One of the most memorable experienes probably was when we had our group skills test, which is foot march over 50 kilometers (over 31 miles) (50km to 60km depending how well your group can orientate) in our training groups and there are different tasks you need to perform during the route and your group gets scores based on how well you performed the tasks. Of course the total time also counts.. I was the only one in our group who finished, everyone else in my group didn't finnish (including the corporals ) I jumped along the other mobile comm station group who were in the same phase of the march.. I've never been so tired in my life when we got back to the barracks. March was in full combat gear. We marched almost 24 hours straight, there was one longer and obligatory 4h rest at one phase during the march, but otherwise it was marching all time and few minutes breaks. Luckily it didn't rain..

I'll post some pics later.. I was also promoted to Lance Corporal at the last week.

[jtbo]

Hey, congrats! Sounds really great now

Soon it is

[petefarrell360]

Good stuff mate! Nice one on making Lance Corporal too! Sounds like it's been a good experience so far and that you've done some interesting things.

Soon time to play Volvo's again!

All the best.

Pete