Canes Pugnaces

Our second to last combat exercise was quite a piece of cake. Since my RPG squad stayed with the support and administration platoon, we mostly stayed in the command center and thus didn't get into fights - see, if the command center gets compromised, it's already quite clear that we're all fucked. So, we just put up the tent, moved it a few times and that was that. Watched over radios and whatnot. In all honesty, it felt more like a vacation than a combat exercise.

We - as in me and my RPG squad - did get to back up a few attacks two times, however, thanks to our commander. He had the right to send us to back up other platoons if he felt like it, and he used that right - probably because he didn't want us just lingering around with nothing to do. A good call, I must say. Even those back up missions weren't anything too flashy, though. They were pretty much just us running after the platoon we were backing up, ready to be called worth if the leader of the platoon felt like they needed some extra RPG support. They didn't. It was nice to get to run around a bit, anyway. Got a good reminder of how suffocating flak jackets are under a scorching sun... hehe. Yep, summer finally arrived in our brigade, too.

Then came time for our very last combat exercise - the "final war" as we call it. You might remember that "final" combat exercise we had on December, this was the same deal - only this time it really was the final one for me. Again, it lasted five days, but due to university entrance exams I only could participate for three days. In a way, though, I got lucky because I get to join the actual battle days - that is, last three days. First two were spent on preparing the upcoming battles: digging foxholes, fortifying them, setting up the camps and whatnot. My RPG squad was subjugated to one of the infantry platoons.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but we got these fancy simulators to wear during this final war - they were supposed to inform us if we were shot, got hit by an air raid or anything alike. They'd also note if we were dead - and if you died, you supposedly stayed dead till the end of the war. I say supposedly, because it wasn't like that in all cases. Anyway, this was to add a touch of realism to the situation. Sadly, however, it didn't quite work out because our enemies didn't have those simulators, or had a different model which didn't work with ours. So, it was up to our commanders to inform and judge when and how somebody was shot, and understandably that was quite difficult in the heat of the battle. Thus we faced situations such as enemy infantry men running towards us even though we pelleted them full of bullets from our machine gun. Hardly realistic, eh?

Let's get to the actual business now. My platoon's luck sucked ass - out of three major battles we had, we got our ass handed to us in two cases. I'm saying our luck sucked because one of the missions we got was suicidal to begin with and during another an air raid wiped out over half of our men. In detail, then...

I didn't get to particiapate in the very first battle which took place in the morning of the third day because I had just arrived from my entrance exams, and we didn't have time to get my equipment from the camp which was far away from our positions. I get to follow the battle anyway and it was rather disastrous. My platoon was divided in two and placed on the each side of a road; 2/3 of the platoon on one side and 1/3 on the other. My RPG squad was in the smaller group. Our job was to stop and destroy any enemy activity on the road between us. Everybody took their positions and set to wait for any activity - and then came the air raids. Yes, there were several. Our side survived just fine - only two men got lightly injured - because we had successfully shielded us in our foxholes. The other side, however, wasn't that lucky - they lost almost all of their men. Later, though, the judges revived some of the men because one of the fighter planes had been destroyed before the raid, and thus the damage it caused couldn't be count. Still, they lost quite a few men.

No matter, we stayed in our positions. Some of us spotted a transport helicopter flying really near to us- and some of us got doubts that it had dropped off enemy soldiers. The leader of our platoon didn't react to this, however; and it cost us dearly. Soon we heard shooting on the opposite side of the road; obviously our doubts had been right and now the enemy soldiers the helicopter had dropped us were wiping out the rest of our men on the other side of the road. God-damn. It didn't end there, though - soon our men positioned to the furhtermost foxholes on our side of the road opened fire too. It was only then when our attention turned away from the opposite side - and it was far too late. The enemy charged us and wiped almost everyone out. A few got taken as POWs. What a brilliant start, wouldn't you say?

It got even fancier when the commander of my platoon stated that since I hadn't offically participated in the battle, I was still alive - and so was one of our drivers back in the camp. We would have to continue on our own - at that point, we didn't have any clue how our men on the other side of the road had survived the attack. Fortunately for us, the POWs were released alive and they got to join us. Later it turned out that some men on the other side of the road had survived too, and we regrouped with them.

After the heavy losses, out of our over 30 men only 13 or so remained. Still, obviously, we had to continue fighting. So, in the evening of the third day, we moved to our other positions and resumed the mission of stalking a road for any enemy activity. In the end, we lied in those positions for the whole night. Seven or eight hours or so without a sign of an enemy. We couldn't leave, though, because we had our orders - we were to stay there until enemy activity was spotted (and destroyed) or our war commander gave a permission to leave. Finally, around 06:00 a.m. we spotted some enemy vehicles. What followed was the one success we had - it was a really clean, swiftt strike. We only attacked with RPGs and mortars, all in a course of few minutes, before taking off. The enemy never knew what hit them. We had deserved our rest.

After getting some sleep, we got on the move on the afternoon of the second day. We headed to our third positions, but as we came closer to them, it was beginning to seem that something was off. We thought we saw some movement. A few men were sent forward to investigate and they returned with grim news: the enemy had taken over our positions. The leader of our platoon told us to get them back. We had 12 men at that point and no solid information of the number of the enemy. We split up to attack from three sides at once. As we attacked, then, it turned out that the enemy had a whole platoon and a bit of extra in our positions - counting in quite a few tanks. Needless to say, it was a suicide. We were efficiently wiped out - though we managed to cause them some heavy losses, too! I met my maker through a machine gun's fire.

After that, I was dead, so I was out of the game. It was the evening of the second to last day, though, so I didn't miss that much. I spent rest of the final war just by sitting in our camp, already packing up our things and preparing to return to the brigade.

I'm slightly disappointed that the simulators didn't work out like they were supposed to, but even then the final war was a rather exciting experience. Even though injuries weren't so in real time, all the other elements - the air raids, the surprise elements to name a few - made it feel a lot more realistic than the other combat exercises we've had. Not to mention it was the first time I saw and acted against real tanks. So far we've only had trucks which pretented to be tanks. So yup, even though my platoon got its ass kicked quite badly, I'm quite happy with how it all turned out. What more, we heard that even though my platoon suffered heavy losses, in the big picture our side triumphed over the enemy. We wiped out a good 70% of their strength - men, tanks, fighter planes, etc.

After the final war we haven't been doing anything too exciting. Mostly had some fitness tests to see if we've improved from the beginning of the service and whatnot. I got better scores from strength tests, but the score from the running test went down a bit. We also had a shooting test and I managed to get to a higher shooting class! Still didn't reach the first class - it was a damn centimeter away from me - but I'm really pleased I even reached the second. Could've never even dreamed of it, really.

Tomorrow begins the last ten days of my service. Still, we won't be doing anything too fancy, just returning our equipment. We will be kept for the last weekend which, in a way, feels quite nice and fitting.

For the very first thing, we had that nine-day-long shooting camp. The weather was quite bad for the first three days or so, raining, sleeting and snowing in turns, but other than that the camp wasn't too bad. The shootings we had were actually a bit more diverse and challenging than what we've had so far, not just plain "move from point A to point B and shoot things on the way" kind of shootings. No, these actually required some proper planning and maneuvering. We attacked, we ambushed, we defended- it was so refreshing!

My RPG squad was part of those shootings only for the first three days, though, after that we had our own RPG shootings and other things. For the very first thing, we got to see how cadets fired some hard, newer versions of RPGs. Just getting to watch that may sound lame, but it was far from that- they fired six hard RPGs in total and they fired them at real tanks.We've never gotten to fire RPGs at real tanks- I just wish we'd gotten to see the damage the RPGs had done. Also, I don't know how our company commander (who was there with us) had managed it, but we were the only not-officers there at the viewing. Somehow he had gotten an exclusive permission for us - an NCO and two privates - to attend too. Damn if I am not impressed and grateful - in all honesty, our company commander doesn't seem such a nice guy usually.

Then comes the downfall... after managing to stay in the line, mostly healthy, for nine months out of the twelwe I'll be in the military, I fell seriously ill. I had had a light cough since the beginning of the camp, but as days went by it got worse. Still - and I admit this was a bit dumb, but as I've mentioned our privates tend to slack off by whining about little achiness, so I didn't want to be a bad example  - I thought that I'd be able to go through a shooting or two, but when I tried to run during the next shooting, a stabbing pain in the chest stopped me and I realized I have trouble breathing. They evacuated me to the field hospital and it turned out that I had a fever of 39°C (102,2°F) and that there was some odd sounds coming from my lungs. In a few hours I was being evacuated back to the brigade and the military hospital there. All in all, I had some kind of an aggressive lung infection and had to stay in the ward for a few days - thus missing almost half of the camp (four days out of five). They even suspected pneumonia at some point, but fortunately it wasn't that bad in the end. Still, I've never eaten so many pills in my whole life.

The worst part of getting ill was that I missed the last RPG shootings- and seeing how interesting our rifle shootings had been, I bet those would've been great.. We would've even gotten to fire some hard RPGs (though older models than what cadets had shot). I am disappointed, but in the end there's no toying around with health. I just wish I'll stay healthy for the rest of my service. If I'll have to spend one more day just by laying on the bed doing nothing, I'll flip I swear.

Then we had a longer vacation and after that we were right off to a combat exercise. It was three days long and the first actual combat exercise for the privates - yeah, we had that one-night thing earlier, but that was just playing around, honestly. This time we put up the gear a bit, though it was still quite an easy combat practise compared to those we've been through in the NCO training. Better than nothing, though!

During the first day we just moved to our positions and put up our camps, searched good posts and whatnot. Prepared for the next day's challenges. My RPG squad was subjugated to one infantry platoon, so we actually got to do something instead of just serving at the command center (i.e. following radio messages and such). The platoon my squad now belonged to was planned to do an attack and an ambush the next day. Even then, we got to sleep early (which surely shouldn't happen in a combat exercise) and no alarms rang during the first night. The hell.

The next day, then- we did the attack in the morning and the ambush in the evening. Those went... not too good. The attack went quite okay, we managed to cause losses to the enemy, but we did succumb some losses too. The ambush, then... now that was a full damn disaster. If it'd been a real situation, our whole squad would've been wiped out. At first the enemy managed to sneak to our side and after attacking from there, managing to surprise us, it managed to proceed behind us - and ta-dah, we were trapped. We were taking heavy fire and had no place to retreat to. Through some kind of a miracle my RPG squad and a couple other NCOs managed to retreat, but that was more dumb luck than good maneuvering. The enemy just thought there were no living left, so they moved on and we managed to fall back - and do one last surprise attack to their side. It went slightly better than the initial ambush, but still not too good. As said, it was quite a disaster - even our commander was baffled with how badly it went. He kept asking "just what the hell just happened?"

In a word of defence, our enemy was played by our service platoon and they had gone through one ambush at the very same place already. See, the combat exercise worked so that there were three things to do - an attack, an ambush, and a stalling - in three different places and the infantry platoons just switched places. So, our enemy kind of knew they were driving into an ambush and they also had a good hunch of how we'd be positioned. So it wasn't all that fair and square in the end. I'm still not saying that our maneuvering didn't have flaws, though. It did.

After surviving that one disaster we went back to our camp and prepared for the next day - we'd be stalling the enemy. This time the preparations took longer and we got to sleep around 2:00 a.m. - which was good, for till now our privates haven't had to go with little sleep. No alarms that night either, though, which was rather disappointing. I heard that there was supposed to be an attack, but the service platoon got stuck in a swamp. In a way, that's kind of sad.

The next morning we were up to stall the enemy. It went a lot better than the attack and the ambush - but I missed most of it because the commander overseeing the exercise decided that I got wounded in the leg and had to be evacuated away. In the end I lied wounded on the ground so long that if I had been wounded for real, I would've bled out for sure. Even the senior medic who arrived to evacuate me said so - but they played it so that somehow I'm still alive so that the medics got to practise evacuating wounded soldiers. Off I went.

The first combat exercise we had was, as said, really short - and really, really easy compared to those I've been through during the NCO training. Guess they didn't want to give our privates any traumas this early. Anyway, it was only one night in the woods. We didn't even get any alarms at night - if not only because our commander wrecked his car on ice and didn't want to risk doing it again by coming to inform about an alarm at night. Must say, I was almost disappointed. How are our privates supposed to survive from the rougher exercises if we don't show them what to expect? If they expect it to be easy and then suddenly they find themselves exhausted halfway to death, the motivation will come crumbling down. It would be better vice versa- expect dying and then be relieved when it isn't so. Our final combat exercise pretty much proved that. Oh well.

After that, our platoon has been all about establishing a command center. We are, after all, the platoon responsible for administration. Sounds fancy, maybe, but our command center isn't any fancier than a tent filled with all sorts of radio equipment and the kind. In all honesty, I don't understand why we had to spent two damn weeks for it, while the infantry platoon practiced attacking, defending, ambushing et cetera. We had quite a good hang on things after the first week. What more, we didn't even get to practice it on field that much- we just walked to the small woods right next to our barrack. Needless to say, we were all kinds of fed up with it.

Not to say that it all went to waste, though. I have to admit that even our NCO course didn't manage to erect a tent as quickly as our privates did in the end of the second week- not to mention that that tent looked damn good. Even the disguise was damn good. Everything was damn good. Even our commander admitted he was positively surprised. That's something, let me tell you. They don't give praises just like that.

What somewhat bugs me, however, is the fact that while my RPG squad is seemingly part of the administration and support platoon, I was told that it's quite usual that the RPQ squad is subjugated to infantry platoons. In other words, we're supposed to attack, defend and ambush just like them- and still we haven't practiced that practically at all! Okay, in theory it might seem like we just need to run after them and use our RPGs when the time comes, but it isn't really that simple. There are all kinds of different tactics and such we should know to be an efficient part of the platoon. If we don't know those - and we don't, yet, in the least - we'll slow rest of the infantry platoon down simply because we don't know what to do and how to do it. While they practically fly to the posts they're supposed to take, we stay behind like "um, guys, where are we supposed to go?". So yeah, I truly hope this will be fixed in the future or we will be all kinds of fucked in the next combat exercise.

Good news is that spring is arriving even to the brigade grounds - finally, may I say! Damn snow has covered everything non-stop for over half a year already- without a lie, this has been the longest winter of my whole life. Getting quite fed up with it. Six damn months- and well, kind of still counting, for the snow is still present and seemingly not planning to melt away in a while yet). Anyway, nights are getting shorter, days are getting lighter and we've even seen the sun shine from a completely cloudless sky. Not to mention the temperature has stayed above -10 degrees celcius for most of the days, if you count out the nights and mornings. It's even climbed to the plus side a few times. You have no damn idea how light you feel after you get to discard layers of clothes after six months of wearing them non-stop.

Next weekend we will be kept in again, because we're off to a shooting camp that lasts for nine days. Yeah, nine days. That shall be the longest camp we'll ever face- but I don't really mind, for at least we won't be freezing our asses off this time. Hah! This camp will be exceptional also because we will be quite far away from our brigade- far away enough that we're actually taken to the camping grounds by bus, not by slower tracked vehicles (because that'd take a whole day). Also, we will have some shootings that are arranged by cadets. I've heard that those are usually quite interesting and even entertaining, so maybe we won't die.

The general training wasn't anything too special. We just pretty much switched from the weaponry to the supporting elements, such as radios and night vision scopes. Not surprisingly my responsibility was the training for the night vision scope for the heavy RPG. It's a simple enough device, though, so I don't mind. I also gave some training in radios, including one radio model even I hadn't touched ever before. One always learns new things. It seemed like a nice model, though- a bit newer and lighter than the one we've been using so far.

I also got to drop by the shooting range again, but this time I was mostly overseeing the privates, not shooting. I did get a try on the last set, which was shooting to switching targets. It went better than I expected- 18 out of 20 shots had hit the target board. Then again, the goal was to hit the A4 paper in the middle of the board, and... let's not go into how many of my shots landed there.

There were some lectures, too. We began studying recognizing different kind of vehicles, at first on a general level (for example, whether a tank is an MBT or an IFV kind) and then by models. I must say, it was about time to get to this, seeing that I've been trained in anti-tank defence for about half a year already and never before has it included recognizing my possible targets. I've been able to tell MBTs and IFVs apart, but models? Psh, no chance. Now, though, I think I've got a quite good grasp on it. At least the tests went quite well.

Last week, then, we finally get into the specialized training courses. The privates were divided into groups depending on what they would be specialized in- was it using a machine gun, a sniper rifle or becoming a part of RPG squad or patrol. I heard that before these specialization courses lasted for three weeks, but for reasons unknown to us now we had only one week to train our privates. In no way was it enough time to give a proper, throughout training, but we had to make do with it.

Of course I was part of the RPG squad/patrol training group- in fact, I was put in nominal charge of the whole thing. Not that I planned the training or anything that big, but it was my responsibility to get the group from one place to another in time and such. Fortunately our group wasn't too big (only 15 or so privates plus four NCOs including me), but man were we in a hurry all the time.

Monday began with us getting the flak jackets. Sadly we get the older model, though, which is somewhat clumsier, but it's better than nothing. I'm finally complete again! After receiving the flak jackets, we rushed to the shooting range to practice shooting with light and heavy RPGs. Of course we didn't shoot any real things, but ones that had been modified so that they shot normal bullets instead of grenades. Everything else works the same, though- aiming, firing and such. We NCOs got to shoot a few rounds, too- and man if it wasn't great to shoot with something that I actually could hit the target with.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent on a short shooting camp. I'll just be blunt and state that the camp was a damn disaster. Not because of us, though, but because of how it was organized. Because our company has only a handful of RPG men (one group and a few patrols), our specialization course joined with a course from another company which is more focused into anti-tank defence (they have, for example, a full anti-tank squad). What came out of it? Not anything fair, let me tell you that.

The guys from the other company did most of the shooting while we just waited in the background for our turn- and afterwards it was mostly up to us to clean the shooting grounds (collect the targets away and such). For example, on Wednesday we waited for a good five hours just to get to shoot a set that lasted for fifteen minutes. Mind you, that set should've lasted for half an hour but because the other company shot first - and there were lots of them and they surely took their sweet time with it - we simply didn't have enough time to shoot the whole set! What more, we didn't even get specific scores from our shootings because there weren't enough time to collect the data. Well done, well fucking done.

In the end, I'm sure we would've gained much more if we had never even went to the camp and just trained in the brigade grounds. We just fucking wasted our time in the camp. Rarely have I been so damn infuriated- and so was the sergeant who was overseeing our course. Sadly, there was nothing she could do about it, seeing the other company was in the lead of the camp and our company didn't really have a word in it. I just hope such camps will not happen again.

For the rest of the week we just practiced and practiced working as RPG patrols, and then we practiced it even some more. While I do nominally have my own RPG squad, the said squad consists of three men out of which one is a driver. So, practically my squad is a patrol too. So, in and out of posts we ran, changed posts, then did it again. While the week was short, I'm sure our guys at least know how to work in a post as an RPG man by their hearts. I swear I know the commands I'm supposed to give so well that I probably mutter them in my sleep...

While I admit that overseeing the whole RPG specialization course wasn't a piece of cake and I did feel like just head-banging a wall for quite a many times out of frustration, it was nice to have my own "squad" for a moment. Since the basic training course ended, I haven't really had a squad of my own to lead or interact with. Well, I've had wnd-RPG squad, but it isn't quite the same thing, for we don't do things as a separate squad, but as a part of the platoon we belong into. Anyway, as I said, it was nice to have a group with which to get a bit more familiar with, even if it was for only one week.

Not that getting familiar with them was a bed of roses, though. In all honesty, the beginning of our course I felt like our RPG-men-to-be were all without hope, seeing how much they whined and how slack they were. Brushed me the wrong way quite badly, for if we had had such an attitude during our anti-tank defence NCO-course, our leaders would've probably dragged us behind a warehouse and beat us. Well, maybe not quite, but you get the reference. However, they did prove themselves okay in the end. They did whine - damn did they whine - but they did get the job done, too. And nobody slacked off with an excuse of feeling slightly sick!

Even though we didn't began the specialized training yet, we're already divided to our probable platoons-to-be and squads-to-be. We NCOs were also pointed to our probable positions in those platoons and squads. As I mentioned earlier, I got my own RPG squad (which will be a part of a platoon responsible for administration and support) - and if I don't fuck up something during the following specialized training course, I should be allowed to keep that squad. It's kind of an honor, for besides that one RPG squad our company only has RPG fireteams. Not to mention our company has only three anti-tank defence NCOs (including me), so there was a small competition going on about who would get the squad. I snatched it, hehe. Can't deny I'm quite proud of myself- and I swear I'll try my hardest to keep my position.

About the week then. In the beginning of the week, we were mostly skiing and practicing moving and working as a squad on skis. Let me tell you, that ain't too easy. I think I've already mentioned that our skis aren't the most agile things invented. So, just take a moment and ponder how it'd be working with them when you're - let's say - suddenly ambushed by the enemy and you have to take cover and begin firing back. I say we need quite a lot of more training, or we will be dead the moment the enemy spots us on skis. Fortunately the RPG squad is rarely the one in the very front lines. We're not too far back either, though.

For the rest of the week we had some general training. I kept trainings about one of the many radios we're using, minefields and also about the heavy RPG. What's kind of surprising is that at first I wasn't even assigned to keeping that RPG training for a chance- but then one of our rifle officer cadets came to me and asked to help him with the RPG training because what he remembered about the heavy RPG was close to nil. Couldn't say no to that, really. Gotta help brother-in-arms.

We NCOs also got the report cards from the basic training course and had a small discussion about the results with our squad leaders. The report card consisted of our self-evaluation and evaluations done by our squad leader, our fellow NCOs and our squad's privates. The point is to see how the evalutions are and whether they match or not. I had pretty good scores on every aspects, even some excellent scores but also some that needed improving. What came to the matchign between the evaluations, it turned out that my self-evaluation was pretty much on the same tracks as those made by our leader and the privates, but my fellow NCOs had given me some differing scores - and mostly they were worse. My squad leader was a bit surprised about that, but we came into conclusion that I should work on interacting with my fellow NCOs. Otherwise my squad leader gave me quite good feedback and also indirectly congratulated me for getting the position as the RPG squad leader.

First of all, as I already mentioned, our rookies stepped in some bigger shoes and became privates-  that means they went through an "oath march" just like we NCOs did half a year ago. However, their march was about 30 km by skiing, not 80 km by bike. Of course we NCOs accompanied them in the march and I gotta say their march felt easier than ours. It still wasn't a piece of cake, but I didn't feel half as dead afterwards than I felt after my own oath march. So, I'm glad to say that every one of our platoon's rookies made it to the end. I know some rookies in other platoons gave up.

We NCOs also partaked in the oath ceremony, we just didn't take the oaths again. Even though the ceremony was still magnificent (save from the bitter cold weather), it was clear that it lacked that special little something now that it wasn't my oath ceremony. There's a whole different catch to it when you're the one taking the oath compared to watching someone taking it.

And that was pretty much the first week I have to go through.

After the ceremony our fresh privates were let to a weekend vacation and we NCOs stayed in for the weekend and practiced for the shooting camp that was to follow next week. We learned how to operate different kind of target mechanisms, how to distribute bullets, how to oversee a shooting and other things as such. It was kind an easy weekend, our training ended in the afternoon and after that all we had was free time. Added the fact that with no privates around we didn't have to be so strict and, well, exemplary, we had it rather nice! I wouldn't mind if all the weekends we are kept in the brigade were the same.

The following week, then, we went to the first shooting camp with the privates. While our first shooring camp was five days, for these privates it was only three (from Monday to Wednesday). No idea why, but I was rather glad about it seeing the bitter cold still lingered around. Fortunately it did ease some degrees as days went by, from -20 degrees celcius to around -12 degrees celcius. Save from a few guys given special positions, we NCOs didn't have much to do during the camp. We mostly moved the privates from place A to place B, and maybe trained them in something simple while the privates were waiting for their turn in the shootings.

One little thing that pissed me off during the camp was to see how many privates slipped away from the camp with the excuse of "feeling sick". Even from our platoon almost half of the guys took their leaves. You might say that "well, it's no wise to stay if you're really sick?" but the cold fact is that not half of them were that sick. It's just that they didn't want to stay. Must say, I wait for the first combat exercise with horror, seeing it will be far more challenging than some shooting camp. I mean, during this shooting camp they still got to sleep well during the night and they didn't even have to skii around that much, for we were taken to some shooting on a damn truck. Yet, the amount these privates whined... if they only knew what's waiting for them.

Anyway, everybody who dared to stay for the whole camp came back alive. For the rest of the week there were some basic training for the privates, preparing them for the test course they were going to face about the things they've been taught during this basic training course. The same exam thingy that we NCOs had back then- placing a mine, throwing a grenade, operaing a light RPG... that kind of things. Since I'm an anti-tank defence NCO, I got to train them with an RPG. My favorite, heh.

The training actually continued till the Wednesday of the following week, when the privates had the actual test course. I was - surprisingly - overseeing the light RPG-handling part of the course. Must say, I was positively surprised how well the privates did. Sure, there was fails, but most had just some minor mistakes. It was pretty much that they either knew what to do, or had no idea at all.

At the end of the week everybody were let to a weekend vacation - and we even got a one extra vacation day. I'm not saying this with pride, but man it was a needed extra day. Three weeks in was beginning to feel in the head. Even though I truly enjoy the military service and it's done wonders to me (both mentally and physically), a short pause per week or two seems to be needed. It gives a chance to reset everything and load some batteries. You know how summer feels a lot greater after a long winter? It's kind of the same.

The last week of the basic training course then- not much happened. The privates who were selected to the NCO training course were preparing for their things, and others were re-taking some things they hadn't passed, such as one shooting and the basic exam course. What surprised us NCOs was that they also had some training in some things we weren't introduced to until the NCO training course, such as a heavy RPG and some special mines. Just guess who got to keep the training about the heavy RPG. Still, not complaining.

I also got to join one of the groups that went to re-take the shooting test and man I've gotten rusty with the assault rifle. See, during the anti-tank defence NCO course we didn't really touch our assault rifles, because - obviously - they're quite useless against tanks. This will sound ridiculous, but before this try the last time I shot live rounds with an RPG was either in Septemper or October. So yeah, haven't really got to practice my shooting skills which now seem to be almost nonexistent. Just guess if I felt ashamed when some of the privates shot a bunch of tens and I didn't shoot even one. God-dammit.

It's been four weeks and still this update is rather short. I admit I don't write everything down anymore, seeing it'd be repeating the things I wrote half a year ago, only from a bit different point of view. I try to select the most significant or otherwise interesting parts and skip some usual things, such as shooting at range.

The day the rookies arrived was chaotic in the least. At first, in the morning, our barrack was silent as a grave. We just wandered across the empty halls, waiting for the first arrivals to step in. Then, after lunch, there were suddenly people everywhere. If you just knew how perplexing it was to see people in casual clothing flooding the barrack after you've gotten used to seeing only camo everywhere. Nonetheless, for the rest of the day we just ran around showing people the rooms they would be staying in, fetching them the first set of equipment, giving quick briefings about what to do and how to do it- and even then we ran out of time when the evening fell. We hadn't even had time to tell them how to make their beds. I could only wonder if it was that chaotic when I began my service...

Rest of the first week was pretty much just first times for everything. One day went while the rookies went through medical examinations and man, while I remember it being one darn dull day when I was a rookie, it was even duller as an NCO. I just sat behind one desk and handed out forms to be filled. However, it was lucky that these rookies had their medical examinations this early- it smoothened many things a lot. See, they wouldn't have been allowed to run before the examinations were over (might sound silly, yes), and just imagine how much that would've slowed everything down. Now they were allowed to spring from the second day on. Secondly, most of the people who deemed unfit for service left early and it lessened the amount of confusion later with the counts and all.

Looking back now, it's been three weeks, yet we haven't done that much yet. The rookies had mostly lectures after lectures for the first fortnight or so, and on the side some small things such as fetching more equipment. Ah, well.

There were some actual battle training for the rookies too, though. Nothing too rough this early, obviously, but some gun-handling (how to clean it, how to aim, etc.) and some basic skills, such as putting up a tent, giving first-aid on the battle field and handling mines, hand grenades and RPGs. I, as a anti-tank defence NCO, got to train them about RPGs- and I'm not even lying if I say that it's the one training I've been waiting for through the whole NCO training. My dear RPGs, hehe. It went well, I think- for the first bunch I trained, it was even difficult to believe that they really were rookies who hadn't touched an RPG ever before. However, the groups after that did prove that there's still a lot of training to do... but I'll make sure to tell them every small detail our NCOs back then forgot to tell us.

I also got to operate as an NCO on a shooting range for the very first time! And, again, that first time was rather chaotic. Usually there should be at least two NCOs for one range, but I was alone because half of our NCOs were on a weekend vacation that day. Man, did I run. The targets fell constantly off their frames; the cardboard the targets didn't really like the winter, the snow and the wind. In between running to fix them time after time, I had to distribute bullets, check guns, give advice... and whatnot. Thank god NCOs aren't allowed to lead the whole thing. A lieutenant was responsible for that. My hurries aside, I have to say that seeing rookies first scores caused a slight "whoa" reaction in me. Hell, out of 20 rookies in the range at least 18 scored mostly eights, nines and tens. I should be ashamed of my shooting skills now. Thank god assault rifles aren't worth much in the anti-tank warfare.

Of course this update needs blabbering about my very own platoon, too (not as in "I'm in the lead of it" mine, of course, but as in "I'm part of it" mine). I'm growing rather fond of our rookies already. Even though there are a couple of inevitable problem cases, even they aren't that bad- and in the whole the guys seem like a really good team! They managed to maintain good spirits even though they didn't get any vacations for the first three weeks and even the free time they got was really sparse. Even some of the NCOs were in a lot worse mood than them. What more, overall our rookies seem to be doing pretty well- they get good scores from the range, the first drills have looked quite good and they've gotten a good grip of soldiery behavior too. I hope they manage to keep this up!

It's been quite interesting to follow how this new set of rookies has adjusted to the military life. You can see that it's a whole new page in their life- I mean, hell, some of them told that they hadn't ever made a bed before. However, at the same time, it's surprising how quickly they've adapted. Did we NCOs adapt that quickly when we were rookies? Another thing that has been confusing me is the fact I already stated: it's been three weeks and we haven't really done much. Three damn weeks- that's almost half of the whole basic training course. When I was a rookie, it felt like we did so damn much all the time. Now that I look at these weeks as an NCO, it almost bores me. Funny how that has changed.

I can't help but feel somewhat bad for some of the rookies who already complain that there's too much to do. If you only knew, you silly rookies. If you only knew. 

For the last days of December we didn't honestly do anything at all. We just loitered around in our rooms and waited for the days to pass. There were only very few of us present at the time (others were on vacation- we were given different vacation days so that the barracks wouldn't be completely empty at any point), so things were really, really quiet. We pretty much just hanged out. Admittedly we had been scheduled some physical exercise, but hey, no senior corporals or anyone upper rank for that matter were present, so nobody really bothered. Let's face it- it was a rare opportunity to really rest for a few days and it was very welcomed.

January arrived in the beginning of this week and more life returned to our barracks. We began training for the next six months of leadership. We had this "course" which consisted of -once again- returning to the very basics and very first things we were ever taught since we stepped on the military grounds. You know, to freshen up our memory. Some of it was done as a practise for teaching too. A couple soon-to-be-leaders taught others how to do basic things such as cleaning the gun. It may sound silly, seeingwho the fuck of us doesn't know how to clean a gun at this point for fuck's sakebut in all honesty it did help. It made us realize the fact that while these things are a piece of cake for us, they won't be it for the rookies. We needed to teach these tasks in an easy, simple way.

I got to keep yet another drill, only this time it was about the arms commands. It went better than the last drill, though!

On last Friday we moved to the companies where we will be working as corporals for the next six months. I got back to the company where I was in the beginning of my service- and I'm damn happy I did! It felt like returning home. Even the smell of the place had that special feeling of familiarity. I even got back to the same room where I had stayed- and got back the very same bed I had slept in. I would've even got back my old locker, but it was rather damaged so I cheated and picked other one.

For the weekend we've mostly been preparing things for the rookies. We've cleaned up the rooms, sorted out the beds and lockers, distributed some things such as pens and insignia ready on beds and so on.

Also we got to know our to-be platoons and their commanders! I had wished I'd get back to the same great lieutenant's platoon that I had been in when I began my service, but unfortunately I wasn't that lucky. I was, however, lucky enough to get into a platoon that will be lead by the staff sergeant who lead my platoon in the beginning of the service with the aforementioned lieutenant (I think I've mentioned them both at some point). It turned out the staff sergeant will get a platoon of his own now! He does deserve it. He still has that oddly threatening, but chill aura on him, too. I'm damn sure he'll make damn fine job.

The beginning of the week consisted of only returning some of our equipment, such as those personal equipment we had gotten because of our weapon line (such as flak jackets) and equipment that belonged to our weapon line as a whol (such as tents). It's rather funny (if not tragicomic) that when we got our flak jackets, the reaction was pretty much "fuck it's heavy and suffocating and clumsy", but after a few months, having to give it away caused a reaction close to "no, don't take it away!" But really, though- that flak jacket had pretty much become a part of my 'soldier identity' already. See, our weapon line was the only one who wore those. It was a trademark of a kind... and now it's gone. It still was suffocating and clumsy, but it was a part of family. I will miss it.

In between returning equipment, we had a lot of sitting around. Not really free time, for we weren't allowed to leave the barracks or anything. All I have to say about that is it's surprising how exhausting plain sitting around can be - and I'm not even joking. It's already a norm that we're constantly doing something, so when we suddenly are left without anything to do the feeling that something shouldbe done still lingers. It's not physically exhausting, obviously, but mentally it's wearing. I haven't been so drained in the evenings in a long time, not even during the last combat exercise.

We also got to know where we will be serving as corporals. I will return to the same company where I served in the beginning. I had hoped I'd get to stay in the company where I'm now and oversee the next NCO training course, but I don't mind going back that much. They could've put me into a whole new company too, where most of the people from our weapon line will go, and that would've admittedly disappointed me.

On Friday, as I mentioned in the last post, they held the ending ceremony of our NCO training course, during which we were announced corporals. It felt unreal back then, and honestly it still feels. It's odd to look at my insignia and see the insignia of a corporal.

What feels just as unreal - if not even more unreal - is that in the end, I got the best scores from our weapon line andthe whole course. You have no idea how it felt when we went to the place where the ceremony was held, and suddenly our company's captain pulled me aside and said that there's a special place reserved for me in the table. So, I sat there and soon I was surrounded by many high-ranked officers, such as lieutenants - and god-damn I was nervous as fuck. Then the ceremony began and the brigade's commander (a colonel) gave a speech, announced us corporals, and then it was time to announce the persons with best scores from each weapon line and the course in the whole. I swear my brain went completely static when the first name I heard was my own.

I went to get my diploma, feeling all holyfuckthisisn'thappening and then returned to my seat- and wouldn't you know, the brigade's commander came to sit opposite me. He then began casually asking all kinds of things, such as how the training has been and what I'm planning to do after my military service is over. Damn if I wasn't confused. I, a corporal, almost chit-chatting with a colonel. That doesn't happen too often.

So, we're corporals now. The rookies still won't arrive until January 7th, but we will be making everything ready for them in the meantime. We will be introduced to the company where we will be transferred (kind of needless in my case, though) and practice keeping trainings, for example.

As badly planned as it might've been, this combat exercise was the very first one we did with our missile equipment, so we were still learning things. It was kind of easy to notice, for admittedly everything didn't go just as smoothly as it was supposed to go. The missile system we use requires a lot of swift moving from post to post and we hadn't really had time to practise that before- so understandably we weren't just that swift. As days went by we did get better, though.

This was also the first combat exercise where we didn't have a separate catering squad to support us, but prepared our food from combat rations in portable stoves. So, it was all canned and powdered goods for us for the whole week. It brought new challenges in a way, for we had to find time to prepare the food (boil water for it and whatnot), but all in all I have to admit that eating was easier this way. No need to drag food barrels back and forth or anything, just put a fire in the stove, boil water, throw a mix in and that's it. When everybody had eaten, everything could be packed quickly and we were ready to go again.

Overall the days followed pretty much the same schedule: we woke up in the morning around 06:00 a.m., prepared foods quickly, got ready for combat, did some combat, possibly changed our position, got ready for the night and slept. The shortness of daylight time (the sun had almost set around 03:00 p.m. already) brought its own challenges to everything. For example, it was pretty much impossible to observe the landscape in the distance- and of course, with missiles, we always work with targets in the distance. So, finding and deciding good posts was difficult in the least, and half of it went by guessing. Also, finding those posts later on again was also quite a challenge... and admittedly we didn't always succeed.

The combats themselves, then again, were pretty much rallying around with our missile system mounted on its transport vehicle. Rush to the post, launch a missile at a tank, and get the fuck out- rinse and repeat. Most of the combats were fortunately, though unrealistically, during daylight. The one we had after the darkness had set was... well, two steps from a catastrophe, to be honest. While we had the actions in the post itself all memorized and could pull them off rather well, getting to the posts turned out to be a punch of problems and it slowed us down. Our vehicle got stuck, we didn't find the post, didn't find the target... and so on.

I got lucky and got to work as a launcher (the man whose responsibility is to spot the target and launch the missile at it, obviously) and, again, as the squad leader. At first I was suppoed to be a leader for a supporting grenade launcher patrol, but then we were a few men too short to form it, so I got in the missile squad after all. Not that I complain, I got the good roles. Being a squad leader, though, meant that I didn't get on the transport vehicle, but had to run after -or well, actually before- it. It wouldn't have been that bad if it wasn't for the damn deep snow. You just try to keep up with a tracked vehicle in a snow that reaches your waist at points.

We even got to get some sleep this time! Not much, around four or five hours at the greatest, but it felt like a luxury after the last combat exercise. Figures that the one time we don't have to take our tent down in the morning I don't take my sleeping bag with me because I don't want to hassle with it in the morning... Oh well.

Speaking of the last combat exercise, I have to say that besides the amount of sleep, pretty much everything else during this combat exercise felt like luxury compared to the last, too- and I know I wasn't the only one thinking that. I'm guessing that it's part of the reason why we managed to keep our spirits so high for the whole week. Every time something seemed to suck we just told ourselves "well, this is still better than how we had it the last time" and everything was great again. Maybe our leaders did that on purpose, I don't know, but I heard a rumor that they purposely didn't let us sleep a lot during the last exercise, so... just pull your own conclusions. If they did this on purpose, though, I have to say that it was rather a smart move!

First week, we went camping again. Not a combat exercise this time, but a shooting camp (not sure if that's a proper term but let's roll with it), meaning we got some live rounds and live rocket launchers to practise with.. no live missiles, though, because those are simply too expensive. However, we did get a live heavy rocket launcher- now that was a real boom. We had been told some scary stories about how firing it felt like somebody hitting you in the face with a spade and other fancy things like that, so just guess how tensed everybody was. All in all, I wouldn't say that it equivalent to a space across the face, but it wasn't a lil' pop either. It was rather impossible to go a bit "WHOA WHAT THE SHIT HOLY HELL" when the rocket took off.

Oh right, we also got to practise a bit with explosives. We were divided into groups and every group got something different to be blown up- wood, rock or metal. My group got a metal bar that we were supposed to cut in half. We were also given the formulas to count the right amount of explosives needed to do the job, but since the formula we were given didn't match the situation 100%, we also did our own calculations. In the end, we had two loads of explosives to see which was the right amount to cut the metal bar. Result? One kabom later we never found the severed parts of the bar, only the middle section. Seemingly both amounts were more than enough to do the job...

So yeah, the camp was rather great! Hell, it felt like vacation after the combat exercise. Even the temperature decided to raise to more considerate degrees, so we weren't freezing our asses off.

The weekend was quite like a vacation, too. All our leaders left for vacations, so it was only us NCO trainees left in the barracks, meaning no supervision whatsoever. Just guess if all the dress codes and such were followed. Not that everything blow up, though. I was surprised how well people still behaved, in fact- and I have to give some special credit to my own weapon line. While the men in other weapon lines spoke freely and fidgeted in the formation, our men still stood silent and straight. Man, I felt proud of them.

It wasn't a weekend without any agenda, though. We walked around the nearby town (and some got a bus ride to towns farther away) to collect donations to our veterans. One thing I'd never believed to find myself doing... collecting donations from door to door. Must say, after that I can't help but give some respect to people who do that regularly and out of their free will. It sucked ass. I lost the count of how many "I don't have any cash, otherwise I'd make a donation!" lines I heard- or how many didn't even bother to open the door. Not to say that no donations were given at all. There were some. Not much, but some.

This week then- when I saw the planned schedule during the weekend, it seemed really unforgiving. Fortunately it didn't turn out to be that bad in the end. On Tuesday we had our line specific NCO training ending exams. Our line was woken up at 2:30 a.m. and then we began a march with our missile equipment loaded on the backpacks I've mentioned before. The march was about seven kilometres long, shorter than we had feared it to be. Also, we were allowed to proceed at our own pace and keep breaks when we felt like it. So, not bad at all! Not to mention our group spirit was fucking great. Originally we were split in two groups who were supposed to go on their own pace, but everybody went "Let's not do this as groups- let's do this as a whole line! Everybody pulls through!" And everybody did.

At the destination of the march we had some solitary tasks to do, such as sending a message via radio, and those were graded. I fucked up with the radio, but other tasks went well, I hope. After everybody was done with everything, we loaded the missile equipment on vehicles and walked back to the barracks.

On Wednesday we were supposed to practice working with the vehicles all day, but then one of our transport vehicles decided to break down in the afternoon. So, the plans for the rest of the day were scrapped and replaced with some exercising. We played football- well, if one can even call it football. Our corporal went a bit wild with the rules (because he could), so in the end we were playing with two balls and no goalkeepers, and our "goal" consisted of two goals: a smaller one put inside of a bigger one. If you fired and missed the smaller goal and the ball landed in the bigger, the opponent got a score. Apart from these special traits there weren't other rules whatsoever, so you were free to - for example - wrestle the ball away from the opponent if you felt like it. It was barrels of fun.

On Thursday we had our general NCO training ending exams, theoretical and practical. Theoretical exam didn't go as well as the last time, but rather good anyway, and practical side went well (though I failed with a radio again). We were also shown the scores from the last exams and the first part of NCO training, and I was pretty much knocked off my feet when I found out I had the best scores from our weapon line, and the third best scored from the whole company. I just... whoa. Yeah, I do rather well with theoretical stuff and all, but the scores were influenced by reviews made by our leaders (about how we've done in the field, for example), and I'm honestly not the toughest fit of our squad, so I would've never believed I'd get scores that good in total. Knocked me off my feet, as said. Knocked me off good.

Now, what did we do two weeks back... Oh yes. More stuff with missiles. Turns out the missile system we're using can be mounted to a transport vehicle, so all in all we won't be carrying the parts around that much. Rather nice turn of events- or so I thought, at least.

We practiced working with the vehicle for the whole week (how to drive it to a post, how to cover it, etc.). I expected it to be rather exhausting, seeing how exhausting running from one post to another was when we had to carry the launcher around. In the end, it was nothing alike-in fact, it was almost lame. We pretty much froze to death, for there was so little to do. Even though it's nice that we won't wear ourselves out just by getting the system to a post, it'd be nice to have at least some challenges to feel like we're doing something. If it's too easy, it's deceptive... you may get a bit sloppy.

Then this week. We abandoned the missile system for a moment and returned to rocket launchers because we had a combat exercise of three days and we needed weapons we were more familiar with. I'll be flat honest- those three days were the worst days in the military so far. I'd lie if I claimed that I have never felt a bit irritated before now, but that exercise just... ugh, god-dammit. I could've just screamed out loud from the frustration, had it not been a perfect way to give our positions away.

During the first day we mostly prepared for the next, when the actual combat would take place. We dug foxholes in the snow for the whole day- and I really mean the whole day. We finished around 03:00 a.m. Some time was spent on practicing moving from one post to another, but most of the time we just shoveled snow around. Now, that might've not been so bad all in all, but my squad got posts from a location farther away, so we had to ski there. I've mentioned how wonderful our bikes are, so imagine just how darn great our skis are. We don't have any kind of separate ski boots, the skis are just strapped on our combat boots. The straps used to it... I could write a dozen swear words and it wouldn't even begin to describe how much I hate them. They're slow and clumsy, and it's borderline impossible to crouch down to strap them on when you have a full battle gear on.

And then I managed to lose one of them. Got nobody to blame but myself, I carried them around strapped on to my tactical vest and one of them slipped off while we were shoveling. So, rest of the day I had to make do with just one ski that stayed on place. Because of it, among many other things, I fell behind when we were returning to the actual camp for dinner. By that time it was already pitch black (hooray for living in far up north) and when I got to our tent, others were already leaving to the dining area and I lost the track of them. Remembering how well I did in the pitch black woods during the last combat practice, I didn't risk wandering in the woods and just skipped the dinner. What can you do, really.

Back to the main story. As said, we got to rest around 03:00 a.m. - except that we didn't. Of course we still needed to put up a patrol in one of the posts, somebody needed to watch the stove and one man was needed to patrol right outside the tent. So, there went one hour of sleep. I was assigned to a post patrol from 04:00 a.m. to 05:00 a.m. and when I returned from it (a bit late- the next watch was late and we're not allowed to leave the post before the next watch arrives, obviously), I merely glanced at my sleeping bag, knowing I wouldn't be able to return to sleep anymore. I just knew it- and wouldn't you know, just then there were shots fired outside and everyone was alarmed to posts. So, we began the next day with generous one hour of sleep.

The second day wasn't all that bad, but it was rather laggy and amusing. Everyone was so darn worn out from the lack of sleep that any possible short pause we had, people were slouching against nearest trees and lying on the snow, trying to get at least an eyeful of rest. Not really something you should do on a battlefield, we all knew it, but the sleep deprivation was a tough enemy. We had a few combat situations, and again I cursed my skis and the straps for moving from the farther posts to the ones near our tent was one struggle. We also spent two and half hours lying in the foxholes in the evening because there were a supposed attack, but not a single enemy appeared in the end. I swear I've never felt so darn cold. At least we got to sleep around 10:00 p.m. that day- we still had the aforementioned patrols to do, but I still got almost five hours of sleep, and it felt like a blessing after the first night.

Then the last day... the most horrible day. Our platoon was supposed to back-up another platoon's attack- and my squad got to be the lucky one who had to built a mine field. Therefore we got to carry a mine around on top of everything else we already carried- two rocket launchers, tactical vests, flack jacket and all the gear we had on our tactical vests. Better yet, all this stuff hangs on your shoulders- while, for example, the tactical vest is of course supposed to support its weight on your waist rather than on your shoulders, it's not that great in the end. Especially not if you're not as short as I am and the vest is designed to a bit taller persons. So yeah, just try swinging those ski sticks when you have tons of stuff pressing down on your shoulders. I can tell you that it hurts a lot - a very, very, fucking lot. Over half of our squad got worn out before we even got to our assigned posts- in the end there were only me, one other guy and two corporals going anymore.

Admittedly we never made it in the posts in time. No time to build a mine field, we had to turn to retreat almost right away. Which meant even more sking with that agonizing gear- but at least we were allowed to dump the mines on the road. I swear I've never felt more relieved than when I saw our transport vehicle.

The whole week consisted of us NCOs-in-training keeping foor drills and lessons to each other. The subjects were really basic stuff, nothing new, because the main point was to learn how teach. One day in the future (in February, to be exact) we will have our own subordinates and by that time we have to be able to teach them the same things we've been taught in this due course of half a year. Everything from standing in the attention to using a grenade launcher.

I kept one foot drill and one lesson. The drill was about a few basic drill command, such as "fall in". It was still far away from being perfect, but it sufficed for now. I'll admit that while foot drills are pretty simple stuff at the core, it turned out to be surprisingly difficult to keep one- and what made it difficult was the fact that we needed to keep the drills as if we were keeping them to a bunch of fresh rookies. Till now, when we've kept foot drills to each other, you could always trust that others knew what they needed to do. It made it easy- too easy. Now you needed to carefully explain what it means to "fall in", for example. Before that, you couldn't expect anyone to fall in in command.  It was kind of a struggle.

The lesson I kept was about the missile launcher we're using now and focused on how to ensure that it's in a working condition. It was easier and it also went a lot better- our corporal even said that it was near perfection. It was rather difficult not to break in a wide smile at that.

I really don't have anything else to say about the last week. It wasn't the most exciting one in the end- this week we're going to have more action, luckily!

The first week, in all honesty, was rather dull. We didn't practically do anything but studied, studied, and then studied some more. Maybe went jogging in the morning and then studied for the rest of the day. Well, okay, I admit the first days went by "Sweet! We got a break from rougher training!" but as the days rolled by and came the fourth, the fifth, the sixth day... it went more to "PLEASE LORDS JUST LET US BACK IN THE WOODS, PLEASE!" Really- we had just one little booklet (about 70 pages or so) to study. We had to study it for seven days. Seven. Damn. Days. Even lesser melts one's brain.

I'm actually rather glad they kept us in for the weekend. After such a laid-back week, it didn't really even feel like we would've deserved a weekend-vacation.

Fortunately, the second week truly made up for the first. We moved to practice with missiles. I kid you not. It turned out that instead of rocket launchers, this year's anti-tank defence line will specialize in missiles. I still haven't decided whether I like the rocket launchers or missiles more, but I'm quite excited nonetheless.

The missile system we're using is quite old in the base, but still surprisingly up-to-date. Only downside is that the thing is damn heavy compared to the newer models. If you'd only seen our faces when our lieutenant was explaining how the newer models could easily be carried by a single man, while our missile system have to be put in parts which need a total of seven men as carriers. But well- challenges are always welcome. If nothing else, muscle-growth is guaranteed. We'll become one damn tough group.

So yeah, the second week went pretty much by studying the very basics of our new weapon. How to set it up, how to take it down, how to fix the sights... all that jazz. Some lectures on the side. On Wednesday and Thursday we also took our first step with the parts strapped to our backs. Well, actually they were strapped to backpacks mounted on a light frame, but as said, the system is rather old and those backpacks belong to the same generation. In short, everyone's back was more pain than flesh at the end of the days. I guess we'll get used to it.