#derekari

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.