Alikersannti (Under Sergent)

Hey everyone im posting from our Sotilas Koti again. Not much time as usual so i thought i would share some of my thoughts about the UnderSergents. An Undersergent is pretty much the first leader role anyone can get in the army.  

 Some people think the army involves a lot of shouting and rushing around doing menial tasks, those people are quite right for the most part. Every night the undersergents come and inspect our bunks and our day sheets, if the day sheets are not folded correctly the undersergent will usually unceremoniously unfold it and tell us to do it again. Also if we dont form up fast enough outside the barracks for lunch rotation they can tell us to go back into the barracks and repeat the whole forming up process again, we go through these painfully tedious rituals everyday. Sometimes they can be quite lenient other times they are ridiculously strict, i really think it depends on their mood, if the Undersergent is in a bad mood he might just shout at you for twitching in formation. Sometimes when im out of the army at my own home i still hear their voices in my head telling me to make the bed, and i make the bed, not sure if this is good or bad. 

 Undersergent’s personalities are two sides of a the same coin, they have their casual personalities and their undersergent personalities i have talked to more than one outside of base and they are pretty much normal relaxed people outside of base. 

Girls in the army

For Finnish men the military is compulsory. But for girls it is optional, so often the case is that the girls who join military are a little more motivated than the guys. They get really into it, in sometimes humorous ways. A friend of mine was telling me how during firing practice one of the girls just went ahead and put her weapon on full automatic. Something that isn’t really recommended for first time shooters. 

        When talking about girls in the army i try to be as politically correct as possible. But it can’t be denied that more often than not girls struggle to keep up with the rest of the guys, and they tend to sustain more minor injuries such as sore hands and fingers from shooting, and sore feet from marching. There was this one time though when one of the girls couldn’t walk, not really sure why i think she had a bad blister or something. Anyway one of the other girls carried her on her back, it was really sweet and quite cute :3  . 

       I think girls sort of have a different view of how the army is, perhaps a more idealistic view. This one girl i know she keeps saying ”toveri” Comrade. People who use the word comrade, tend to believe they are a part of something important. At least that’s my opinion. Aside from having a strong spirit of camaraderie, girls provide some extra motivation for guys, weather one is trying to impress them, or do better because girls are doing it too, I think any self respecting guy should feel they should do just as good or better than girls at any kind of physical stuff. Unless the girl in question is one of those body builder types, or some kind of athlete, or expert at doing stuff in general.

      Oh one more thing, in civilian life there is always a queue at the girls bathroom, in the army its the other way around. Thats all i have to say about girls in the army for now keep reading. 

Soldiers have been wearing earplugs since WW1

Often in war movies we see people running around shouting stuff amid the noise of battle and still being coherent. There is not film or movie out there that can capture the actual noise and shock of a gun shot. In all our drills we always wear ear protection, a gun shot is around 140 Decibels 100 Decibels is the point where your ears can already suffer damage, and 85 is the point where one should start using protection.

When we first got to shoot it was with wooden bullets, the kick wasn’t much at all and it felt quieter than real bullets. But when we got on the range, it was a totally different story. I didn’t even realize they were bringing us to fire real guns until we got to the range and the rounds were ready for us. As we were loading up, i just remember thinking to myself, I am firing a weapon, which purpose is to kill people. And as the order was given to fire. There was a deadly serious silence on the range, then the first rang out like thunder, louder even! Sharp loud cracks, I stayed calm and took aim at our target, and fired my own first shots. There was a lot more smoke than i expected, and the kick was a lot stronger than i imagined. No amount of video games could have ever prepared me for what it felt like. And when my clip was empty people were still firing i could feel the ground shaking from the vibrations of the shots fired. And honestly I was a little frightened. 

But once we ran down to our targets to see how well we did, I felt great seeing one bullseye out of 5 shots on my target. Now if I can figure out how to adjust my iron sight, I might actually be able to say I’m a decent shot. 

First 2 weeks First holiday

After 2 weeks of being perfect 100% of the time, snapping to attention, every time your division is called out, who wouldnt be tired and eager to head home. Everyone was itching to get out of there. The air was buzzing with anticipation, eve Everyone few minutes someone would check their watch. Imagine being in school for 2 weeks and the bell is about to ring to signal your dismissal thats what it feels like. 

The day we got out was steaming hot and i was sweating and oceans worth of sweat in my holiday uniform, which in this heat is pretty uncomfortable, basically it was hot. But i couldn’t help but notice how many people on the bus were adjusting their berets, (Oh i forgot to mention we get a beret, pics soon*) and fixing up their jackets trying to look their best. No one really talks about it much, but there is a lot of pride that goes with the seal of our base and our uniform. I have to admit despite how sweaty and uncomfortable i was under those fatigues, i felt pretty smart, and frankly quite awesome walking down the streets. And strangely enough i almost wished i had my leather parade gloves, which also cause sweat, but look great since they are black leather. I suppose the novelty of being in a uniform just outweighed any discomfort it may have caused.

Anyway its been a long day, more posts coming soon. keep reading.

First few days at base

The first few days have really been all about just getting used to soldier life, I am posting from our (Sotilaskoti) soldiers home right now, its the first hour of actual free time we have received in the past 4 days.

    Monday was probably the least exciting and more uncomfortable day for everyone in my company, it was really just settling in. No one knew each other and the whole experience just felt surreal. Tuesday involved more marching around and lectures. Yeah we have a lot of lectures here. On Wednesday we had around 6 hours straight of lectures. Thursday we got our weapon, and did drills with it, and Friday more gun drills and the running test which i did a satisfactory job on.  

    Orders often don”t make any sense but they are really not supposed to you just need to follow them. For example, while it was raining outside we were not told to bring rain coats, but when the rain stopped we were ordered to put on our raincoats. As time went by i came to realize that they really control all of our time with orders, one really does”nt have to think much just do, so i suppose most people had theirs brains off for the most part. As for me everyday i strive to further understand the language the orders are given it.

     That a whole other issue the language my Finnish is decent and i often communicate with a stutter. Its strange though, when i relax I communicate really well but when i stress out and the undersergent is shouting some orders i often freeze up and the words come out in short bursts. Among my fellow conscripts its fun to talk, despite the semi language barrier humor still seeps through easily. Our undersergent called us pokemon today, and was talking with the other undersergents about training pokemon, at lunch we asked each other which pokemon we were. A lot of the time there are words i dont understand, but with a bit of logic and brain work i can figure out what words mean, its easier than it sounds since most of the time its easy to tell if people are talking about serious stuff or if they are talking about farts. 

     I really only started to really get to know people well on Thursday, it was then after those orderly marches and long standing that i started to feel a sense of camaraderie. They say the army takes away your individuality but the truth is when everyone is in uniform with the same haircut you notice things you otherwise would not, you notice the nuances in peoples faces the sound of their voices, and the subtle differences that make an individual. The undersergents and lectures also teach us or reminds us of a lot of basic things such as looking into peoples eyes when you speak and speaking loudly and clearly but not shouting, social courage. There is a real positive atmosphere in the air and on Thursday i definitely felt it i was learning how to say a lot of new things and i felt like i was growing it was great. 

    I would be lying if i said everything is going peachy everyone here has something to complain about, I think everyone was a bit annoyed today having to wake up and go out and march in the rain. and this blog would be totally full if i listed everything. The main thing i am afraid about is that one of my undersergents keeps noticing me doing wrong stuff weather its looking the wrong way or wearing the wrong kind of shoes its always him that catches me. And he has this bizzare expression on his face 24/7 he always looks feed up or just mad.& Yum a fellow solider just gave me candy&. Others complain more than others but i try my best to stay under the radar since thats the advice given to most people who come here. 

Free time is almost up will post again soon keep reading!

Alokas Ilkka Ruso  (alokas is my rank i think it means private)

About me; Hey I am Ilkka Ruso, although my friends know me as Taavi, and I am 21 years old. Although I was born in Finland I have spent most of my life living in the Philippines and Malaysia. I know the Finnish language fairly well, I am however far from being fluent, I am hoping that will change in the army.
So I am about to enter into Finland’s military as a conscript, and I honestly don’t know how I feel about it, this blog will document the ups and downs of the whole ordeal. Finland is one of the many countries in the world that still practices conscription or national service. Although service is 6 months minimum its not uncommon for it to extend to up to one year or even longer. I have been asking around and people tend to say a lot of really varied things about the army, here is a list of what I have heard so far, from people who have been there.
“Prepare to stand around and do a lot of nothing.” - Sounds like a fair judgment.
“Your gonna lose a lot of weight” - not sure what he was implying here.
“Its full of hilly billys and annoying people, but I heard there are girls there now a days” - No offense to Hilly Billys in case any are reading this.
“You make friends, and get to shoot guns” - Sounds kool!
Anyway only 5 days till army begins, this blog will cover life in and out of the army, so stay tuned for more posts about video games, nights out and other non-military related stuff too.