Military

[aStiffSausage]

Haven't spotted a single thread in the past few days/weeks about army, let it be voluntary or conscription.

 

So, the purpose of this thread is to discuss army in general, your own stories, gear, and whatever else you find related.

 

 

And I'll start. I'm currently in Finnish army, as pioneer NCO, or combat engineer, whatever it's called in your country. In Finland, we have conscription, which basically means you have to serve your country after turning 18 years, either by joining Finnish Defence Forces, or by working in a public place such as library, hospital etc. I chose the army, and my duty lasts a total of 347 days, during which I've so far passed NCO course to become a group leader, and currently I mostly educate my group to become a professional war time group, capable of handling any given task.

 

My thoughts so far are, that even though a lot of young men that are forces to join the army, this has been so far among the best moments of life. Within first days, you are given your personal assault rifle (in my case RK-62), and during training, you get to experience loads of interesting stuff. We've had explosive training so we are able to take out bridges and other critical constructions, and we've been handling real explosives to see what they're capable of. Cutting a railroad with plastic explosives, blowing up concrete pillars with TNT, and getting to build an ignition system for our primary weaponry, mines. Land mines, anti-tank mines, shaped charges, claymores, we've seen what they can do. Along with exposure to tear gas while wearing gas masks, tough training in temperatures below -20 degrees celcius... One hell of a time. And who could forget seeing their first real M72 LAW hit a piece of steel wall while the rest of the group is suppressing the enemy?

[Ai®a©ob®a]

I just have a feeling with the way these threads usually end up it's not going to end well.

 

OT: I actually wanted to join the air force and becoming a fighter pilot, It was either the USAF or U.S Navy

Edited March 8, 2015 by Troubadour

[Abel.]

Good for you, mate. Sounds like you have a good attitude and enthusiasm for your training. More countries should have conscription; it builds character for our young men (and women too in Israel's case).

 

I have a lot of respect for service personnel so good on you.

[mr quick]

I tried to join the Norwegian Military, but was not admitted because of either

• dust allergy
• grass allergy
• just working out once a week

[Alexander]

I wouldn't even try to get in the army, especially this venezuelan army, they're very well paid for doing absolutely nothing good.

 

Still, I wish you luck mate

Edited March 8, 2015 by AlexanderS4

[krashr]

my old man was in the army (australian). for the most part i had a lot of good times on army bases as a kid, shooting, playing on the training courses, going out bush and learning how to survive, abseiling, stuff like that, but ultimately, joining up wasn't the life i wanted

[K20]

always wanted to be in the army when i was young. the way of thinking is unique. and its a thousand times better than going to "normal" jobs.

 

best of luck OP, specially if this is a career you are heading for.

[Braindawg]

Served for a while as a Tank mechanic in the IDF... got discharged for "Inappropriate and generally bad behavior"

I was in real big debt and the money those assholes payed me per month (hardly $100 a month for a full work day) could have been earned in a ragular 12 hour shift at any civilian minimal wage job... So I acted like an asshole to get discharged. Spent 12 weeks in a millitary lockup and 86 days in millitary prison #4...

 

Good times...

[Max]

I was in the British Territorial Army while at University with a view to starting at Sandhurst after I left.

 

I passed 3 rounds of selection with excellent scores and I just have 1 final round to go. However, I had rearranged my inital final selection date and basically got lost in the system. I passed the penultimate round of selection in November 2012, I should have been handed a final selection date within 8 weeks but here I am nearly 2.5 years later.

 

They booted me from one selection date due to over-subscription of applicants, then a few weeks later due to too few applicants. Then I was given a date but my medical clearance had expired so I had to have another medical, which made it the 3rd time an old Army doctor had fondled my balls. By the time they'd cleared my medical paperwork I'd missed the selection date.

 

After that I was fed up. Did a Masters and I've now taken on a civilian career. I absolutely hate it though so I'm reconsidering the army. I still just have one 4 day selection course to pass and I can start training as an Officer and it's bloody tempting because working in an office from 9-7/8 everyday is soul destroying. Not really how I want to spend my 20s especially when I have the chance to do something else.

 

At the very least I have to try with this final selection or else I'll always wonder.

[paperbagdude]

My dad was in the French Foreign Legion back in the 80's where he smoked African rebels.

 

I myself won't join any army any soon. All that BDSM discipline brought by the lemon squeezer ain't my style.

 

I wanna be a free man without any orders.

[Max]

I wanna be a free man without any orders.

It's rare to see someone devote their life to becoming a hermit these days. Good luck man.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Max

[Niobium]

i don't know why one would want to join the army. especially if that army is imperialistic and invades different countries to kill innocent people and make rich people richer.

 

the only thing good about the army is that you get weapons training

Edited March 9, 2015 by nobum62

[Abel.]

Max: Good luck with everything, mate. How was it doing the officer training alongside your studies, if I might ask? I recall you bemoaning the army f*cking up your career as an officer before. Bloody shame.

 

I'd like to join the IDF as a lone soldier on completing my studies. Probably would've been better to do so before entering academia but there you go. Plenty of hoops to jump through financially, with the Jewish agency and with learning Hebrew before the prospect becomes realistic, but not doing it would certainly be something I regret for the rest of my life.

 

 

To the OP: Do you like Moonsorrow? Are they still big in Finland?

Edited March 9, 2015 by Failure

[sivispacem]

My dad was in the French Foreign Legion back in the 80's where he smoked African rebels.

I assume you're referring to Operation Manta rather than the later Opération Épervier in Chad (neither of which were really conflicts against rebels but proxy conflicts with Libya) or the fleeting involvement in Comoros in 1989. If so that's kinda cool.

 

My grandfather flew during the Second World War, first in defence of the UK and later in a ground attack role supporting Operation Overlord. My uncle flew Jaguars during the Gulf War as part of Granby. I toyed with joining the RAF, then the RAF Reserve, but ended up in the private sector instead.

 

Oh, and Moonsorrow are freakin' awesome.

[Mr. Scratch]

 

I wanna be a free man without any orders.

It's rare to see someone devote their life to becoming a hermit these days. Good luck man.

Here we f*cking go again...

[Abel.]

 

My dad was in the French Foreign Legion back in the 80's where he smoked African rebels.

I assume you're referring to Operation Manta rather than the later Opération Épervier in Chad (neither of which were really conflicts against rebels but proxy conflicts with Libya) or the fleeting involvement in Comoros in 1989. If so that's kinda cool.

My grandfather flew during the Second World War, first in defence of the UK and later in a ground attack role supporting Operation Overlord. My uncle flew Jaguars during the Gulf War as part of Granby. I toyed with joining the RAF, then the RAF Reserve, but ended up in the private sector instead.

Oh, and Moonsorrow are freakin' awesome.

You know a band is awesome when you buy their albums and can recite their lyrics despite not knowing a word of Finnish. If I had more time I'd probably learn the rudiments in order to better appreciate their music.

[Crazyeighties]

I would have joined the U.S. Army but would have never been considered because I have/had cancer and other medical conditions that automatically disqualify you. Oh well maybe it's for the better I couldn't join.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Crazyeighties

[ByePolar]

In the early 80's, I served in the 1st Air Calvary for 5 years, which was enough for me. About half-way through my enlistment, I pretty much knew Army life wasn't for me, but I served my time and received an honorable discharge with the rank of E5 (SGT).

[Max]

 

 

I wanna be a free man without any orders.

It's rare to see someone devote their life to becoming a hermit these days. Good luck man.

Here we f*cking go again...

 

Where are we going? I love trips!

 

Failure: Thanks man. Good luck to you too.

 

It wasn't so much the army that f*cked up my career as the mind-bogglingly incompetent private firm, Capita, which took over the admin for army recruitment.

 

I managed to start my application while the system was under MoD control but in a misguided bid to save money the government awarded the admin contract to those c*nts at Capita midway through my selection who proceeded to f*ck it all up. Rumours abound that disgruntled and newly redundant MoD staff went about 'losing' applicants papers. Months of costly f*ck ups and backlogs to deal from Capita. All very nasty, all very expensive and all very inconvenient if you happen to be in the system at the time. Friends of mine who applied months after breezed through but those of us who were involved in the switch got shafted.

 

With regards to training while studying - it's a weird one. The OTC units at University say it's a part time thing but you spend a sh*t load of time with the people and some idiots sacrifice their degrees to get involved in every single aspect of OTC life. I had training every Wednesday evening. Every other weekend was spent out in the field on exercises. Then most weekends in between there were socials, or drill, or PT or an event such as Rememberance weekend etc. It soaks up a hell of a lot of time, especially when you factor in the up-keep of your kit. i.e. Ironing. But hey, you get paid a bit so it works out.

 

I tried to balance my OTC social life, studies and then non-military social life and I think I did a pretty good job most of the time. But when final exams hit and I was coming towards the end of my time at Uni I wanted to spend time with my real friends rather than my OTC group so training had to give way so I could study right and socialise with the people who mattered more to me.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Max

[K20]

After that I was fed up. Did a Masters and I've now taken on a civilian career. I absolutely hate it though so I'm reconsidering the army. I still just have one 4 day selection course to pass and I can start training as an Officer and it's bloody tempting because working in an office from 9-7/8 everyday is soul destroying. Not really how I want to spend my 20s especially when I have the chance to do something else.

 

office jobs is like being a zombie. fcuking hate it. hope you get the army career you want. but there are other jobs such as being a project manager, where its less office based and more hands on and out and about. pay might not be as good as a banker but close enough once the resume builds up.

[Mr. Scratch]

 

 

 

I wanna be a free man without any orders.

It's rare to see someone devote their life to becoming a hermit these days. Good luck man.

Here we f*cking go again...

 

Where are we going? I love trips!

 

 

That's number 3 on "Questions you shouldn't ask a mobster"

[make total destroy]

Excellent career choice for those working class folks sold nationalist lies, that want to kill working class folks sold nationalist lies.

[sivispacem]

Capita

[Abel.]

Excellent career choice for those working class folks sold nationalist lies, that want to kill working class folks sold nationalist lies.

I was going to respond to this, but for the sake of both our member logs I'll leave it well alone.

 

 

Max: sounds like that outside firm made a right pig's ear of it. I hope you sort it in the end in any case and do what you want to do. Office work can get really oppressive. Kind of pushes me more towards the idea of pursuing research but I don't have the aptitude for it really. Job's a job at the end of the day, but I imagine it's really frustrating doing a job you don't enjoy with an alternative currently just out of reach.

[RoadRunner71]

My dad was in the French Foreign Legion back in the 80's where he smoked African rebels.

 

I myself won't join any army any soon. All that BDSM discipline brought by the lemon squeezer ain't my style.

 

I wanna be a free man without any orders.

That's interesting. He might have fought the Libyans during the French intervetion in the Chadian-Libyan war. Years ago I visited the Libya-Chad border where there is still a vast amount of destroyed and burned out armored vehicles and trucks, reminiscents of the conflict. The area was sort of inaccesible due to, among other things, the presence of unexploded munitions which had previously led to some incidents with civilian casualties.

 

For instance, I must have somewhere a photograph of me riding a wrecked Panhard AML, maybe from the later Toyota War, with a turban on my head haha.

[Drunken Cowboy]

I've got buddies going into all different branches of the military. My childhood friend is starting to defuse IEDs in the Marines, another's doing para-rescure in the Army, and the third is doing some high-tech drone engineering sh*t in the Army as well.

 

Mad respect to (mostly) everyone who serves or has served, though f*ck all our governments.

 

I'd like advice from other Americans. Do you think I should consider joining up? I could finish college for no monetary cost, plus the fulfillment and prestige of serving. My only problem is this Middle East conflict seems like a joke to me, sending people and tax dollars to perish so some goat f*ckers don't kill some people a world over. It's hardly the forth reich or anything.

What do you guys think about serving today?

[Niobium]

i'm not american, but don't join

 

as johnny k once said, "It's all about getting the fat cats fatter." (you should get what context he is talking in, you TLAD fanboy you )

Edited March 9, 2015 by nobum62

[Dirty Hairy]

I'm a PFC in the National Guard. My mos is better suited for active duty so im having a pretty sh*tty time with it atm. With the war coming to a close, funds are being cut so that means i wont be seeing another mos school for years.

Edited March 10, 2015 by Dirty.Hairy

[universetwisters]

My dad was a paratrooper in the 82nd airborne during the late '70s. Ever see those videos of tanks and jeeps and sh*t dropping out of airplanes and parachuting safely to the ground? He was in charge of a few guys who did that. Then my uncle was in Vietnam and did stuff with airplanes. My brother was in the marines stationed in Korea. Come think of it, every man in my family served in the military ever since we came over from France or Holland or wherever we came from.

I tried to become a paratrooper like my dad was, but real life hit me like a ton of bricks, or what should've happened, me hitting the ground. Oh, analogies!

[ryan_J]

I always wanted to join the forces when I was younger, the British Army or the Royal Marines, quite crazy now I look back at it. Although I was interested in so called peace keeping and the more serious side of things I can't deny that part of it was the perceived awesomeness of roaming around the desert with guns. The travel part always drew me to it as well that and the fact I had no idea what I wanted to and if I even had the capability to do anything with my life.

 

Now I look back and I'm so happy I woke up before I joined, I feel embarrassed that I even considered it, this idea of roaming the desert with guns seems insane to me now, chasing down 'terrorists' and such. I have nothing against those who serve, served or want to serve in the military but on a personal level it's just a ridiculous idea to me now.