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Big Big Trucks
2006-04-23 13:03:21
With the camp over and the FDF's driver's card in my hand I'm now almost finished with my training. All that's left is the VAK-course (Transportation of Dangerous Materials) and that only takes a week. Then we'll see what kind of work I have to do for the next 4 months.
Overall the camp was much more humane than how our own unit arranges them. We got to driver a lot of different trucks thruout the days in various terrain, and we were allowed to set campfires where to grill sausages. There was even a good amount of free time and we didn't do needless combat training or carry the equipment. Annoying how I was sick for the last 3 days, but didn't go to the doctor, because you would then have to start the camp from day 1 sometime again.
The reason our unit's camps suck is because we're constantly playing soldier, no free time at all and you have to eat in about 5 minutes. There is a another camp coming in 2 weeks, and then we'll see if they've gone to an anymore reasonable direction with the arrangements. If not, I can laugh at how bad the superiors are at arranging a camp now that I've seen how it's really done.
The vehicles we drove at the camp consisted of different SISU and Mercedes-Benz trucks. We had the following at our disposal:
SISU A-45
SISU E11T 6x6
SISU E11T 8x8
SISU SA-240
Mercedes-Benz Atego
Mercedes-Benz Unimog
Graz (Russian made)
The two Mercedes-Benz trucks were my favorites ones to drive. They were a little more high-tech than the other ones and the driving experience was nice. Many older SISU felt like big scrap metal machines, though they did climb those muddy hills very smoothly. The Russian Graz was a horrible monster to drive and I hope I'll never get to touch it again. I swear that thing is from the age of Soviet Union with it's many ingeniusly engineered solutions. Where's the idea in putting in power steering that only works to the left? Not to mention make the cabin so noicy you can't hear a bloody thing, even when only on the first gear. I hope they give them to an artillery unit for a good target practice.
Not many incidents happend which was good. Someone broke a wooden railing off a bridge with a Graz and the front window was bashed on one of the Ategos, but that's about it. Last course managed a lot more damage, so our camp ended quite well.
More to come... -
Let's Drive!
2006-04-15 13:49:26
Next week is time for a four night long military driver's camp, where we will be further trained towards specific vehicles, but most importantly we get to drive around in difficult terrain. Trucks are bound to fumble in the ditch, roll over hills, fly downhills and whatever we can do with them. Sounds fun as long as it isn't me who decides to call in the superiors for tow aid. :p
I wish we'd have a nice weather for it. -
Still Alive
2006-04-08 09:12:54
In short, I'm still in training for the driver's position. 3 weeks left of that and then I should be a full-fledged military driver. I've passed all the exams and tests and only the last one remains.
At the moment this whole military junk is slowly getting to us. We're killing time in a rather crazy fashion and only waiting to get home for the weekend. What can I say? It feels such a waste of time to be in the Finnish Defence Forces when I could be doing so much more. Our country doesn't even really need an army of this nature, so who gives a damn... -
Driving school - here I come!
2006-03-18 11:07:59
It has been too long since I was at home. Our first weekend in the military burned because there was a quarantine placed over the barracks. From what we heard there was a case of acute meningitis, and the head of the finnish defence forces issued the blockade to prevent it from spreading to the outside world. There were all sort of interesting rumours going on about it. One was about us healthy ones being sent home for 2 weeks if there's more than 10 cases. Other rumour mentioned a month-long blockade with no weekend holidays. As always the rumours were all wrong. While others talked of 8 or 10 already been infected, it turned out there was only a single case after all. "Luckily" we would have been there anyway even without the quarantine because our unit was on guard duty. The second weekend we were in driving school taking classes. Appearently there's a small rush with the training, so they had to take the needed time from our holiday. Grr...
Feels damn good to be at home for exchange alive and well.
I guess I already mentioned this, but I'm now being trained as a military driver, C-level. That means my job will be to drive larger trucks and sometimes tow trailers. That makes my total time in the army 270 days. Tomorrow the hunders bang as the countdown reaches 200.
This is so much better than what we did as rookies, I have to say. We have time to eat properly, the food comes from Utti so it's much better than at Vekaranjärvi, we don't do combat training anymore and no more cold camps! No more useless training sessions either or night-lasting exercises. Not to mention I'll get to keep the C-level driver's licence once my service in the military is done. At least I'm getting something money-worthy with me when that lovely day comes...
Anyway, need to get back to packing and buy a few things before I leave tomorrow. After 3 weeks spent in the army with no breaks, it has used up pretty much all my supplies.
Laters. -
Still sickened
2006-02-25 04:00:32
This week sucked so badly. I've had a fever ever since I got it on Sunday, and I've just sat on my butt in the military the whole week while trying to survive. It's definately not the best place to be sick. Right now I'm literally coughing my stomach up at times and constantly blowing my nose. I wonder what the doctor will say. My guess is bronchitis. I just don't like the fact that it has lasted a whole week.
Ugh, I just want to get all better. Nothing else...
JOURNAL: Esrhan (Jari Perho)
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