Military Service (Page 18 of 20)

I don't have anything else to compare it with since I've never fired other assault (battle?) rifles, but I don't remember anyone having much trouble with it. The AG3 was obviously overpowerd for most needs and could actually fire through young trees. it was uncomfortable and impractical wearing it in a sling in front of you when skiing, something we often did.

The G3 was produced outside of Germany after being given a license to do so. According to Wikipedia, the fountain of all knowledge (   ), the G3 was produced in Brazil, France, Mexico, Turkey, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Pakistan, Myanmar and Iran. It makes sense not all were of the same quality as the ones produced by the Germans. I remember my rifle was more than twenty years old and older than me. What type of rifle did you use?

My apologies for the late reply. I have been very busy at work.
Our issue rifle was the AK47. Although we had other rifles in the armoury, the AK47 was the one we almost always used. It was ideal for the very harsh conditions. It too was old but still good.
Even on exercise we were issued with live ammunition because our main training areas were very dangerous (there were even no tribes people living there). I am not sure if you too would have live ammunition on exercise? The reason why we carried it in our rifles at all times was because of the danger of attack by wild animals. I never had to fire at any predators and neither did anyone I was with, but other soldiers did. You had to sign for the ammunition and hand it back. If you used any you would have to hand the empty cases in and report why they had been fired. The officers were very strict about this.

PINGU!

i did JLR  RCT  basic  in 88
then posted to BÜnde in germany  1adtr  2sqn 
medicine hat incanada 6 months
then 10 months in the Gulf war 90 91
left the forces in 93
stayed in germany

junior leaders regiment RCT in cologne by bath

Sorry, but what is SDG?
I didn't serve in the British army, so I don't know all the abbreviations.
Did you feel you got the desert training you needed before you were deployed to the Middle East? You were part of the tip of the spear back then. How did you feel about Saddam's military at the time, and were you very surprised by how fast it collapsed?

Last edited by Number24 (2nd Mar 2020 18:52)

I was in INGBN 2 of the BRIG N  ….. I'm kidding. I did my national service in the combat engineers in the Norwegian army 1991-92, mostly in the north. That was cold too, but I belive a lot of other things were different. The main differences could be that we had better winter gear and and a total absence of people shooting at us.

I'm surprised fanatics in the Iraqi military were a problem, but I many of them were veterans from their war against Iran in the 80's. What you say about badly motivated soldiers sounds more like what I read in the news at the time. Did you have training in Norway like many British units do? Could have been useful in Iraq, judging by what you write.

That sounds terrible. I'm reminded of soething my father told me from his national service. He was in the infantry in the same camp I was in thirty years later. Once the unit he was in was ordered to march to the top of a moountain as quickly as possible for some reason. They didn't bring their tents or sleeping bags to march faster because they didn't expect to stay there. But they had to spend the night on that mountain, and my father got a frost burn. The Cold and darkness of winter can really influence your energy and mentality.

Not ours, well not with the cold weather gear anyways. In Finland, you risk hypothermia approximately 11 moths out of a year. So when you first sign for your issued gear, every single piece of kit is inspected that you have it and it is as it's supposed to be. Yes there is always some bloke who complains that "(insert brand name for gucci kit) -has better stuff" than the issued. But the issued is perfectly functional, and you will not be lacking. For those interested here's a link to a file that describes the current clothing items : https://puolustusvoimat.fi/documents/19 … 5-2013.pdf  It is in finnish though, so might want run some of it through the G-trans. What is sh1t though is hot weather gear, because there is none. All of that kit goes to peace keepers and international missions, but then again; there is no sense in blowing money to hot weather gear, that you'll need 2-4 times a year....     

We also get our share of soldiers from NATO countries looking for cooler climes.
Our Jaeger Brigade in Sodankylä trains every year a contingent of  foreign special forces in the finer art of freezing, more precisely in a SERE B course. The 24/7 darkness and -30c temperatures can be quite a challenge as it is, imagine having to try to maintain some level of operational functionality under those circumstances. 

Here's an old Russian TV spot about the Jaeger Brigade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-zVQgUD9L4

Last edited by 0073 (4th Mar 2020 11:13)