No.1 rule when training in cold weather: Never, *ever* complain out loud how cold it is! - If you do, the instructor has ways to keep everybody warm! 😉
I heard ffrom a friend doing ranger training in Finland and did complain about the cold weather, his commander asked him to take off his jacket and then stood watching him for like 1 min and ask it is colder now? He answered "yes". Commander: hmm okay here have your jacket back so you keep yourself warm and walked away.
One of the ways to stay warm is for every Finnish soldier to wear a battle belt. The combat belt (Tetsarit) is a very airy and breathable equipment but also a very hot & warming equipment, because then sweat flows when the soldier is wearing a combat belt. From my own experience, I can assure you that the battle belt is the warmest outfit of the Defense Forces ☺
If your squad leader asks about the temperature in the tent and you say that it is too cold they will make you take it down and move it 1m to the south. Same goes if it is too warm, 1m to the north.
Only half of it. As a su recon squadleader, if it was too silent in a cold day, we were extremely scared that our beloved troopers are suffering from hypothermia and need to fix it asap, so there's that. No way around it
Worked with the Finn army when I was a young Brit squaddie in the mid 70’s, great bunch of lads. Found them to be well educated and professional. Could not speak each other’s languages but looked after us well and had some awesome drinking sessions.
@John David in Cyprus maybe? We met few older guys once in small Scottish pub, they had been in Cyprus with UN. When they found out that we were from Finland they asked how much we were planning to drink that evening. And were relieved to learn we had early morning drive ahead of us. Later I wondered that what amount of drunkness would make Scottish soldier worried? 😀
You'd be surprised how many of us understand and speak English today. Rally English ofcourse :) Edit: I started learning English when I was 9yo and studied for 9 years. From 2020 everyone starts at the age of 7 and it goes on for 12 years. If you choose to go to university or university of applied sciences you'll be studying even more of it.
I got a truck driving license from military for free which would cost thousands of euros if I bought it on my own. Its the same as any civilian has. Finnish military is the largest trainer of truck drivers in Finland =)
I went through Conscription in Singapore (2 years with reserves until 40 years old and every year we have reserve training), I was a Dual Vacationist (Combat engineer(eod specialist) and Combat driver/ambulance), i got my license from the military too, if i were to get it from the civilian world it would cost me about SGD$4800 or 3000 euros. but there was a catch for us since we needed to clock 7000km before we got our military license converted to civilian.
That's one of the better benefits, tho you could've easily paid for a truck driving license if you'd just worked with a basic salary for the same period of time
@@Jaggaraz218 The real money saver for aspiring truck drivers is getting the täys ammattipätevyys in the army. In addition to the CE card you're looking at easily over 10,000€. In the army my friend told me it was over €20k benefits but I think that might be pushing it, i never bothered to google though.
Decided to write up a bit about some of the questions you were asking: 15:12 In my experience gun safety was taken very seriously, and flagging people was a good way to earn some additional "training" in weapon handling safety. I remember a time when one guy even had his rifle temporarily taken away due to repeated flagging incidents. 18:30 Basic training, the first 8 weeks, are functionally identical no matter where you serve and teach basic weapon handling and individual combatant skills. In the army, you can generally only get selected for jobs in the same battallion you were assigned to when starting basic, and aside from a few special cases you will not be able to swap battallions. In the Navy things work kind of differently, and you can be selected for pratically any role within the Navy after basic. Air force, border guards, and all that high-speed low-drag special forces stuff you have to apply for separately before you start your service. 20:45 It's kind of a mix of how well you do in basic and your own willingness to take on a leadership role. Sometimes there are more volunteers than positions and competition for leadership spots is tight, and on the other hand sometimes there aren't enough and people who want nothing to do with a leadership role end up in NCO training. 24:12 The enlisted stay in the reserve until 50, NCOs and officers until 60. In this time your wartime position can and will change, with your civilian education and occupation affecting your wartime position as well as older guys generally being rotated out of operative front-line jobs into more local supporting roles. Also people working in certain essential positions (police, doctors, people working important infrastructure) will be exempt from service and will continue doing their civilian jobs in wartime. I hope this helps clear up some of this stuff for you. I personally served 12 months as a driver (very much against my wishes, I was hoping for a quick 5.5 and out lmao) but I got a truck license and CDL out of it so I guess it was worth it.
Well written! Just one minor correction: you wrote about the enlisted men. In Finland there are only few enlisted (värvätty) men. The vast majority of the men in service are conscripts (varusmies). After the service they become reservists (reserviläinen). Those, who are not officers (in reserve) or NCOs (in reserve), are referred to as "rank and file" (in reserve?).
20:45 It's basically an IQ test with some performance test scores and willingness thrown in. ~20% of the top IQ are taken to NCO training, ~10% Top IQ as reserve officers. ~110+ IQ = NCO. 120IQ+ = reserve officer.
@@raunoheiskanen7742 Your first half was correct. The top ~20% from the IQ tests are put on the short list, and those who perform well are sent to NCO school, but after that there are no more IQ tests. It's just based on how well they perform in exercises, exams, leadership evaluation and overall training in NCO school. Those who volunteer and qualify for reserve officer training are selected and sent onwards to reserve officer training. It's not as you implied that they take one IQ test in the first week and their entire military career is based on that.
Served 12 months during conscription (and some time after that), and I'm certain that the service was probably the most important 12 month period of my life. Currently working in an university in mainland Europe, and it's painful to see people older and more experienced than me struggling with 'adulting' (as you put it). Sticking to agreed deadlines, delegating tasks, supervising, trusting your subordinates and giving the the tools to complete tasks without micromanaging everything... all of these are in short supply. Not to mention the general lack of confidence.
To be fair if conscription wasn't a political tool more people would be fine with it. Coming of age rituals have traditionally been part of any self-sufficient society but as of now the only culturally accepted way is conscription. It is basically government mandated fodder acquisition for men in power playing game of eye for an eye. We need to build new, up-to-date systems favouring cooperation for the love of living over cooperation in fear of X, Y and Z.
99% of men in this world have never served. I think most of your issues are related to working in academia in general. Try investment banking, investment management, consulting or M&A-related legal work and see how it is.
Military doesn't fix you. It's such a bull-shoot idea that it creates men from boys. It, for example, didn't undo my ADHD. In fact there's some light/anecdotal research that people with ADHD have harder time returning to civilian life, because in the military, the structure is told to you, there are no options, while in civilian life you have to create your structure and have the motivation to hold on to it. For the record, I was placed into troop transport trucking duties due to my health issues, asthma. I was the most motivated person of my peers and quickly earned my lance corporal(korpraali) promotion during the latter half of my year of service. The basic idea is. Whatever problems you leave behind getting out of civilian life, will return 2-fold or worse when you MUST return back into it. Military doesn't fix it and often makes things worse.
You should take in consideration that Finnish army is first and foremost designed to defend and protect Finland when U.S. armed forces are designed much more to be active aggressor in conflicts so that plays a lot into equipment, tactics and strategies. Also, Matt Damon has finnish roots
@@za.monolit that's because US have a considerably large population. Finland main threat is Russia, whose population is ten times the one of Finland (or something like these)
@@za.monolit you don't get it, dummy. The point is that for the US defensive war is much easier because of the large population. Finland focuses purely on defense, because with a population of 5.6 million every person needs to count and be doing something useful. Aggression isn't even a choice for us.
This video is pretty old, 7 years almost, so some equipment has changed if anyone is wondering why stuff is from the stone age, including mostly the standard issue rifles which are the 62M1 now.
Also, with the coming of the readiness units or VYKS after the Russian Crimean invasion in 2014, a large sum of specialists that do not receive NCO training get to be 1 year in the army as opposed to say a decade ago, when a lot of those guys were mostly just 6 months or 9 months if they got to be medics, military police or something else. I don't think you even had the ability to be a 1 year no nco or officer trained member of the army 10 years ago. Would be nice if they renewed this video in its 10th anniversary.
@@SuperCompany007 M1s are really common these days with conscripts dude and have started to replace the old 62s since 2016 or 17. I reckon only the "backwater" brigades still use mainly the old cheese shredder RK62s because they don't exactly have need for super high quality gear when their main armament are vechiles or howitzers.
Its a pretty old video and much has changed during the years but this gets the point trough and yes you can choose the future training path during basic training season, i spent my basic training in a jaeger company and chose to go do some tank stuff in readiness unit for the rest of my year long service after seeing Leopard 2A4 driving around in the woods while i was freezing in my trench at -32 degrees celsius. The NCOs are selected during basic training season by points (volunteering ones also get more points) and at some point after the basic season during the NCO training season the reserve officers are chosen from the best of the conscripts who were chosen for NCO school (if im not mistaken, i was neither). You belong to the reserves till you are 50-60 years old and you can be called in for more training during the time in reserves. You can also volunteer for exercises in reserves and even get picked for NCO/reserve officer school if you didnt get the training during conscription service. If someone believes military to be their future job they can apply for the job after the conscription service if they have NCO or reserve officer training and the reserve officers can volunteer for even more training and learning by joining the cadet school. I myself am planning to apply for peacekeepers in couple years after i get my schooling and rest of civilian life in order and even my gf has volunteered for conscript service and is going in few months when the season begins. The military is part of everyone's life in some way in Finland and usually when you talk to older men the conversation usually starts with him saying "Back when i was in the military...". ... Also a cool thing i forgot to mention is about athletes, if you have high awards from sports (like the best of the country) before your conscript service, you can apply for "urheilukoulu/sports school" where you will be automatically trained to be a scout (and some other special stuff that shall not be named)
The leadership training you get at the reserve officer school is actually really modern and good. That has really helped me a lot in my civilian job and made me a good people manager.
We use F18's (single and dual seat configurations) as multirole fighters. Due to their age, they are being replaced atm. We are looking into EF Typhoons, Dassault Rafales, Saab Jas Grippens F/A-18E/F Advanced Super Hornets and F-35 Lightning IIs. I think they all made their demo flights and tests in Finland already.
Before going to service my dad said "Remember that there's everyone of your age, not just the people you'd normally hang around with. Just get along with everyone regardless of whether you like them or not and it's going to be just fine." and it really sums the conscript system pretty well. Looking back it was really helpful to meet people from different backgrounds and to learn to deal with also the people you didn't like. Spend half a year in the same room with random people is a good experience for future in work life. At the time it ofcourse seemed like waste of time and going through the same things over and over again was boring as F, but hey, once it's done and you're out, it started to seem like a pretty decent experience.
Having actual lunatic (he got D papers after two months) and extremely stupid person (aiming rifle with live ammunition towards other people, etc.) in your barracks didn't really leave good thoughts from my service time.
You have a really good point there. The most I got out of my special (9 months) training, was to meet people that I wouldn't never meet otherwise. And don't think this wrong... We're brothers now, so they got to meet someone they wouldn't have met otherwise.
Well, about 70-75% of each age class chooses the military service, so it is a huge generational experience. I'm a very civilian person, a nerd basically, and did not much like the training, but my mates were incredible, we supported each other and got through all the hardships. And it was for a good cause - the only imaginable enemy is Russia and as pacific and pacifist I am, I would always defend our Eastern border. This is a pretty universal sentiment in Finland, unsurprisingly :)
"Chooses" 😅 yeah they "choose" that instead of working 13 months without pay at some public institution like nursing home, or going to jail for a year, good to have options Oh and by the way 50% of the age class don't have to do jack shit, because they're women
Great video, and I love your reactions to our smaller landing craft boats :D The footage shown was of the u600 jurmo class landing crafts. As a conscript boat driver I can tell you that yes, they are bad ass to drive and yes, it's fucking fun. At the brigade where I served, about 16 people get to become boat drivers every half year. I was one of those lucky people. Edit: and the boat driver training is also always an NCO training which lasts one year
actually now the boat driver training might also last only 6 months, 4 out of the 16 are trained only on the G-100 class, and the 12 others continue to the NCO training.
As a Finn living in U.S., it’s cool seeing an American eagerly learning about other countries’ military tactics. Your open-mindedness, perceptiveness, and truly interested demeanor is admirable.
Fun fact: the narrator is a reserve captain and a well-known radio host. That guy *does* look like Matt Damon! I've seen this video before but didn't notice it until you mentioned it. And like many commenters have stated: Matt Damon has some Finnish ancestry (personally I share common ancestry with him in the 1600's. Fun but meaningless fact.)
This is the conscription program that I went through: -> 2 months of basic training (NCOs train the recruits). -> Recruits are promoted to privates. - >4 months specialization training. (NCOs train privates). -> 6 month service men complete their duty and leave the service while 9 month and 1 year service men continue (this is also where the previous NCOs complete their service and the NCO trainees are promoted to their first NCO rank). -> 2 months of advanced training (new NCOs train their new recruits while other 9 month and 1 year service men complete additional training). -> 9 month service men complete their duty and leave the service. New recruits are promoted to privates. -> NCOs, 1 year service men and fresh privates collaborate for a few months. -> At the 11th month NCOs, 1 year service men and fresh 6 month service men complete their duty and leave the service while the rest of the new service class continues their service. Officer trainees are also promoted to their first officer rank during this time.
@@diegoyuiop You can, you can plead to push service back multiple times for a multitude of reasons like resolvable health concerns, work or education, possibly even family-building. You just can't delay it beyond 30 years of age (iirc, around there somewhere at least), that's when the hammer comes down.
Regarding how well you can pick your task, you can sort of pick your weapon branch by expressing your wishes for which battalion you'd like to serve in of those available in the brigade-level unit you're going to serve in. Each battalion represents a weapon branch. There's only one brigade level unit in the country that includes all six army weapon branches in it though, which is the Karelia Brigade. For example at Guard Jaeger Regiment you're limited to picking between signal, urban jaeger or military police. I wanted to join the Salpausselkä air defence battalion and that's where I ended up in. There's rarily any guarantee for whether or not you'll actually land in the specific task you want to have, though. The defence forces' own needs are the priority with the conscript's own wishes being secondary. You may want to get into task A but the defence forces see you much better fit for task B so you'll likely end up in task B instead. They still do always try to fulfill conscripts' wishes the best they can, but it's obviously not always possible. For example my own experience: I was never really interested in NCO school (my interest being 1 on a scale of 0-4), but I was assigned there anyway mostly based on my score in the psychological tests (I didn't really mind though and now I'm quite happy I ended up there). While there the NCO school had two separate lines, one half of the students were on the "weapon systems line" (training to become missile squad leaders etc), the other half being on "command systems line" (learning to set up and run the anti air command system mess of cables, field phones, radio masts and radars), so already from the get go you were limited to the tasks available for whichever line you happened to have been assigned to. On these lines each task had limited quotas which were filled primarily based on the students' wishes. This was also when the readiness units were first founded and the staff would ask for volunteers, but their advertising for it was essentially "most of it is classified so we can't tell you much other than that you'll have way more exercises and you don't get to lead the next batch of recruits", which didn't help find them volunteers. In the end they still had to fill the quotas, so a bunch of people with no interest in the readiness unit ended up in the readiness unit. After NCO school and the basic training of the next batch of recruits, we'd be finally assigned into our actual final tasks we'd train in with our subordinates to form war-time units, and the task I ended up in was pretty much completely unrelated to the task I had been trained for in NCO school (which ended up actually being pretty nice once again), so not even NCO school training guaranteed my actual task in the end. If there's one thing that's certain about the military, it's that you never have any clue what's going to happen next. Also as some others have mentioned, your actual war time task can and will still vary over time, for example if after your service you go work in the construction field, your war time task will likely end up being pioneer related. This also means that in some cases we have _more_ professional people working in some tasks than equivalent professional soldiers would be.
@@kimreinikainen hopefully we will... F/A-18 Hornets are too old, especially when Russia is getting more SU-57 fighters (5th generation jet). I'd rather take working air defence than replacing something "sexually unequal" traffic signs. Hopefully we will buy F-35 Lighting ll or Boeing Superhornet with Growler. Eurofighter Typhoon would be great too, Rafael quite meh (but we would get licence to produce our own planes with improved conditions) and Gripen is just poor.
Hey great video. I really enjoyed watching this. To answer some of your questions: 5:35 No we don't do a lot of helicopter related activities at all. We don't have enough helis to justify training most ppl for that 7:00 Our capital Helsinki has it's own air defence unit Helsinki Air Defence Regiment 18:30 You're already assigned a general assignment like "mortar, artillery, jägers, engineering, logistics etc. before basic training and then after the basic training you can specialize inside the given branch. For example if you were assigned to be in the mortar company after the basic training you can specialize in one of the roles around handling the mortar, communication, motorbike messenger, medic which are all 6 months conscriptions or NCO training and officer training which both branch into numerous different specializations inside the mortar company. 20:50 Who gets into NCO training or from the NCO trainees who gets to officer training it's decided based on written and practical tests, recommendations from the instructors and of course willingness. But if there isn't enough volunteers (because you will get 6 months extra conscription haha) They will force this task on the ones they deem most capable, but usually there's enough volunteers. 24:10 Conscript law (1438/2007) 2 § Rough translation: "Every male Finnish citizen is liable to military service from 18 to 60" After that you're no longer in the reserves. 28:47 I went through reserve officer training in the mortar co. I was responsible for where all 3 platoons (9 mortars) of our Armoured Mortar co. we're shooting so it was a lot of responsibility for a kid straight out of highscool to bear, especially when shooting live shells! It certainly taught me a lot of responsibility, pressure tolerance, leadership and other socials skills. Now if something seems too hard or frightening I can just look back and tell myself it's nothing compared to that haha. Even though most of the time there I was wishing I was back at home, it was definitely a positive experience overall.
@@Str0b0 The F-35 is easily the most capable of the options, but I think Finland should never the less go with an European option for supply reliability. The US is unfortunately looking less and less like a reliable partner with how volatile their politics are.
@disadadi Yes, it's very expensive and that's certainly a massive problem with it. They're not going to be made obsolescent by the next gen of fighters though, as it's a stealthy platform that can be upgraded. Rather it's the 4th and 4.5 gen fighters that are the ones that will be sitting ducks for the later generations of fighters, as they have no stealth capability and in most cases worse sensors. Also, the 6th gen fighters have a lot of unproven tech that they need to get up to speed and they're going to suffer from the same kind of timetable overshooting that affects most new planes, so expecting them to be operational by 2040 is very optimistic. Personally I'd love to have all of Europe kitted out with European made cutting edge equipment, but that'll need funding and policy support on the EU level to do, and that'll probably take quite a while still to achieve.
I'm pretty sure even this video was made by conscripts, since some of the conscripts do graphic design, video production, photography and so on after basic training. Essentially they produce media for conscripts and future conscripts. Here for example is an ad to be a camera operator during the military service: ruclips.net/video/EQCGD-nW_kk/видео.html Then again a few of the conscripts do stuff like programming, computer security, etc., although they are usually required to have prior experience. Pretty much everyone is a conscript expect the staff officers and the civilian support staff, who take care of mental and physical health, prepare food and work in warehouses. There are other civilian jobs in the Finnish Defence Forces but those are the most common ones.
During my consription (80's) over 90% of male population did it, 8 or 11 months. I am proud lieutenant (res.) of Finnish Field Artillery. During war time I'll command one younger officer, 15 sergeants and 70 ordinary soldiers. 6:18
Are you sure you still have your war time post? You must be pretty old already, having served in the 80's... I served 2/-82. I used to be an infantry company commander (in reserve), but I got the boot some 5+ years ago. Now I'm just another reservist, only to be needed if the shit hits the fan (really) big time. That's the cycle of life, I suppose...
@@yoretabio4537 Sure we are (in reserve until 60). We just don't have the pre-assigned posts anymore. We are needed only, if the casualties are astronomically high. Regards, Kajaste 171
You were correct in your assumption that everyone goes through the basic infantry training. 1. Every single conscript in Finland goes through a basic training (17:30 in the video). 2. After that the conscript is placed into their future unit where they will go through a general training related to their placement (those in Officer training will undergo an officer training program.) 3. After that they will be assigned to their squad and team, where they will train their wartime task until the end of service. (I think those in officer training will go through a training related to where they will be serving as an officer. Officers in logistics will need different skills than those in Military Police). 4.When the ones who serve for 5.4 months get to go home, those who became officers will train the new conscripts (from part 1.)
Myself and everyone I knew were placed in their unit from day one in the military, can you please give some examples of where in Finland basic training is done somehow separately? 🤔
@@iLoveTheseRemoras I've never heard of anyone being assigned to another military base after basic training but anything below that is possible. A conscript might report to the combat engineer company on day 1 and serve there for their basic training phase, but get assigned to artillery or logistics after their basic training. Basic training is not performed somewhere separately, but in the actual companies where the rest of their service could be. Some people might just get reassigned after basic training. It's not really a problem since the basic training is exactly the same between companies, and between military bases as well.
@@Ukulisti Some bases don't have nco training so sometimes those who go to nco training will go somewhere else for that ( at least in 2/03 future nco's from Rovaniemi went to Sodankylä for nco training).
8:00 The Finnish navy mainly consists of small attack craft and minelayers, I don't think anything currently in service even qualifies as a Corvette. It's a navy designed entirely for defensive warfare in shallow waters with A LOT of islands. Finland is known for its ridiculous amounts of lakes, but when you get to the coast the land/water ratio inverts and you get ridiculous amounts of small islands instead. I think Finland might have the messiest coastline in the world. In such conditions, large ships would be unwieldy.
@@herrakaarme if I'm not wrong he wrote "currently in service". Those 4 new ships for the Finnish Navy are actually going to be more like frigate size, but since frigate is considered to be the smallest of the blue water ships, these coastal ships are classified "only" as (very large) corvettes.
@@herrakaarme The exact cut-off point of what's considered viable for the Finnish archipelagos is obviously up to the experts to decide. I meant larger ships in general without any specifics in mind. Finland has had corvettes before, so it's not that shocking to see them being re-introduced. I would mostly be surprised to see them trying to acquire something larger, like destroyers or cruisers.
@@Zagskrag I bet they would if they had the money. As it is, there are people who think these new corvettes will be unnecessarily big and thus expensive and vulnerable ships. They aren't necessarily wrong.
Great video again, you've become one of my favorite RUclipsrs. :) Those fighters in video are Boeing F/A-18's. Finland is buying new fighters soon and using around 10 billion euros (about 11,9 billion US dollars) for them. Finland will buy either Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets (United States), Lockheed Martin F-35's (United States:), Dassault Rafale's (France), Eurofighter Typhoon's (Great Britain) or Saab JAS Gripen NG's (Sweden). It's not yet known which one Defence Forces will choose.
Funny thing about the health mentality in FDF, they sometimes advertise themselves as the "biggest fitness center in Finland". Citing that nobody else trains as many people to exercise in Finland.
Elementary school sure doesn't. Oh we got PE? Do some jumping jacks then play football. Nutrition? Calories? Muscle mass? Rest periods? Anaerobic vs Aerobic? What are those? Don't like team sports? Too bad, other forms of exercise don't exist. You are just a sedentary person, why even try? Humans need exercise, and the school system put me completely and entirely off it. I had to figure out for myself, years later, that going to the gym, managing my diet, spending time alone working on my physique, was something I actually enjoyed. Luckily I did so in advance of my conscription. Would have been a lot more painful to do it during.
@@MentalEdge That's definitely not the job of elementary school(ala-aste) at all. On the other hand during the secondary school(yläaste) we were very much taught most of that stuff, and no one(including you, clearly) listened. Assuming you grew up in Finland.
@@TealJosh Yeah, except ala-aste sets the tone for every subject, because it comes first. Math, is already actual math, even in ala-aste, same for every other subject. Why should health education be any different? Yeah, there was biology, but that consisted of very little actionable information about the human body. PE wasn't graded, or tested, in any proper way, the intellectual components of the subject were always secondary to the actual physical activity, and the entire subject, is secondary to all others. Not even the teachers take it seriously so why should the students? Yes, things get mentioned in both ala and ylä aste, but compared to other subject, to claim that they are actually "taught" is hyperbolic at best.
@@MentalEdge bet the only thing you remember from the health & wellness course(terveystieto) was the sex-ed, huh. I listened, because I was an utter autist. Fitness and food was a well taught topic.
@@TealJosh Why are you being so malicious? The only reason I'm on top my diet and exercise today is because I went out of my way to get into after a good gym teacher piqued my interest at the end of secondary school. Why are you set on blaming the students? If students don't learn what they need to learn, the system failed. It's that simple. If the students we're not interested, that's because the teaching method failed to engage them. Just because you and me were wierd enough to absorb the knowledge like sponges, doesn't mean the system isn't in need of improvements. When you see other students failing where you succeed, do you just bask in your own superiority, instead of getting concerned that some are being left behind?
One thing about the Finnish Defence Forces is that it's f-ing huge. Active and reserve troops combined it goes to around 1 million troops. There's even an old poland ball meme about it :P
@@effexon My unit was told multiple times that we were free to leave at any time, no one was forcing us to be there, if one didn't feel like doing it they could be on the way back home 1pm next day at the latest after receiving lunch. Gets rid of people who don't want to be there quite effectively.
I mean you can't just get out of national service though, if you don't want to be in the military then you have to go do civilian service which is why most people rather stay in the military since its way more fun
@@effexon a huge amount? Yeah, naw. I saw maybe 5 quit during my time. And those that did were because of health reasons. No one actually quit because it was "too hard". Those people are weeded out before it begins. But then again, maybe we northerners are built a bit different.
You seem to like those fast boats called "Jurmo" and also kayaking. Both of those you get to experience in Meritiedustelukomppania. That is the naval recon company under coastal forces. Served as a sergeant for a year and we spent many weeks training in finnish archipelago, even during the winter. Beautiful and also exhausting.
When he said "Fun stuff" I cringed - the finnish archipelago is beautiful all year long and nice in summer, but freezing your ass off in some small island in late autumn in the cold, wet wind... :D
Meritiedustelukomppania was great. Especially if you got into the actual recon teams. Morning runs were so nice when you were the last one to go but had to always be the first one to get back. I still have fond memories about everything even though we had pretty shitty gear back in 08.
@Combat Arms Channel. Every conscript is in active reserve until they turn 50. If you are NCO or Officer your reserve status lasts until you are 60 years old. There are different "tiers" of active reserve. So as you age you will be moved to less demanding or supporting role. Also every man between 18-64 can be called for immediate participation in case of crisis. These people are the ones who chose civil service or had health issues preventing conscription or went to prison to serve time if they refused civil service or conscription. When you are in reserve you can be called to receive additional training at any time. Maximum amount of days spent in retraining after active service is 80/150 (NCO/Above) days. I've been in reserve for 10 years now and haven't yet received call for a military refresher courses. Some people from my unit have received about a week of additional training in reserve. You get compensated for the days you are training in military on reserve.
This was quite thoral army marketing video. I served at Kainuu Brigade in the 80's. I was in infantry and trained as platoon vice-leader (sergeant). The training there was very professional (IMHO) even at that time. I was a big boy, so there were some physics problems in the beginning but eventually it went quite well. I have good memories about the service (and bad memories l've forget). The other visitors have answered to your questions, so thanks for the reaction.
i know that woman from 4:27. We grew up in the same town and went to the same school together. She is very squared-away individual and everybody always kinda knew that she would go on and do the military service.
Thank you Combat arms channel for nice video about Finnish army. Maybe is good to know that 300 000 Finnish has hunting card and some kind of hunting weapon.
I'm a volunteer firefighter in Finland, and like in the states, we have quite important role in emergency services, as there's simply not enough professionals to do all of the work. The defence forces assists us, and the fire department and other authorities quite often, for example in finding lost person, and in forest fires. It makes our job much easier when they arrive with their helos with thermal imaging systems in them.
Late to the show, but I'd say the glue that keeps finnish men together, for the country, or even for a common good, is that they all served. What a great experience,once some time passes 😂
Nice reaction. And always nice to see our finish brothers 🇸🇪🇫🇮 I don’t know how it is in Finland but is Sweden we used to know from the very start if we would be group, platoon or company leaders. I started as a company leader and did 15 month training all together. It was based on the first test that you did see a similar finish version of. If you had any academic education, did well on the intelligence test and showed some leadership skills in the interview with the psychologist you could be offered that. It might be different now in Sweden too. About the kayaks, in sweden the costal rangers uses them and we did also now and the in the paras (was there for a while after I had done my conscript and continued to be an full time officer). The kayak is an excellent transportation in both swedish and finish archipelagos as you can travel quiet and over long distances.
18:30 Like others have said, the basic idea is that everyone gets the same 8 weeks of basic infantry training. The unit you're assigned to prior to your service starting, is very likely the one where you'll finish it, even if you receive specialized training in a different unit during the specialization phase of your service. For example in an air defense battery, some of the NCOs and Reserve Officers will receive training in separate signals, infantry and supply units, while majority of them will receive their specialized air defense training in that same/adjacent anti-air battery within the battalion. Those that left to receive training in signals, infantry or supply will then return to that same anti-air battery they started out in for the final phase of training, in order to fulfill that role they were sent out to be trained for.
Yes, but depending on physicality of the original task, one may be dropped from that unit into general reserve. For example I had refresher exercise two times (7 years after leaving military and 12 years after leaving military) and then I became too old for my task (reconnaissance).
@The All-seeing Usually it tends to be that those that complain about feminism having gone too far are also against making the the system more selective and gender neutral. Because in their minds the conscription service makes boys into men.
@The All-seeing Finland doesn't have a big enough population to have an effective and sizeable army solely from volunteers, as US does. We can't afford to look who is willing to join the army, or super strictly look who likes fitness. Srong defence is important, that's why looking at facts is important. Fact is, men are biologically and mentally more suitable at being warriors. Men are stronger, more agressive, are more often natural leaders than women, natural instinct to defend, endure more crappy enviroments and are not as emotional. We don't have a problem with men going to the army and fighting, since it's what has been happening since the dawn of time. Including more women just for the sake of having women doesn't really give any strategical advantage whatsoever. Your opinion is a poltical one, not strategical.
@The All-seeing Sorry, but you can't argue against biology. Men and women are hugely different. You're trying to downplay the difference, but I have eyes and ears, friends who are girls and boys, I notice the massive difference very often. Lets take a high school/college for example. Look at the hallways full of people. You're supposed to train warriors based on your choise, people who defend and kill for maximum results. Who comes to mind? No offense, but in my case, I cannot say that a lot of girls. I never saw any girl who could beat a normal male (excluding maybe 2-3 nerdy guys whos bodies were like they haven't eaten in a week). It's generally rare to see girls who are physically army material compared to men. Only a handful of girls were even interested in army stuff, and weird thing is they were all incredibly skinny and small, could not really sustain marches or endure anything physical that well. At least 90% of the guys were fit for army in my high school, if you ask me. Generally army is more appealing to men, and men do get more results. I seriously doubt Winter War would end up like it did, had Finland used women instead. I hate to bring this up, because I don't want to sound like a woman hater who despises women as it's not true. Someone has to say the unpleasant truth sometimes.
The jets in the video are F18 Hornets. The same planes that the U.S. Navy uses. Last year we made a desicion to purchase new F35 jets to replace the soon-retiring F18s.
20:40 most of the NCO:s are volunteers and have an interest in staying for a year, but there are some who get picked out who don't necessarily want to.
Or they don't get to go the NCO branch they wanted. It is also possible to go next NCO training after 5.5 months if you didn't go there at start of your service but you basically restart from 0, you have no "service benefits" that you might have got, such as you can eat with one time use utensils. Basically means you do not get it easy at all during your 11 months of service.
Funny thing about the translations... "Valtakunta" means "realm" or "reich," not "nation." "Nation" would be "kansakunta." "Valta" means rule or power, "kansa" means people, and "kunta" by itself would mean county, but in compound words it would mean an encompassed thing, a host of things, a community/commune, a domain of a concept: solar system = aurinkokunta (sun domain) brotherhood = veljeskunta (brothership community) fire brigade = palokunta (host of fire) congregation = seurakunta (companion community) Realm = valtakunta (domain of rule) nation = kansakunta (community of a people)
You go to service when you're 17-9, (max28) then u leave, but are still in reserve untill 65. In Finland, at least with men, there are no civians, only reservist.
At the moment we have F-18 hornet's, but we are middle of competitive tendering for a new fighter. We will choose new fighter from these candidates: F-18 super hornet+F18 Growler, Eurofighter, Saab Gripen ng, F-35 and Rafale.
We have F/A-18C hornets and few D (two seated version) and there's ongoing procurement for the next fighter jets. Options are F/A-18E/F super hornet, f35a, eurofighter typhoon, French Dassault rafale and Jas Grippen E from sweden. They went through testing in February (ability to work in cold, use of small runways on highways etc) Boeing is offering couple of FA-18E Growlers (for electronic warfare) and Sweden is offering globaleye early warning & control plane on their bits
@Combat Arms actually you asked a pretty good question in half way of the video about NCOs. When I was doing my military service I never took myself as a leader.. just wanted to get the shit done and go home. But quite soon after the military service I have been in leading positions at work for 24 years now... just asked myself.. what if .. what if I would have chosen to go NCO training instead.
In the U.K. we used to have National Service which was for 18 months, and you remained on the call up list for 4 years after your service ended. It was for all healthy males 17 to 21 years, it was ended on the 31st of December 1960, with the last members leaving their service in 1963. I personally believe it should be brought back for young women and men, not just for the Military but helping the community as well. It would teach younger generations to appreciate how important actively being part of society is, and how mush their self worth is.
During the Second World War, the Finnish Defense Forces fought twice against the Red Army -> our grandfathers achieved two repulsive victories. First in 1939-40 in the Winter War and then in the Continuation War in 1941-44. The enemy put everything on the line and tried to conquer our country -> they suffered heavy losses (crew and equipment losses). Our army fulfilled its most important mission: our country was NOT occupied. We didn't lose our wars, but achieved great victories against a completely superior enemy (the Red Army).
Here are my comments for the video. The clip about the Finnish Navy escorting the civilian ship. The Finnlines ship there is called a ro-ro-ship or a roll-on/roll-off ship. It basically means that you can drive cars in and out of the car deck. These Finnlines ships travel between Finland and Germany. They mainly carry cargo but they also accept passengers. The ships are very basic and they don't have much services for passengers. It's mainly a way to get from point a to point b. There are also ro-ro-ships traveling between Finland and Sweden and Finland and Estonia. They have much more services for passengers and people go on cruises on them just for fun. They've been hit with Covid really bad and they are still trying now to survive. Personally I'm a big fan of these ro-ro ships especially between Finland and Sweden. I've been traveling that route all my life. First trip was in 1987 when I was 3 and still today I travel as often as possible. I've seen quite a few storms on the Baltic Sea. I was also a passenger in 1992 on the ship that later was renamed the M/S Estonia. M/S Estonia sank on the Baltic Sea in 1994 with loss of life of 852 souls.
It's good to have guys like yourself on our side! As a Finnish reserve sergeant I am really interested about American army forces and how do they compare to Finnish defense forces. Thank you for your input!
During my service my own group nco was always asking who would, in my/our opininion, be fitting to be a nco or an reserve officer from our basic training group. When our basic training phase conluded we had to put in paper our opininions of each other (Of other group members). The basic question asked of each and every one was "would i risk my life under this person's leadership?" and rate it from 1 to 9. 1 meaning absolutely not and 9 meaning absolutely yes. Usually the ones who are motivated, down-to-earth or dream of leadership get to become nco's, but there was that one dude who didn't want it and was basicly ordered to be one.
While I was serving we did a charity money collection for WW2 vets. As NCO I was stuck coordinating the conscripts via radio. On the plus side I got to sit with old WW2 vet (head of the veterans aid org.) He had some interesting stories about the war and even more interesting stories about what happened after the war. I also had to drink like 10 cups of coffee because I couldn't refuse. (WW2 vet offering you cup of coffee... )
During crisis, all the biggest ships in finland will belong to finnish navy as well as some of the yachts abd boats. Cruise ships in finland have car decks so they will be used for mine laying.
@@CombatArmsChannel The same used to go for for 4WD cars, tractors and what not, don't know if this is the case any longer though. In the Winter and Continuation war the farmers horses were "enlisted"...
That's not true, the merchant navy still continues work. The military doesent need bulk carriers and such. Most of the finnish mariners are freed from the mitary service during the war.
@@TheJube97 oh really? Funny thing that i happen to be a sailor and I'm not part of the reservs anymore, nor are any regulars that are sailing under the flag of this company that I'm working on.
The fighter aircraft are Mcdonnell-Douglas (Boeing) F/A-18C (and F/A-18D, the dual seater) MLU2 (Mid Life Update 2) Hornets. The same type's still in use with Navy Fighter Weapons School and a few USMC squadrons (For example VMFAT-101 and the VMFA-232). The Finnish Air Force operates a total of 62 Hornets. Preliminary flight training is done with Finnish Valmet L-70 Vinka (breezy wind). Jet trainers in use are the BAe Hawk mk51A and mk66.
The kayakers were most likely Coastal Jaegers recon. Divers or even NCO training is also a possibility. The Finnish archipelago is a good environment to have a kayak in...
I remember getting my rifle serial number 313757 RK62 it was stamped 1972 so an old rifle but it was shooting like a charm i didnt even have to unjust the sights first. With the first 5 shots i took on the range i scored 48 out of 50 and i loved it.
I was an assistant aircraft mechanic for 12 months for the F-18 jet. Lots of studying of aircraft technology, and also CBRN and EOD training. The service consisted mainly of flight operations like working at the apron, inspections between flights, refueling, arming (dummy missiles during peacetime). For this job I had to apply and attend an entry examination (physical and mental tests and an interview) before my service so it was good to know what I would be doing before I had even entered service. The first six months included all basic infantry training, leadership skills, many combat excercises in the forest, and all the aircraft related specialization. It was actually surprisingly physical period. The remaining six months were spent at an air base where the remaining service was spent with flight ops.
Something that might not be obvious for someone who's not from a country with conscription... I served as "B" class, because of a bad knee (since accident at age 15). I got lighter training, but was still required to serve.
Finnish AF fighter jets are F/A-18 C/D:s, updated to midlife2-standard, same as USMC:s Hornets are getting. Actually USMC is a bit behind, FAF Legacy Hornets are at the moment probably the most advanced ones. Bit surprised you didn't know USMCs main strike fighter.
The best thing about the conscription - you make lifetime friends! Today on lunch I met buddy from my time, 25 years ago, from MP company we attended and of course the question raised today was "have you done any retraining in reserve lately?"
@@jariquassdorf5520 Helikopteripataljoona vastaa Puolustusvoimien helikopteritoiminnasta. Kaikki puolustusvoimien kaksikymmentä NH90-kuljetushelikopteria ja seitsemän MD500-kevythelikopteria on sijoitettu Uttiin. maavoimat.fi/utin-jaakarirykmentti/tietoa-meista No we wont.
In the rapid deployment forces we used them almost exclusively as medivacs. Some extraction point stuff but we trained for foreign deployment. As far as national defense goes its hard to imagine a use for them in any sort of combat environment since our air defenses probably wouldnt suffice
1 year conscript means you go to training to be a leader for 6 months and then you have your own group to lead for the second 6 months. Or you train to be a truck driver and work as a truck driver in a group etc. And yeah people in army here help firefighters and other public servants in need. When I served we were helping firefighters for a week in northern finland. There was a forest fire in a remote area so we were camping there and pumped water out of a small pond in order to get the fire in control. It is usually in every city with army action that like 5% of the people are locked for weekend when others go for a holiday and they go help officials if needed.
Nco's and under to the age of 50 officers to the age of 60. This is how long you are a reservist. This makes it so that the war time reserve is around 300000 troops , but total reserve is around 900000 troops
One thing that is semi-intentionally left out is that many rocky areas around cities and other strategic areas are full of tunnels, depots and other important sites. Basically if you see a train/metro-track (and of course street) going underground in Finland, it's used for a depot etc. We (and most countries) are taking notes from Switzerland, which is basically when you make a Mountain-range to a fortress.
5:50 Pretty similar in Finland, when dropping off infantry the helicopters land to let the troops out. I think they might use ropes in some units (urban jaegers?) but I never saw any.
first 8 weeks are same for everybody. basic infantry training. After that i went to navy to get further coastal infantry training and then moved to a ship (flagship) to become a seaman (with it own training and duties). Being at sea was best time of my life :D
An interesting point is that in the spring when we had the covid lockdowns both on the borders and around Uusimaa county the this year's conscripts were there to do the patrolling. Another point you might find interesting in the navy sector is that we don't have a lot of sea to manouver in and that means all the good and useful boats are small and fast. Also I'd guess the infantry tactics while defending sometimes nigh inpenetrable collection of forests, bogs and lakes takes a whole different kind of thinking.
When I was in the military service it went like this: As I didn't have any request I was assigned to one of the default units based on the area where I was from. In my case (inland north west coastal area - Bothnia in English if I'm not mistaken) the defaults were either Bothnian artillery regiment (part of Jäger brigade in Lappland) or Kainuu brigade in north eastern Finland, both far away. At that time there were about ten of these basic units, each with its own speciality, like urban training in guards brigade, coastal artillery brigade (disbanded IIRC), one brigade was coastal brigade with lot of marine like activities. During basic service I was assigned in fire battery of the artillery regiment, then moved to support unit as I was selected to medic training. Usually one doesn't change the brigade/regiment level unit during the service and one is trained to some special service within the unit. Usually when the specialization (including leadership) is assigned it is negotiated with the individual. As some trainings increase the required time in service not all are interested in those and it would be counterproductive to send those individuals into these trainings. Currently by law we are in reserve until age of 50 (regular troops) or 60 (leadership positions). But in reality the cut off for active reserve service is to about age of 35. After that the military doesn't consider you as a front line capable and you are transferred from the "field army" to "home guard" unit in paper. During reserve service there are training time to time depending on your assigned position and health (I havent had any as my health was demoted from A to B class due to poor eyesight). ps. Peace time brigades have little to do with the field army of the war time. They are basically just training infrastructure producing field units and upholding some defensive capability to counter sudden attack before the field army has called to the service. The placement of these peace time brigades comes from this dual role. There is a historical vacuum of units in the area as it as far as possible from Russia :D, only exception to this is Air Force, which used to have flight training unit there (conscripts in air force are usually trained only for air field security or ground support roles, few get their basic flight training while conscripts and then they join the actual military as paid soldiers.
Could you specify abit what kinda value conscripts get from their training? To be honest i have never had worse training/schooling than i did when i was in the military. Of course i guess it depends on the person/place.
alkkis palkkis One of the greater ones id say is appretiation towards our elders who fought the war. You get a better understanding of what they have gone through. Another one is just mental maturity, people after the conscription have usually matured a lot during that time, in all ranks. Third one is most other countries dont produce NCOs capable of going on crisis management tours as their rank in only a year. This ofcause like you said differs from place to place, i can completely believe that some specialisations in ceirtain places are shit. When "my" recruits joined, (i was an NCO) i did notice a huge difference between their way of thinking and maturity when we all left. Sure there was less/no backtalk/complaining in the beginning, but the big difference is in the beginning if they didnt like doing something, they would be quiet but wouldnt do it. In the end they would talk back, but more like a discussion on how it could be done easyer. When it was decided that they will do it, they would go ahead and do a good job on it, although they didnt like it. This is a huge mental change and can benefit in real life too. Lastly getting people to do physical activities. I was not interested in that stuff at all, i hated doing it in the army, thought ill never work out again after. I used to be a sporter on european-championship level, but quit due to not having time for the hobby anymore, and gave up on working out. Now after the army, for some reason ive kept up working out and staying in shape. Without the army id propably be closer to 120 kg by now. It doesnt affect your job opportunities or education a lot, but it does affect you as a person.
I served in the signal troops in the late 90s and at least then there used to be some special selection going on during basic training as well. As an example our whole unit got tested for morse code talent. We went into a classroom and had to repeat dot dot dash combinations on paper as well as we could, and the guys who scored the best had a chance to transfer to recon signals which would automatically mean leadership training and an NCO rank. Also some guys with significant technical talent with all the gear we had got transferred to another unit that was basically some sort of comm R&D in a whole other service location.
What these videos doesnt show. Is the Finnish "SISU" . A special mentality within Finns never to give up! Proud to have them in the same team! Regards from Ruotsi
I worked as a voluntary firefighter during my highschool years, growing up in a small countryside town. As a conscript, after my basic training, I was told that I will be detailed to Medic NCO School. There I found out that most of fellows were professional firefighters or nurses. Which makes sense.
FDF reservist here. You're always welcome to come train with us. I hope our officials wake up and see your content, I'd propose a medal or an honorary citizenship right away. Keep up the good work dawg 🤙
Glad I got to be one of the last to experience the 8 week training, though I must say that personally my unit basically did almost nothing new with the last 2 weeks.
It’s actually funny that out of about 80 coastal jeagers, a little over 70 were selected (nearly forced) to undergo leadership training in the previous contigent (1/20) of the Uudenmaan prikaatti (Newland’s brigade) so it was really hard to become a normal coastal jeager (or soldier)
After 8 weeks of basic, everyone takes a few aptitude tests (”block test”, personality test etc) and your perfornance in those plus how you have performed in basic collects points, on the basis of which you are selected for NCO training. There are some that are ”forced” into NCO training, but it tends to work out in the end; those guys tend to be ones that just want a short service, not because they are otherwise unsuitable to lead. Then during NCO training, there are more assessments, including fitness tests, to get into officer school, which is much more stringent. We dont get to do anything with helicopters in the infantry because we dont have the money :D There are different levels of reserve depending on age, when you served, if you have had refresher training (as technology has changed) and whether you take part in voluntary refresher courses/local fast reaction unit signups.
@@VortechBand vässykät. (Eng. Lazy cu*ts" ;) We were the last heavy engineer company trained for ... At least 20 years. 4th hardest training (physically) of all Finnish armed services. 2/5 quit(or had to quit) before the end. I fokkin loved it.
When i was in service 2003 this video was brand NEW and it was shown to us then.. Brings back memories for sure... 9 months with A/A field-duty report served o/
I believe that the Finnish Lion has 2 swords on the picture 1 straight sword in the arm over the head representing finnish defence and a curved sword that is under the feet representing the danger from East.
@@Finnish_guy I don't quite understand what you mean, the article says: "A crowned lion of gold holding a sword in the right forepaw and trampling with both hindpaws on a Russian sabre (ryssesabel)....".
@@IiiERT Let me correct myself: It could be about East, yes, and it can also mean Russians but there are many theories about that symbol and no one can say what is the right or wrong one, so basically we don't know. There are theories that say that the curved sabre might represent actually Mongolians or Turhisk, so no one knows actually what the curved sword represents. intermin.fi/suomen-lippu/vaakuna
7:00 We have a mandatory civilian shelter system when building apartment and public buildings since the 50's. They are to be constructed in such a way that they can be in use under 72 hours, and specced airtight for nuclear fallout and gas attacks and have some basic civil defence equipment like gas mask and showels and such. I believe there are enough space in existence to shelter every citicen.
you get to NCO training if they think you're up to it and you don't oppose it. Atleast that how it was. The way to the boats is coastal jaegars (as a passenger) or a boat crew. I could've been in boat man but I wanted out at minimum time and get to study in uni. Man the boat crew had it chill.... 'ah it's a sunny day! ok. wash the boats and we'll go for a drive and after lunch it's gym time' it was more like militaryish boat club. :-D
About safety ... Once I did put the ar on the rack and forgot to put the safety on ! I had to stand on barrack hallway and shout that I am the most dangerous man on the Fort 😂🤣😂
One aspect for having selected job is also location where you serve. No matter where you are basic trainings are still on place. If you are selected some special training, your basic training can be harder, even its "same".
@@timoterava7108 well the company where i was 2/19 sodankylä it started to resemble more like rabid debloyment company... but yea atleast there the few 5.5 trainings were for the field cooks and protection units
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No.1 rule when training in cold weather: Never, *ever* complain out loud how cold it is! - If you do, the instructor has ways to keep everybody warm! 😉
There is so many places to see... :D
I heard ffrom a friend doing ranger training in Finland and did complain about the cold weather, his commander asked him to take off his jacket and then stood watching him for like 1 min and ask it is colder now? He answered "yes". Commander: hmm okay here have your jacket back so you keep yourself warm and walked away.
One of the ways to stay warm is for every Finnish soldier to wear a battle belt. The combat belt (Tetsarit) is a very airy and breathable equipment but also a very hot & warming equipment, because then sweat flows when the soldier is wearing a combat belt. From my own experience, I can assure you that the battle belt is the warmest outfit of the Defense Forces ☺
If your squad leader asks about the temperature in the tent and you say that it is too cold they will make you take it down and move it 1m to the south. Same goes if it is too warm, 1m to the north.
Only half of it. As a su recon squadleader, if it was too silent in a cold day, we were extremely scared that our beloved troopers are suffering from hypothermia and need to fix it asap, so there's that. No way around it
It's really cool to see a US marine reacting to so many videos about the Finnish army!
Yeah. I've watched Unknown Soldier, soon after he made a video about it. It's a great war movie
Nothing to see, show more Swedish!
@@superstar5687 swedish army is a joke you have 50 000 soldiers and we have almost 300 000 ready to fight and almost 1 mil trained so yeah :D
@@rembo1770 finland got old crap military equipment which makes that they will be owned everyday
@@superstar5687 at least we have a military
Worked with the Finn army when I was a young Brit squaddie in the mid 70’s, great bunch of lads. Found them to be well educated and professional. Could not speak each other’s languages but looked after us well and had some awesome drinking sessions.
@Tyler B #2 bruh
@Tyler B #2 niggah
@John David in Cyprus maybe? We met few older guys once in small Scottish pub, they had been in Cyprus with UN. When they found out that we were from Finland they asked how much we were planning to drink that evening. And were relieved to learn we had early morning drive ahead of us. Later I wondered that what amount of drunkness would make Scottish soldier worried? 😀
@Tyler B #2 what the hell Tyler
You'd be surprised how many of us understand and speak English today. Rally English ofcourse :)
Edit: I started learning English when I was 9yo and studied for 9 years. From 2020 everyone starts at the age of 7 and it goes on for 12 years. If you choose to go to university or university of applied sciences you'll be studying even more of it.
I got a truck driving license from military for free which would cost thousands of euros if I bought it on my own. Its the same as any civilian has. Finnish military is the largest trainer of truck drivers in Finland =)
I went through Conscription in Singapore (2 years with reserves until 40 years old and every year we have reserve training), I was a Dual Vacationist (Combat engineer(eod specialist) and Combat driver/ambulance), i got my license from the military too, if i were to get it from the civilian world it would cost me about SGD$4800 or 3000 euros. but there was a catch for us since we needed to clock 7000km before we got our military license converted to civilian.
@ I think B-card is the only one not possible to get from your military service.
That's one of the better benefits, tho you could've easily paid for a truck driving license if you'd just worked with a basic salary for the same period of time
@@Jaggaraz218 The real money saver for aspiring truck drivers is getting the täys ammattipätevyys in the army. In addition to the CE card you're looking at easily over 10,000€. In the army my friend told me it was over €20k benefits but I think that might be pushing it, i never bothered to google though.
Don't forget the bus license either :p
Decided to write up a bit about some of the questions you were asking:
15:12 In my experience gun safety was taken very seriously, and flagging people was a good way to earn some additional "training" in weapon handling safety. I remember a time when one guy even had his rifle temporarily taken away due to repeated flagging incidents.
18:30 Basic training, the first 8 weeks, are functionally identical no matter where you serve and teach basic weapon handling and individual combatant skills. In the army, you can generally only get selected for jobs in the same battallion you were assigned to when starting basic, and aside from a few special cases you will not be able to swap battallions. In the Navy things work kind of differently, and you can be selected for pratically any role within the Navy after basic. Air force, border guards, and all that high-speed low-drag special forces stuff you have to apply for separately before you start your service.
20:45 It's kind of a mix of how well you do in basic and your own willingness to take on a leadership role. Sometimes there are more volunteers than positions and competition for leadership spots is tight, and on the other hand sometimes there aren't enough and people who want nothing to do with a leadership role end up in NCO training.
24:12 The enlisted stay in the reserve until 50, NCOs and officers until 60. In this time your wartime position can and will change, with your civilian education and occupation affecting your wartime position as well as older guys generally being rotated out of operative front-line jobs into more local supporting roles. Also people working in certain essential positions (police, doctors, people working important infrastructure) will be exempt from service and will continue doing their civilian jobs in wartime.
I hope this helps clear up some of this stuff for you. I personally served 12 months as a driver (very much against my wishes, I was hoping for a quick 5.5 and out lmao) but I got a truck license and CDL out of it so I guess it was worth it.
Small correction, basic is nowadays 6 weeks because of the Koulutus 2020 training restructuring.
Well written!
Just one minor correction: you wrote about the enlisted men. In Finland there are only few enlisted (värvätty) men.
The vast majority of the men in service are conscripts (varusmies). After the service they become reservists (reserviläinen).
Those, who are not officers (in reserve) or NCOs (in reserve), are referred to as "rank and file" (in reserve?).
20:45 It's basically an IQ test with some performance test scores and willingness thrown in.
~20% of the top IQ are taken to NCO training, ~10% Top IQ as reserve officers.
~110+ IQ = NCO. 120IQ+ = reserve officer.
awesome info, thanks for the clarification!
@@raunoheiskanen7742 Your first half was correct. The top ~20% from the IQ tests are put on the short list, and those who perform well are sent to NCO school, but after that there are no more IQ tests. It's just based on how well they perform in exercises, exams, leadership evaluation and overall training in NCO school. Those who volunteer and qualify for reserve officer training are selected and sent onwards to reserve officer training.
It's not as you implied that they take one IQ test in the first week and their entire military career is based on that.
Served 12 months during conscription (and some time after that), and I'm certain that the service was probably the most important 12 month period of my life. Currently working in an university in mainland Europe, and it's painful to see people older and more experienced than me struggling with 'adulting' (as you put it).
Sticking to agreed deadlines, delegating tasks, supervising, trusting your subordinates and giving the the tools to complete tasks without micromanaging everything... all of these are in short supply. Not to mention the general lack of confidence.
To be fair if conscription wasn't a political tool more people would be fine with it. Coming of age rituals have traditionally been part of any self-sufficient society but as of now the only culturally accepted way is conscription. It is basically government mandated fodder acquisition for men in power playing game of eye for an eye. We need to build new, up-to-date systems favouring cooperation for the love of living over cooperation in fear of X, Y and Z.
Waste ofg life
99% of men in this world have never served. I think most of your issues are related to working in academia in general. Try investment banking, investment management, consulting or M&A-related legal work and see how it is.
Military doesn't fix you. It's such a bull-shoot idea that it creates men from boys. It, for example, didn't undo my ADHD. In fact there's some light/anecdotal research that people with ADHD have harder time returning to civilian life, because in the military, the structure is told to you, there are no options, while in civilian life you have to create your structure and have the motivation to hold on to it.
For the record, I was placed into troop transport trucking duties due to my health issues, asthma. I was the most motivated person of my peers and quickly earned my lance corporal(korpraali) promotion during the latter half of my year of service.
The basic idea is. Whatever problems you leave behind getting out of civilian life, will return 2-fold or worse when you MUST return back into it. Military doesn't fix it and often makes things worse.
You should take in consideration that Finnish army is first and foremost designed to defend and protect Finland when U.S. armed forces are designed much more to be active aggressor in conflicts so that plays a lot into equipment, tactics and strategies.
Also, Matt Damon has finnish roots
doesn't mean the US can't fight a defensive war
haha i like the Matt Damon addition, I think that was his long lost brother
@@za.monolit that's because US have a considerably large population. Finland main threat is Russia, whose population is ten times the one of Finland (or something like these)
@@diegoyuiop so the us cant fight a defensive war because there's too many people? that doesn't make much sense
@@za.monolit you don't get it, dummy. The point is that for the US defensive war is much easier because of the large population. Finland focuses purely on defense, because with a population of 5.6 million every person needs to count and be doing something useful. Aggression isn't even a choice for us.
This video is pretty old, 7 years almost, so some equipment has changed if anyone is wondering why stuff is from the stone age, including mostly the standard issue rifles which are the 62M1 now.
Also, with the coming of the readiness units or VYKS after the Russian Crimean invasion in 2014, a large sum of specialists that do not receive NCO training get to be 1 year in the army as opposed to say a decade ago, when a lot of those guys were mostly just 6 months or 9 months if they got to be medics, military police or something else. I don't think you even had the ability to be a 1 year no nco or officer trained member of the army 10 years ago.
Would be nice if they renewed this video in its 10th anniversary.
bruh no we still use the regular old RK62 except VYKS and military police
@@SuperCompany007 RK62m and RK95 are handed to regular Jaegers and others already, depending on the brigade. T1/19
@@SuperCompany007 M1s are really common these days with conscripts dude and have started to replace the old 62s since 2016 or 17. I reckon only the "backwater" brigades still use mainly the old cheese shredder RK62s because they don't exactly have need for super high quality gear when their main armament are vechiles or howitzers.
@Poke Poke I got to use the M2, it's really, really good even compared to the 95.
I really love this channel u are just so chill and actually really enjoyable voice to listen to
'He's so dreamy,' the post
Its a pretty old video and much has changed during the years but this gets the point trough and yes you can choose the future training path during basic training season, i spent my basic training in a jaeger company and chose to go do some tank stuff in readiness unit for the rest of my year long service after seeing Leopard 2A4 driving around in the woods while i was freezing in my trench at -32 degrees celsius.
The NCOs are selected during basic training season by points (volunteering ones also get more points) and at some point after the basic season during the NCO training season the reserve officers are chosen from the best of the conscripts who were chosen for NCO school (if im not mistaken, i was neither).
You belong to the reserves till you are 50-60 years old and you can be called in for more training during the time in reserves.
You can also volunteer for exercises in reserves and even get picked for NCO/reserve officer school if you didnt get the training during conscription service.
If someone believes military to be their future job they can apply for the job after the conscription service if they have NCO or reserve officer training and the reserve officers can volunteer for even more training and learning by joining the cadet school.
I myself am planning to apply for peacekeepers in couple years after i get my schooling and rest of civilian life in order and even my gf has volunteered for conscript service and is going in few months when the season begins. The military is part of everyone's life in some way in Finland and usually when you talk to older men the conversation usually starts with him saying "Back when i was in the military...".
... Also a cool thing i forgot to mention is about athletes, if you have high awards from sports (like the best of the country) before your conscript service, you can apply for "urheilukoulu/sports school" where you will be automatically trained to be a scout (and some other special stuff that shall not be named)
nice name
@@helpimonfir3459 haha
@@helpimonfir3459 this guy is everywhere in Finland-related videos lol
You dont need to be a reserve officer to apply for cadet school. NCOs can also apply.
@@LordOfFlies oh yeah
mat damons grandfather was finnish
Matt Damon is my gfs 6th cousin
@@MrJanZko And my 7th cousin...
The leadership training you get at the reserve officer school is actually really modern and good. That has really helped me a lot in my civilian job and made me a good people manager.
We use F18's (single and dual seat configurations) as multirole fighters. Due to their age, they are being replaced atm. We are looking into EF Typhoons, Dassault Rafales, Saab Jas Grippens F/A-18E/F Advanced Super Hornets and F-35 Lightning IIs. I think they all made their demo flights and tests in Finland already.
Before going to service my dad said "Remember that there's everyone of your age, not just the people you'd normally hang around with. Just get along with everyone regardless of whether you like them or not and it's going to be just fine." and it really sums the conscript system pretty well. Looking back it was really helpful to meet people from different backgrounds and to learn to deal with also the people you didn't like. Spend half a year in the same room with random people is a good experience for future in work life.
At the time it ofcourse seemed like waste of time and going through the same things over and over again was boring as F, but hey, once it's done and you're out, it started to seem like a pretty decent experience.
Having actual lunatic (he got D papers after two months) and extremely stupid person (aiming rifle with live ammunition towards other people, etc.) in your barracks didn't really leave good thoughts from my service time.
I don't want to meet that many, I don't care to. I would never obey :)
@@coolboy5428 Same haha:) i thankfully got Out of the conscrpiptiin because of my drug addiction
You have a really good point there.
The most I got out of my special (9 months) training, was to meet people that I wouldn't never meet otherwise. And don't think this wrong... We're brothers now, so they got to meet someone they wouldn't have met otherwise.
Well, about 70-75% of each age class chooses the military service, so it is a huge generational experience. I'm a very civilian person, a nerd basically, and did not much like the training, but my mates were incredible, we supported each other and got through all the hardships. And it was for a good cause - the only imaginable enemy is Russia and as pacific and pacifist I am, I would always defend our Eastern border. This is a pretty universal sentiment in Finland, unsurprisingly :)
"Chooses" 😅 yeah they "choose" that instead of working 13 months without pay at some public institution like nursing home, or going to jail for a year, good to have options
Oh and by the way 50% of the age class don't have to do jack shit, because they're women
I don't need support, I would never do obey, the harder push to me the more likely I am to take an axe and treat gov employees like a tree
@@coolboy5428 mr edgelord
@@coolboy5428 - Bill,45, lives on foodstamps and other goverment aids
Our government is as big an enemy as any foreign president here in the UK at least I do speak from experience. @@juhani1211
Great video, and I love your reactions to our smaller landing craft boats :D The footage shown was of the u600 jurmo class landing crafts. As a conscript boat driver I can tell you that yes, they are bad ass to drive and yes, it's fucking fun. At the brigade where I served, about 16 people get to become boat drivers every half year. I was one of those lucky people.
Edit: and the boat driver training is also always an NCO training which lasts one year
A question, are those finnish "marines" who get to ride/drive on boats?
@@_MaZTeR_ yes basically, coastal jaegers is the name of them. The boat drivers get the coastal jaeger training aswell
actually now the boat driver training might also last only 6 months, 4 out of the 16 are trained only on the G-100 class, and the 12 others continue to the NCO training.
and it was also changed that boat drivers are only selected from the group that starts their service in january
As a Finn living in U.S., it’s cool seeing an American eagerly learning about other countries’ military tactics.
Your open-mindedness, perceptiveness, and truly interested demeanor is admirable.
The US Marines learned all right. What a slaughter. They fared worse than at the Battle of Hadley's Hope.
Fun fact: the narrator is a reserve captain and a well-known radio host. That guy *does* look like Matt Damon! I've seen this video before but didn't notice it until you mentioned it. And like many commenters have stated: Matt Damon has some Finnish ancestry (personally I share common ancestry with him in the 1600's. Fun but meaningless fact.)
Fun guy irl ;)
weird flex
@@Alexandros.Mograine You see the world very differently if you think there's a flex in that.
@@Kadotus "weird flex" is just a sarcastic joke that is ment to say to some1 who isnt even trying to flex.
@@Alexandros.Mograine Oh, I've seen it being misused then. My bad.
This is the conscription program that I went through:
-> 2 months of basic training (NCOs train the recruits).
-> Recruits are promoted to privates.
- >4 months specialization training. (NCOs train privates).
-> 6 month service men complete their duty and leave the service while 9 month and 1 year service men continue (this is also where the previous NCOs complete their service and the NCO trainees are promoted to their first NCO rank).
-> 2 months of advanced training (new NCOs train their new recruits while other 9 month and 1 year service men complete additional training).
-> 9 month service men complete their duty and leave the service. New recruits are promoted to privates.
-> NCOs, 1 year service men and fresh privates collaborate for a few months.
-> At the 11th month NCOs, 1 year service men and fresh 6 month service men complete their duty and leave the service while the rest of the new service class continues their service. Officer trainees are also promoted to their first officer rank during this time.
Can you delay your conscription if you are getting your university degree?
@@diegoyuiop I don't think so. You are given a free year for "free" by the uni if your enlistment starts during your studies.
@@diegoyuiop You can, you can plead to push service back multiple times for a multitude of reasons like resolvable health concerns, work or education, possibly even family-building.
You just can't delay it beyond 30 years of age (iirc, around there somewhere at least), that's when the hammer comes down.
Interesting, thanks
Regarding how well you can pick your task,
you can sort of pick your weapon branch by expressing your wishes for which battalion you'd like to serve in of those available in the brigade-level unit you're going to serve in. Each battalion represents a weapon branch. There's only one brigade level unit in the country that includes all six army weapon branches in it though, which is the Karelia Brigade. For example at Guard Jaeger Regiment you're limited to picking between signal, urban jaeger or military police. I wanted to join the Salpausselkä air defence battalion and that's where I ended up in.
There's rarily any guarantee for whether or not you'll actually land in the specific task you want to have, though. The defence forces' own needs are the priority with the conscript's own wishes being secondary. You may want to get into task A but the defence forces see you much better fit for task B so you'll likely end up in task B instead. They still do always try to fulfill conscripts' wishes the best they can, but it's obviously not always possible.
For example my own experience: I was never really interested in NCO school (my interest being 1 on a scale of 0-4), but I was assigned there anyway mostly based on my score in the psychological tests (I didn't really mind though and now I'm quite happy I ended up there). While there the NCO school had two separate lines, one half of the students were on the "weapon systems line" (training to become missile squad leaders etc), the other half being on "command systems line" (learning to set up and run the anti air command system mess of cables, field phones, radio masts and radars), so already from the get go you were limited to the tasks available for whichever line you happened to have been assigned to. On these lines each task had limited quotas which were filled primarily based on the students' wishes.
This was also when the readiness units were first founded and the staff would ask for volunteers, but their advertising for it was essentially "most of it is classified so we can't tell you much other than that you'll have way more exercises and you don't get to lead the next batch of recruits", which didn't help find them volunteers. In the end they still had to fill the quotas, so a bunch of people with no interest in the readiness unit ended up in the readiness unit.
After NCO school and the basic training of the next batch of recruits, we'd be finally assigned into our actual final tasks we'd train in with our subordinates to form war-time units, and the task I ended up in was pretty much completely unrelated to the task I had been trained for in NCO school (which ended up actually being pretty nice once again), so not even NCO school training guaranteed my actual task in the end. If there's one thing that's certain about the military, it's that you never have any clue what's going to happen next.
Also as some others have mentioned, your actual war time task can and will still vary over time, for example if after your service you go work in the construction field, your war time task will likely end up being pioneer related. This also means that in some cases we have _more_ professional people working in some tasks than equivalent professional soldiers would be.
Well... Everyone has skills,right?... Why don´t use the BEST of them in the army too?
Thanks for this comment. I learned a lot. Lynn in Arizona
Those are F/A-18 fighter jets, but Finland is currently undergoing a complete overhaul of fighter jets.
Well... at least undergoing planning for the eventual overhaul.. :P
But Finland is broke so i don't think we are gettting the new toys :D
@@kimreinikainen hopefully we will... F/A-18 Hornets are too old, especially when Russia is getting more SU-57 fighters (5th generation jet). I'd rather take working air defence than replacing something "sexually unequal" traffic signs.
Hopefully we will buy F-35 Lighting ll or Boeing Superhornet with Growler. Eurofighter Typhoon would be great too, Rafael quite meh (but we would get licence to produce our own planes with improved conditions) and Gripen is just poor.
All i can hope they won't go for the cheapest pieces of shit on the menu.
@@roponen332 As if russians have money to keep SU-57's in the air, they can't really make it properly with Su-27's
Hey great video. I really enjoyed watching this. To answer some of your questions:
5:35 No we don't do a lot of helicopter related activities at all. We don't have enough helis to justify training most ppl for that
7:00 Our capital Helsinki has it's own air defence unit
Helsinki Air Defence Regiment
18:30 You're already assigned a general assignment like "mortar, artillery, jägers, engineering, logistics etc. before basic training and then after the basic training you can specialize inside the given branch. For example if you were assigned to be in the mortar company after the basic training you can specialize in one of the roles around handling the mortar, communication, motorbike messenger, medic which are all 6 months conscriptions or NCO training and officer training which both branch into numerous different specializations inside the mortar company.
20:50 Who gets into NCO training or from the NCO trainees who gets to officer training it's decided based on written and practical tests, recommendations from the instructors and of course willingness. But if there isn't enough volunteers (because you will get 6 months extra conscription haha) They will force this task on the ones they deem most capable, but usually there's enough volunteers.
24:10 Conscript law (1438/2007) 2 § Rough translation: "Every male Finnish citizen is liable to military service from 18 to 60" After that you're no longer in the reserves.
28:47 I went through reserve officer training in the mortar co. I was responsible for where all 3 platoons (9 mortars) of our Armoured Mortar co. we're shooting so it was a lot of responsibility for a kid straight out of highscool to bear, especially when shooting live shells! It certainly taught me a lot of responsibility, pressure tolerance, leadership and other socials skills. Now if something seems too hard or frightening I can just look back and tell myself it's nothing compared to that haha. Even though most of the time there I was wishing I was back at home, it was definitely a positive experience overall.
Finnish air force uses McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets
they are getting replaced soon
@@iliilil5761 Eurofighters maybe? Well, too soon to say.
@@Str0b0 The F-35 is easily the most capable of the options, but I think Finland should never the less go with an European option for supply reliability. The US is unfortunately looking less and less like a reliable partner with how volatile their politics are.
@disadadi Are you saying the 4th generation fighters will be less outdated?
@disadadi Yes, it's very expensive and that's certainly a massive problem with it. They're not going to be made obsolescent by the next gen of fighters though, as it's a stealthy platform that can be upgraded. Rather it's the 4th and 4.5 gen fighters that are the ones that will be sitting ducks for the later generations of fighters, as they have no stealth capability and in most cases worse sensors. Also, the 6th gen fighters have a lot of unproven tech that they need to get up to speed and they're going to suffer from the same kind of timetable overshooting that affects most new planes, so expecting them to be operational by 2040 is very optimistic.
Personally I'd love to have all of Europe kitted out with European made cutting edge equipment, but that'll need funding and policy support on the EU level to do, and that'll probably take quite a while still to achieve.
I'm pretty sure even this video was made by conscripts, since some of the conscripts do graphic design, video production, photography and so on after basic training. Essentially they produce media for conscripts and future conscripts.
Here for example is an ad to be a camera operator during the military service: ruclips.net/video/EQCGD-nW_kk/видео.html
Then again a few of the conscripts do stuff like programming, computer security, etc., although they are usually required to have prior experience.
Pretty much everyone is a conscript expect the staff officers and the civilian support staff, who take care of mental and physical health, prepare food and work in warehouses. There are other civilian jobs in the Finnish Defence Forces but those are the most common ones.
23:05 Matt Damon has Finnish blood so there actually might even be some relations
During my consription (80's) over 90% of male population did it, 8 or 11 months. I am proud lieutenant (res.) of Finnish Field Artillery. During war time I'll command one younger officer, 15 sergeants and 70 ordinary soldiers. 6:18
Are you sure you still have your war time post? You must be pretty old already, having served in the 80's...
I served 2/-82. I used to be an infantry company commander (in reserve), but I got the boot some 5+ years ago. Now I'm just another reservist, only to be needed if the shit hits the fan (really) big time.
That's the cycle of life, I suppose...
Yes, to be precise it was my latest war time position few years ago. But we officers are in reserve still until age of 60 years. Regards, Laser 169
@@yoretabio4537 Sure we are (in reserve until 60). We just don't have the pre-assigned posts anymore.
We are needed only, if the casualties are astronomically high.
Regards,
Kajaste 171
You were correct in your assumption that everyone goes through the basic infantry training.
1. Every single conscript in Finland goes through a basic training (17:30 in the video).
2. After that the conscript is placed into their future unit where they will go through a general training related to their placement (those in Officer training will undergo an officer training program.)
3. After that they will be assigned to their squad and team, where they will train their wartime task until the end of service. (I think those in officer training will go through a training related to where they will be serving as an officer. Officers in logistics will need different skills than those in Military Police).
4.When the ones who serve for 5.4 months get to go home, those who became officers will train the new conscripts (from part 1.)
And there is that possibility to do continuing service, usually in the summer (as i recall) , kind of like the US National Guard.
Myself and everyone I knew were placed in their unit from day one in the military, can you please give some examples of where in Finland basic training is done somehow separately? 🤔
@@iLoveTheseRemoras I've never heard of anyone being assigned to another military base after basic training but anything below that is possible.
A conscript might report to the combat engineer company on day 1 and serve there for their basic training phase, but get assigned to artillery or logistics after their basic training.
Basic training is not performed somewhere separately, but in the actual companies where the rest of their service could be. Some people might just get reassigned after basic training. It's not really a problem since the basic training is exactly the same between companies, and between military bases as well.
@@Ukulisti Some bases don't have nco training so sometimes those who go to nco training will go somewhere else for that ( at least in 2/03 future nco's from Rovaniemi went to Sodankylä for nco training).
8:00
The Finnish navy mainly consists of small attack craft and minelayers, I don't think anything currently in service even qualifies as a Corvette. It's a navy designed entirely for defensive warfare in shallow waters with A LOT of islands. Finland is known for its ridiculous amounts of lakes, but when you get to the coast the land/water ratio inverts and you get ridiculous amounts of small islands instead. I think Finland might have the messiest coastline in the world. In such conditions, large ships would be unwieldy.
The Navy brass seems to disagree with you as the next four major ships to be built will be corvettes, larger than the current ships.
@@herrakaarme if I'm not wrong he wrote "currently in service".
Those 4 new ships for the Finnish Navy are actually going to be more like frigate size, but since frigate is considered to be the smallest of the blue water ships, these coastal ships are classified "only" as (very large) corvettes.
@@herrakaarme The exact cut-off point of what's considered viable for the Finnish archipelagos is obviously up to the experts to decide. I meant larger ships in general without any specifics in mind. Finland has had corvettes before, so it's not that shocking to see them being re-introduced. I would mostly be surprised to see them trying to acquire something larger, like destroyers or cruisers.
@@Zagskrag I bet they would if they had the money. As it is, there are people who think these new corvettes will be unnecessarily big and thus expensive and vulnerable ships. They aren't necessarily wrong.
Great video again, you've become one of my favorite RUclipsrs. :)
Those fighters in video are Boeing F/A-18's. Finland is buying new fighters soon and using around 10 billion euros (about 11,9 billion US dollars) for them. Finland will buy either Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets (United States), Lockheed Martin F-35's (United States:), Dassault Rafale's (France), Eurofighter Typhoon's (Great Britain) or Saab JAS Gripen NG's (Sweden). It's not yet known which one Defence Forces will choose.
It's Saab JAS 39 Gripen.
If you write "JAS", ALWAYS write it with the number too. After all you would never refer to Hornet as "F/A Hornet" either.
Funny thing about the health mentality in FDF, they sometimes advertise themselves as the "biggest fitness center in Finland". Citing that nobody else trains as many people to exercise in Finland.
Elementary school sure doesn't. Oh we got PE? Do some jumping jacks then play football. Nutrition? Calories? Muscle mass? Rest periods? Anaerobic vs Aerobic? What are those? Don't like team sports? Too bad, other forms of exercise don't exist. You are just a sedentary person, why even try?
Humans need exercise, and the school system put me completely and entirely off it. I had to figure out for myself, years later, that going to the gym, managing my diet, spending time alone working on my physique, was something I actually enjoyed. Luckily I did so in advance of my conscription. Would have been a lot more painful to do it during.
@@MentalEdge That's definitely not the job of elementary school(ala-aste) at all. On the other hand during the secondary school(yläaste) we were very much taught most of that stuff, and no one(including you, clearly) listened. Assuming you grew up in Finland.
@@TealJosh Yeah, except ala-aste sets the tone for every subject, because it comes first. Math, is already actual math, even in ala-aste, same for every other subject.
Why should health education be any different? Yeah, there was biology, but that consisted of very little actionable information about the human body.
PE wasn't graded, or tested, in any proper way, the intellectual components of the subject were always secondary to the actual physical activity, and the entire subject, is secondary to all others. Not even the teachers take it seriously so why should the students?
Yes, things get mentioned in both ala and ylä aste, but compared to other subject, to claim that they are actually "taught" is hyperbolic at best.
@@MentalEdge bet the only thing you remember from the health & wellness course(terveystieto) was the sex-ed, huh. I listened, because I was an utter autist. Fitness and food was a well taught topic.
@@TealJosh Why are you being so malicious? The only reason I'm on top my diet and exercise today is because I went out of my way to get into after a good gym teacher piqued my interest at the end of secondary school.
Why are you set on blaming the students? If students don't learn what they need to learn, the system failed. It's that simple. If the students we're not interested, that's because the teaching method failed to engage them.
Just because you and me were wierd enough to absorb the knowledge like sponges, doesn't mean the system isn't in need of improvements. When you see other students failing where you succeed, do you just bask in your own superiority, instead of getting concerned that some are being left behind?
One thing about the Finnish Defence Forces is that it's f-ing huge. Active and reserve troops combined it goes to around 1 million troops. There's even an old poland ball meme about it :P
they dont talk about much how huge amount dont finish that conscript service. I saw many quit.
@@effexon My unit was told multiple times that we were free to leave at any time, no one was forcing us to be there, if one didn't feel like doing it they could be on the way back home 1pm next day at the latest after receiving lunch. Gets rid of people who don't want to be there quite effectively.
I mean you can't just get out of national service though, if you don't want to be in the military then you have to go do civilian service which is why most people rather stay in the military since its way more fun
@@effexon a huge amount? Yeah, naw. I saw maybe 5 quit during my time. And those that did were because of health reasons. No one actually quit because it was "too hard". Those people are weeded out before it begins.
But then again, maybe we northerners are built a bit different.
You seem to like those fast boats called "Jurmo" and also kayaking. Both of those you get to experience in Meritiedustelukomppania. That is the naval recon company under coastal forces. Served as a sergeant for a year and we spent many weeks training in finnish archipelago, even during the winter. Beautiful and also exhausting.
When he said "Fun stuff" I cringed - the finnish archipelago is beautiful all year long and nice in summer, but freezing your ass off in some small island in late autumn in the cold, wet wind... :D
Meritiedustelukomppania was great. Especially if you got into the actual recon teams. Morning runs were so nice when you were the last one to go but had to always be the first one to get back. I still have fond memories about everything even though we had pretty shitty gear back in 08.
@Combat Arms Channel. Every conscript is in active reserve until they turn 50. If you are NCO or Officer your reserve status lasts until you are 60 years old. There are different "tiers" of active reserve. So as you age you will be moved to less demanding or supporting role. Also every man between 18-64 can be called for immediate participation in case of crisis. These people are the ones who chose civil service or had health issues preventing conscription or went to prison to serve time if they refused civil service or conscription. When you are in reserve you can be called to receive additional training at any time. Maximum amount of days spent in retraining after active service is 80/150 (NCO/Above) days. I've been in reserve for 10 years now and haven't yet received call for a military refresher courses. Some people from my unit have received about a week of additional training in reserve. You get compensated for the days you are training in military on reserve.
This was quite thoral army marketing video. I served at Kainuu Brigade in the 80's. I was in infantry and trained as platoon vice-leader (sergeant). The training there was very professional (IMHO) even at that time. I was a big boy, so there were some physics problems in the beginning but eventually it went quite well. I have good memories about the service (and bad memories l've forget). The other visitors have answered to your questions, so thanks for the reaction.
i know that woman from 4:27. We grew up in the same town and went to the same school together. She is very squared-away individual and everybody always kinda knew that she would go on and do the military service.
Thank you Combat arms channel for nice video about Finnish army.
Maybe is good to know that 300 000 Finnish has hunting card and some kind of hunting weapon.
I'm a volunteer firefighter in Finland, and like in the states, we have quite important role in emergency services, as there's simply not enough professionals to do all of the work.
The defence forces assists us, and the fire department and other authorities quite often, for example in finding lost person, and in forest fires. It makes our job much easier when they arrive with their helos with thermal imaging systems in them.
Late to the show, but I'd say the glue that keeps finnish men together, for the country, or even for a common good, is that they all served. What a great experience,once some time passes 😂
i was in the military during worst time of corona, and we helped the police during quarantine which was pretty cool when thinking back to it.
Nice reaction. And always nice to see our finish brothers 🇸🇪🇫🇮
I don’t know how it is in Finland but is Sweden we used to know from the very start if we would be group, platoon or company leaders. I started as a company leader and did 15 month training all together. It was based on the first test that you did see a similar finish version of. If you had any academic education, did well on the intelligence test and showed some leadership skills in the interview with the psychologist you could be offered that. It might be different now in Sweden too.
About the kayaks, in sweden the costal rangers uses them and we did also now and the in the paras (was there for a while after I had done my conscript and continued to be an full time officer). The kayak is an excellent transportation in both swedish and finish archipelagos as you can travel quiet and over long distances.
Matt Damon have finnish roots, thats why some people looked like him. 😁
In Greece is mandatory as well and it last 9 to 14 months (14 months if you're training to become an officer) and also women can volunteer
18:30 Like others have said, the basic idea is that everyone gets the same 8 weeks of basic infantry training. The unit you're assigned to prior to your service starting, is very likely the one where you'll finish it, even if you receive specialized training in a different unit during the specialization phase of your service.
For example in an air defense battery, some of the NCOs and Reserve Officers will receive training in separate signals, infantry and supply units, while majority of them will receive their specialized air defense training in that same/adjacent anti-air battery within the battalion. Those that left to receive training in signals, infantry or supply will then return to that same anti-air battery they started out in for the final phase of training, in order to fulfill that role they were sent out to be trained for.
24:16 You are in the reserve until you aren't required by the age limit which is 60
Yes, but depending on physicality of the original task, one may be dropped from that unit into general reserve. For example I had
refresher exercise two times (7 years after leaving military and 12 years after leaving military) and then I became too old for my task (reconnaissance).
@The All-seeing Usually it tends to be that those that complain about feminism having gone too far are also against making the the system more selective and gender neutral. Because in their minds the conscription service makes boys into men.
The rank and file (miehistö) are in the reserve until 50, after which they are moved to auxiliary reserve (varareservi).
@The All-seeing Finland doesn't have a big enough population to have an effective and sizeable army solely from volunteers, as US does. We can't afford to look who is willing to join the army, or super strictly look who likes fitness. Srong defence is important, that's why looking at facts is important. Fact is, men are biologically and mentally more suitable at being warriors. Men are stronger, more agressive, are more often natural leaders than women, natural instinct to defend, endure more crappy enviroments and are not as emotional. We don't have a problem with men going to the army and fighting, since it's what has been happening since the dawn of time. Including more women just for the sake of having women doesn't really give any strategical advantage whatsoever. Your opinion is a poltical one, not strategical.
@The All-seeing Sorry, but you can't argue against biology. Men and women are hugely different. You're trying to downplay the difference, but I have eyes and ears, friends who are girls and boys, I notice the massive difference very often.
Lets take a high school/college for example. Look at the hallways full of people. You're supposed to train warriors based on your choise, people who defend and kill for maximum results. Who comes to mind? No offense, but in my case, I cannot say that a lot of girls. I never saw any girl who could beat a normal male (excluding maybe 2-3 nerdy guys whos bodies were like they haven't eaten in a week). It's generally rare to see girls who are physically army material compared to men. Only a handful of girls were even interested in army stuff, and weird thing is they were all incredibly skinny and small, could not really sustain marches or endure anything physical that well. At least 90% of the guys were fit for army in my high school, if you ask me.
Generally army is more appealing to men, and men do get more results. I seriously doubt Winter War would end up like it did, had Finland used women instead. I hate to bring this up, because I don't want to sound like a woman hater who despises women as it's not true. Someone has to say the unpleasant truth sometimes.
Fun fact: in the naval forces, the cooks are the ones on the ship who get the most training in laying mines.
The jets in the video are F18 Hornets. The same planes that the U.S. Navy uses. Last year we made a desicion to purchase new F35 jets to replace the soon-retiring F18s.
20:40 most of the NCO:s are volunteers and have an interest in staying for a year, but there are some who get picked out who don't necessarily want to.
Or they don't get to go the NCO branch they wanted. It is also possible to go next NCO training after 5.5 months if you didn't go there at start of your service but you basically restart from 0, you have no "service benefits" that you might have got, such as you can eat with one time use utensils. Basically means you do not get it easy at all during your 11 months of service.
Funny thing about the translations... "Valtakunta" means "realm" or "reich," not "nation." "Nation" would be "kansakunta."
"Valta" means rule or power, "kansa" means people, and "kunta" by itself would mean county, but in compound words it would mean an encompassed thing, a host of things, a community/commune, a domain of a concept:
solar system = aurinkokunta (sun domain)
brotherhood = veljeskunta (brothership community)
fire brigade = palokunta (host of fire)
congregation = seurakunta (companion community)
Realm = valtakunta (domain of rule)
nation = kansakunta (community of a people)
I would love to see you being tested in cold winter environment with ski's and other Finnish equipment.
You go to service when you're 17-9, (max28) then u leave, but are still in reserve untill 65. In Finland, at least with men, there are no civians, only reservist.
At the moment we have F-18 hornet's, but we are middle of competitive tendering for a new fighter. We will choose new fighter from these candidates: F-18 super hornet+F18 Growler, Eurofighter, Saab Gripen ng, F-35 and Rafale.
Saab Gripen E/F + Saab GlobalEye.
Oh, come on - you should definitely know the F-18: it's used by the Marine Aviation after all :P
We have F/A-18C hornets and few D (two seated version) and there's ongoing procurement for the next fighter jets. Options are F/A-18E/F super hornet, f35a, eurofighter typhoon, French Dassault rafale and Jas Grippen E from sweden. They went through testing in February (ability to work in cold, use of small runways on highways etc) Boeing is offering couple of FA-18E Growlers (for electronic warfare) and Sweden is offering globaleye early warning & control plane on their bits
@Combat Arms actually you asked a pretty good question in half way of the video about NCOs. When I was doing my military service I never took myself as a leader.. just wanted to get the shit done and go home. But quite soon after the military service I have been in leading positions at work for 24 years now... just asked myself.. what if .. what if I would have chosen to go NCO training instead.
In the U.K. we used to have National Service which was for 18 months, and you remained on the call up list for 4 years after your service ended. It was for all healthy males 17 to 21 years, it was ended on the 31st of December 1960, with the last members leaving their service in 1963. I personally believe it should be brought back for young women and men, not just for the Military but helping the community as well. It would teach younger generations to appreciate how important actively being part of society is, and how mush their self worth is.
In Finland you're in the reserve until 55, or 60 if you're above the rank of Corporal (1 stripe - iirc Lance Corporal/Private First Calss equivalent)
If they brought it back they would be protests against the government
During the Second World War, the Finnish Defense Forces fought twice against the Red Army -> our grandfathers achieved two repulsive victories. First in 1939-40 in the Winter War and then in the Continuation War in 1941-44. The enemy put everything on the line and tried to conquer our country -> they suffered heavy losses (crew and equipment losses). Our army fulfilled its most important mission: our country was NOT occupied. We didn't lose our wars, but achieved great victories against a completely superior enemy (the Red Army).
Here are my comments for the video. The clip about the Finnish Navy escorting the civilian ship. The Finnlines ship there is called a ro-ro-ship or a roll-on/roll-off ship. It basically means that you can drive cars in and out of the car deck. These Finnlines ships travel between Finland and Germany. They mainly carry cargo but they also accept passengers. The ships are very basic and they don't have much services for passengers. It's mainly a way to get from point a to point b.
There are also ro-ro-ships traveling between Finland and Sweden and Finland and Estonia. They have much more services for passengers and people go on cruises on them just for fun. They've been hit with Covid really bad and they are still trying now to survive.
Personally I'm a big fan of these ro-ro ships especially between Finland and Sweden. I've been traveling that route all my life. First trip was in 1987 when I was 3 and still today I travel as often as possible. I've seen quite a few storms on the Baltic Sea. I was also a passenger in 1992 on the ship that later was renamed the M/S Estonia. M/S Estonia sank on the Baltic Sea in 1994 with loss of life of 852 souls.
It's good to have guys like yourself on our side! As a Finnish reserve sergeant I am really interested about American army forces and how do they compare to Finnish defense forces. Thank you for your input!
During my service my own group nco was always asking who would, in my/our opininion, be fitting to be a nco or an reserve officer from our basic training group. When our basic training phase conluded we had to put in paper our opininions of each other (Of other group members). The basic question asked of each and every one was "would i risk my life under this person's leadership?" and rate it from 1 to 9. 1 meaning absolutely not and 9 meaning absolutely yes. Usually the ones who are motivated, down-to-earth or dream of leadership get to become nco's, but there was that one dude who didn't want it and was basicly ordered to be one.
While I was serving we did a charity money collection for WW2 vets.
As NCO I was stuck coordinating the conscripts via radio.
On the plus side I got to sit with old WW2 vet (head of the veterans aid org.)
He had some interesting stories about the war and even more interesting stories about what happened after the war.
I also had to drink like 10 cups of coffee because I couldn't refuse.
(WW2 vet offering you cup of coffee... )
During crisis, all the biggest ships in finland will belong to finnish navy as well as some of the yachts abd boats. Cruise ships in finland have car decks so they will be used for mine laying.
badass haha
@@CombatArmsChannel The same used to go for for 4WD cars, tractors and what not, don't know if this is the case any longer though. In the Winter and Continuation war the farmers horses were "enlisted"...
That's not true, the merchant navy still continues work. The military doesent need bulk carriers and such. Most of the finnish mariners are freed from the mitary service during the war.
@@rti6006 They are marked to finnish navy during crisis, the navy soldiers aren't freed, 99% of non active navy troops will become infantry.
@@TheJube97 oh really? Funny thing that i happen to be a sailor and I'm not part of the reservs anymore, nor are any regulars that are sailing under the flag of this company that I'm working on.
The fighter aircraft are Mcdonnell-Douglas (Boeing) F/A-18C (and F/A-18D, the dual seater) MLU2 (Mid Life Update 2) Hornets. The same type's still in use with Navy Fighter Weapons School and a few USMC squadrons (For example VMFAT-101 and the VMFA-232). The Finnish Air Force operates a total of 62 Hornets. Preliminary flight training is done with Finnish Valmet L-70 Vinka (breezy wind). Jet trainers in use are the BAe Hawk mk51A and mk66.
The kayakers were most likely Coastal Jaegers recon. Divers or even NCO training is also a possibility. The Finnish archipelago is a good environment to have a kayak in...
The jet was an F/A 18 "Hornet", though the fleet is being replaced due to its age.
I remember getting my rifle serial number 313757 RK62 it was stamped 1972 so an old rifle but it was shooting like a charm i didnt even have to unjust the sights first.
With the first 5 shots i took on the range i scored 48 out of 50 and i loved it.
I was an assistant aircraft mechanic for 12 months for the F-18 jet. Lots of studying of aircraft technology, and also CBRN and EOD training. The service consisted mainly of flight operations like working at the apron, inspections between flights, refueling, arming (dummy missiles during peacetime). For this job I had to apply and attend an entry examination (physical and mental tests and an interview) before my service so it was good to know what I would be doing before I had even entered service. The first six months included all basic infantry training, leadership skills, many combat excercises in the forest, and all the aircraft related specialization. It was actually surprisingly physical period. The remaining six months were spent at an air base where the remaining service was spent with flight ops.
Just had the call-ups last week and decided to apply for paratroopers. Wish me luck🤞🏻
Something that might not be obvious for someone who's not from a country with conscription... I served as "B" class, because of a bad knee (since accident at age 15). I got lighter training, but was still required to serve.
Finnish AF fighter jets are F/A-18 C/D:s, updated to midlife2-standard, same as USMC:s Hornets are getting. Actually USMC is a bit behind, FAF Legacy Hornets are at the moment probably the most advanced ones. Bit surprised you didn't know USMCs main strike fighter.
The best thing about the conscription - you make lifetime friends! Today on lunch I met buddy from my time, 25 years ago, from MP company we attended and of course the question raised today was "have you done any retraining in reserve lately?"
"how you guys implement your helicopters?"
All 20 of them? 🤣
hahaha
Exactly. We got to try rappelling from a 6 meter tower one day, and that was it.
Well, you and your former Soviet friends might be surprised about those numbers....
@@jariquassdorf5520 Helikopteripataljoona vastaa Puolustusvoimien helikopteritoiminnasta.
Kaikki puolustusvoimien kaksikymmentä NH90-kuljetushelikopteria ja seitsemän MD500-kevythelikopteria on sijoitettu Uttiin.
maavoimat.fi/utin-jaakarirykmentti/tietoa-meista
No we wont.
In the rapid deployment forces we used them almost exclusively as medivacs. Some extraction point stuff but we trained for foreign deployment. As far as national defense goes its hard to imagine a use for them in any sort of combat environment since our air defenses probably wouldnt suffice
1 year conscript means you go to training to be a leader for 6 months and then you have your own group to lead for the second 6 months. Or you train to be a truck driver and work as a truck driver in a group etc.
And yeah people in army here help firefighters and other public servants in need. When I served we were helping firefighters for a week in northern finland. There was a forest fire in a remote area so we were camping there and pumped water out of a small pond in order to get the fire in control. It is usually in every city with army action that like 5% of the people are locked for weekend when others go for a holiday and they go help officials if needed.
Nco's and under to the age of 50 officers to the age of 60. This is how long you are a reservist. This makes it so that the war time reserve is around 300000 troops , but total reserve is around 900000 troops
One thing that is semi-intentionally left out is that many rocky areas around cities and other strategic areas are full of tunnels, depots and other important sites. Basically if you see a train/metro-track (and of course street) going underground in Finland, it's used for a depot etc. We (and most countries) are taking notes from Switzerland, which is basically when you make a Mountain-range to a fortress.
5:50 Pretty similar in Finland, when dropping off infantry the helicopters land to let the troops out. I think they might use ropes in some units (urban jaegers?) but I never saw any.
Yeah i think fast roping etc is only for the special force side of the military
Hi greetings from Finland. In fact, I completed military service from 1974 to 1975 yet I am interested in all developments in this sector happening.
first 8 weeks are same for everybody. basic infantry training.
After that i went to navy to get further coastal infantry training and then moved to a ship (flagship) to become a seaman (with it own training and duties). Being at sea was best time of my life :D
An interesting point is that in the spring when we had the covid lockdowns both on the borders and around Uusimaa county the this year's conscripts were there to do the patrolling.
Another point you might find interesting in the navy sector is that we don't have a lot of sea to manouver in and that means all the good and useful boats are small and fast. Also I'd guess the infantry tactics while defending sometimes nigh inpenetrable collection of forests, bogs and lakes takes a whole different kind of thinking.
When I was in the military service it went like this: As I didn't have any request I was assigned to one of the default units based on the area where I was from. In my case (inland north west coastal area - Bothnia in English if I'm not mistaken) the defaults were either Bothnian artillery regiment (part of Jäger brigade in Lappland) or Kainuu brigade in north eastern Finland, both far away. At that time there were about ten of these basic units, each with its own speciality, like urban training in guards brigade, coastal artillery brigade (disbanded IIRC), one brigade was coastal brigade with lot of marine like activities. During basic service I was assigned in fire battery of the artillery regiment, then moved to support unit as I was selected to medic training. Usually one doesn't change the brigade/regiment level unit during the service and one is trained to some special service within the unit.
Usually when the specialization (including leadership) is assigned it is negotiated with the individual. As some trainings increase the required time in service not all are interested in those and it would be counterproductive to send those individuals into these trainings.
Currently by law we are in reserve until age of 50 (regular troops) or 60 (leadership positions). But in reality the cut off for active reserve service is to about age of 35. After that the military doesn't consider you as a front line capable and you are transferred from the "field army" to "home guard" unit in paper. During reserve service there are training time to time depending on your assigned position and health (I havent had any as my health was demoted from A to B class due to poor eyesight).
ps. Peace time brigades have little to do with the field army of the war time. They are basically just training infrastructure producing field units and upholding some defensive capability to counter sudden attack before the field army has called to the service. The placement of these peace time brigades comes from this dual role. There is a historical vacuum of units in the area as it as far as possible from Russia :D, only exception to this is Air Force, which used to have flight training unit there (conscripts in air force are usually trained only for air field security or ground support roles, few get their basic flight training while conscripts and then they join the actual military as paid soldiers.
22:30 Yeah when I applied for my current job, I was competing against 20 other applicants. My NCO training was the deciding factor that I got the job.
Finland produces professional soldiers. Many conscripts don't realize the value of their training.
Could you specify abit what kinda value conscripts get from their training? To be honest i have never had worse training/schooling than i did when i was in the military. Of course i guess it depends on the person/place.
:D:D:D:D people are 18 and borderline retarded in the army.
@@PainbowSheep Many are. But trust me when i say every army in the world is worse.
alkkis palkkis One of the greater ones id say is appretiation towards our elders who fought the war. You get a better understanding of what they have gone through.
Another one is just mental maturity, people after the conscription have usually matured a lot during that time, in all ranks.
Third one is most other countries dont produce NCOs capable of going on crisis management tours as their rank in only a year.
This ofcause like you said differs from place to place, i can completely believe that some specialisations in ceirtain places are shit.
When "my" recruits joined, (i was an NCO) i did notice a huge difference between their way of thinking and maturity when we all left.
Sure there was less/no backtalk/complaining in the beginning, but the big difference is in the beginning if they didnt like doing something, they would be quiet but wouldnt do it.
In the end they would talk back, but more like a discussion on how it could be done easyer. When it was decided that they will do it, they would go ahead and do a good job on it, although they didnt like it. This is a huge mental change and can benefit in real life too.
Lastly getting people to do physical activities. I was not interested in that stuff at all, i hated doing it in the army, thought ill never work out again after. I used to be a sporter on european-championship level, but quit due to not having time for the hobby anymore, and gave up on working out.
Now after the army, for some reason ive kept up working out and staying in shape. Without the army id propably be closer to 120 kg by now.
It doesnt affect your job opportunities or education a lot, but it does affect you as a person.
I can concur.
I served in the signal troops in the late 90s and at least then there used to be some special selection going on during basic training as well. As an example our whole unit got tested for morse code talent. We went into a classroom and had to repeat dot dot dash combinations on paper as well as we could, and the guys who scored the best had a chance to transfer to recon signals which would automatically mean leadership training and an NCO rank. Also some guys with significant technical talent with all the gear we had got transferred to another unit that was basically some sort of comm R&D in a whole other service location.
What these videos doesnt show. Is the Finnish "SISU" . A special mentality within Finns never to give up! Proud to have them in the same team! Regards from Ruotsi
I worked as a voluntary firefighter during my highschool years, growing up in a small countryside town.
As a conscript, after my basic training, I was told that I will be detailed to Medic NCO School.
There I found out that most of fellows were professional firefighters or nurses.
Which makes sense.
Well Matt Damon has some roots in finalnd
FDF reservist here. You're always welcome to come train with us. I hope our officials wake up and see your content, I'd propose a medal or an honorary citizenship right away. Keep up the good work dawg 🤙
18:30 all conscripts in Finland go through the *6 week basic training, would be border guards, airmen, engineer, pioneers, airborne, marine, etc...
I think it changed to 6 weeks this year.
6 viikkoa
@@SuperCompany007 muisti temppuili
@@miikkasihvonen8612 se muuttus ihan tässä justiinsa Koulutus2020 uudistuksen mukana
Glad I got to be one of the last to experience the 8 week training, though I must say that personally my unit basically did almost nothing new with the last 2 weeks.
It’s actually funny that out of about 80 coastal jeagers, a little over 70 were selected (nearly forced) to undergo leadership training in the previous contigent (1/20) of the Uudenmaan prikaatti (Newland’s brigade) so it was really hard to become a normal coastal jeager (or soldier)
great vid again :)
After 8 weeks of basic, everyone takes a few aptitude tests (”block test”, personality test etc) and your perfornance in those plus how you have performed in basic collects points, on the basis of which you are selected for NCO training. There are some that are ”forced” into NCO training, but it tends to work out in the end; those guys tend to be ones that just want a short service, not because they are otherwise unsuitable to lead. Then during NCO training, there are more assessments, including fitness tests, to get into officer school, which is much more stringent.
We dont get to do anything with helicopters in the infantry because we dont have the money :D
There are different levels of reserve depending on age, when you served, if you have had refresher training (as technology has changed) and whether you take part in voluntary refresher courses/local fast reaction unit signups.
I lost 25kg of weight during the first two months of service (from 110kg to 85kg).
The doctor was acually worried, but I felt better than ever.
Everyone in our brigade gained +5 kg of not-muscle :D
@@VortechBand vässykät. (Eng. Lazy cu*ts" ;)
We were the last heavy engineer company trained for ... At least 20 years.
4th hardest training (physically) of all Finnish armed services.
2/5 quit(or had to quit) before the end.
I fokkin loved it.
I lost 24kg during the basic training. Went in January. Summer was easy!
When i was in service 2003 this video was brand NEW and it was shown to us then.. Brings back memories for sure... 9 months with A/A field-duty report served o/
It is nowhere near that old.
I believe that the Finnish Lion has 2 swords on the picture 1 straight sword in the arm over the head representing finnish defence and a curved sword that is under the feet representing the danger from East.
@@Finnish_guy I don't quite understand what you mean, the article says: "A crowned lion of gold holding a sword in the right forepaw and trampling with both hindpaws on a Russian sabre (ryssesabel)....".
@@IiiERT Let me correct myself: It could be about East, yes, and it can also mean Russians but there are many theories about that symbol and no one can say what is the right or wrong one, so basically we don't know. There are theories that say that the curved sabre might represent actually Mongolians or Turhisk, so no one knows actually what the curved sword represents.
intermin.fi/suomen-lippu/vaakuna
And same in English
intermin.fi/en/flag-and-arms/arms-of-finland
7:00 We have a mandatory civilian shelter system when building apartment and public buildings since the 50's. They are to be constructed in such a way that they can be in use under 72 hours, and specced airtight for nuclear fallout and gas attacks and have some basic civil defence equipment like gas mask and showels and such. I believe there are enough space in existence to shelter every citicen.
you get to NCO training if they think you're up to it and you don't oppose it. Atleast that how it was. The way to the boats is coastal jaegars (as a passenger) or a boat crew. I could've been in boat man but I wanted out at minimum time and get to study in uni. Man the boat crew had it chill.... 'ah it's a sunny day! ok. wash the boats and we'll go for a drive and after lunch it's gym time' it was more like militaryish boat club. :-D
About safety ... Once I did put the ar on the rack and forgot to put the safety on !
I had to stand on barrack hallway and shout that I am the most dangerous man on the Fort 😂🤣😂
My service time was 8.5 months, i was one of the 10 medics our battalion trained.
One aspect for having selected job is also location where you serve. No matter where you are basic trainings are still on place. If you are selected some special training, your basic training can be harder, even its "same".
these days basically even every infantry man serves for full year to those 5.5 month servises are becoming rarity
Isn't that 1 year service for rank and file guys only in rapid deployment units?
@@timoterava7108 well the company where i was 2/19 sodankylä it started to resemble more like rabid debloyment company... but yea atleast there the few 5.5 trainings were for the field cooks and protection units
I salute this development. The 5.5 months time of service is too short - how ever effective the training is.
Jet was McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet