Brothers Forever
Since I was so tired last night I didn''t have the strength to write this shorter second part of my time in the army service, the part about my fellow brothers. In the beginning you just accepted everyone for whom they were, didn't question much despite that the questions were there. Those in our platoon whom were selected as group/platoon leaders soon found out the pressure about beeing the first one to take orders from the officers and make sure we followed them. Because of the pressure from the officers we soon realised that we had to stick together, not leave anyone outside the group and this is one of the first rules you learn, "you're only as strong as the weakest link in the group" . The first real test as I said in my previous contribution, was the first field week. Learn how to set up a tent and get it ready to light the heater, build standing defence positions, beeing able to sleep with the knowledge that at anytime we could be attacked. As the weeks passed on I started to know my fellow platoon members a little bit better, in the beginning it felt a little bit more as a co-worker relationship between us but as time went on we came closer and closer to each other.
The platoon was first diveded into three rooms but after a while one of the rooms had to be used by a different platoon, so the members there had to be put into the remaining two rooms. I don't really know why but the people in your own room were pretty much the people you spent the time with after our day ended, we watched some movies all together sometimes but quite often we would stay in our own room. We were 14 people in my room so you can imagine in the beginning when you weren't used to it there was so much snoring I would make your mind go crazy, but I gave my share back when I coughed for maybe 2 weeks and people really started to get angry because they couldn't sleep, haha those were good times. As we started our individual training, everyone got to know fellow soldiers from other companies and platoons, I really didn't know many people outside my own company so it was really great to meet with others. When the summer break was only a week away you could really feel the tense inside the rooms and barracks, it felt like the energy was so low and disturbed, I guess it was the fact that everybody knew summer break was not far away and you would finally get some real rest and charge up the batteries for the remaining months.
The first weeks after the summer break, we started the combat training for real and that puts more pressure on the individual and the group that you belong to, everyone must know exactly what to do and the others trust you 100% that you know what your doing in this kind of situation. The newly graded corporals were finally put to the test how it is to act and give orders in a combat situation, at first it was really bad but after a couple of days we all started to get a good hang of it and after our weeks with combat training we were really starting to look like a real platoon. The military exercises that followed were a good time for my group to get organize our group equipment and also get the hang of our part in the company. When the last week finally came I started to think about all the things that we had been through together, the beret examination, the fieldweeks, the exercises, the surviving week and not to forget all our after work activities like bowling, eating out, nightclub nights, going to the movies and the all so traditional can of beer. I learned to know so many different people there and I hope that some of us can keep in touch later on as well altough I know it's hard to go see each other when some of us live so far a part but I guess time will tell. I hope all of enjoyed it as much as I did and we'll see each other again some time....
HOA LIF!
Picture from the award winning series Band Of Brothers
The platoon was first diveded into three rooms but after a while one of the rooms had to be used by a different platoon, so the members there had to be put into the remaining two rooms. I don't really know why but the people in your own room were pretty much the people you spent the time with after our day ended, we watched some movies all together sometimes but quite often we would stay in our own room. We were 14 people in my room so you can imagine in the beginning when you weren't used to it there was so much snoring I would make your mind go crazy, but I gave my share back when I coughed for maybe 2 weeks and people really started to get angry because they couldn't sleep, haha those were good times. As we started our individual training, everyone got to know fellow soldiers from other companies and platoons, I really didn't know many people outside my own company so it was really great to meet with others. When the summer break was only a week away you could really feel the tense inside the rooms and barracks, it felt like the energy was so low and disturbed, I guess it was the fact that everybody knew summer break was not far away and you would finally get some real rest and charge up the batteries for the remaining months.
The first weeks after the summer break, we started the combat training for real and that puts more pressure on the individual and the group that you belong to, everyone must know exactly what to do and the others trust you 100% that you know what your doing in this kind of situation. The newly graded corporals were finally put to the test how it is to act and give orders in a combat situation, at first it was really bad but after a couple of days we all started to get a good hang of it and after our weeks with combat training we were really starting to look like a real platoon. The military exercises that followed were a good time for my group to get organize our group equipment and also get the hang of our part in the company. When the last week finally came I started to think about all the things that we had been through together, the beret examination, the fieldweeks, the exercises, the surviving week and not to forget all our after work activities like bowling, eating out, nightclub nights, going to the movies and the all so traditional can of beer. I learned to know so many different people there and I hope that some of us can keep in touch later on as well altough I know it's hard to go see each other when some of us live so far a part but I guess time will tell. I hope all of enjoyed it as much as I did and we'll see each other again some time....
HOA LIF!
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