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Adamant

Buzz Blob
Staff
Wii have Wii








Since: 11-17-05
From: Norway

Last post: 6295 days
Last view: 6295 days
Posted on 01-28-06 05:39 PM Link | Quote
Okay, as some of you might already know, for the last 7 months I've been in the army, protecting the fatherland against the evil russians... yeah, right.

The Garrison of South Varanger is located at the russian border, about as far away from civilication as you can possibly get while still keeping your feet on the norwegian mainland. This place is hyped up like crazy, and is supposedly the most popular garrison to serve at (even though my friends all pretty much said "Ouch, that sucks" in unison when they heard where I was going). Every single brochure, magazine, and other type of propaganda we recieved at the airport seemed to support this, even though they all pretty much had "great opportunities for hunting" as the only positive thing about the place? Don't like hunting? Sucks to be you.
This place is also the supposedly toughest garrison in Norway to serve at, another of those things that doesn't really make me the ideal soldier to send up there (yet the propaganda told me I had been hand picked for this. Appearantly by some blind guy, as even the doctor who examined me for a minute or so at the airport asked me if I actually wanted to go up there, and didn't seem very surprised when I told him this was the garrison I'd least want to serve at.
(On top of that, it's extremely cold up there, with temperatures below -50 Celsius at worst. Apparantly noone told the guy who hand picked me that I don't fuction in low temperature at all, and haven't been wearing skis for 5 or 6 years. In Norway, that means a lot)


After a month, soldiers could apply for transfer to the staff company, which is basically for soldiers who didnt want to, or didn't think they'd be able to, get transferred to the russian border (only 150 of roughly 300 soldiers will serve there). Naturally, I wrote an application, as the thought of sitting in a tower in the middle of nowhere staring at some trees for half a year honestly didnt appeal to me (though this served as a great laughing matter to a number of idiots when I told them that was the reason I didn't participate in an optional gas mask drill a week earlier. Blah.)

The Staff Company does a lot of administrative work, involving some creative computer work (website tinkering, I believe), running the garrison newspaper (read by more than 500 people monthly! or something), and so on. Seemed perfect for me.

...so I got kitchen duty. Since my experience in this field is limited to "put food in microwave, wait till done, eat", the decision to put me there was seemingly done by the same blind guy who decided to send me up there in the first place. Oh, and I had listed 4 (count them, FOUR) different positions I would like in my application letter to ensure transfer (which, in retrospective, was probably not needed at all). Still, I was given the position I wanted the least of all, which, by coincidence, was also unofficially considered the lowest position in the army (not by the kitchen staff, I guess, but whenever someone is transferred from guard duty for doing a subpar job, they end up in the kitchen. Every single one of them). Apparantly, since I can't do as many pushups as Muscle McHunterson, I must automatically suck at everything.

So I applied for a transfer to something, anything, other than kitchen duty. I wasn't doing a good job at the kitchen, I was perfectly aware of it, I knew my abilities would (not could, would) be put to better use elsewhere. I was assured that there would be transfers. Months passed, I applied again, and was told that
yes, there would be transfers. And there were transfers, yes, but no one were ever transferred away from the kitchen. Ever. After 4 applications for a transfer, and 5 months in the kitchen, the captain finally ordered me into his office, we had a short talk, and I was told that I would be transferred to the Education Department after my New Years Leave (I had to stay up there during Christmas. Yes, it sucked).

After returning from my leave, I went to the Education Department, where I was told that they only took in one soldier every half year, and the one position I would get had been filled months ago... which I kinda already knew, but since I was told that I would be transferred there, I thought things had been worked out. The case, however, was that the captain had basically sendt a note to the Education Department that I would be transferred there, and then taken a vacation. The Education Department had recieved the note, but had been unable to get their hands on neither him nor anyone else with any real power. So yeah, there I was, without a job. The Chief of Staff placed me in the position of.. uh, "Week Holder" (No, I don't know the english terms for all these army words, and you can't find them in any dictionary either. A Week Holder is pretty much a caretaker, who sits in his office all day playing Gameboy and reading comic books, since he's not allowed to leave the barracks, and he has pretty much no objectives to do other than handing out supplies to people who ask for them. This position is given to random soldiers, who keep it for a week, before returning to their former position).

After a month in this position, the Chief pretty much told me that he had been unable to find another position for me, and that I was to pack my bags. Yeah. I was sent to the garrison I wanted the least to serve at, got stuck in a position I wanted the least, actively tried to get a transfer, but kept getting ignored, then was thrown all over the place due to the shittiest communications system I've ever seen (you'd think that the person called "Boss" whould actually be in charge, but here we have a billion sub-bosses who can ignore pretty much anything the big boss tells them), and then sendt home since they couldn't "find" a position for me.
And what's going to happen now? I'll be stuck in a virtual limbo until summer, since I can't begin my studies until then. Fuck you, army system.
Apophis

Ropa








Since: 11-17-05

Last post: 6296 days
Last view: 6295 days
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Posted on 01-28-06 06:17 PM Link | Quote
Ouch. You got royally screwed. You'd think they'd be able to run the army better than that. Of course, from what I understand, the ones who get promoted to the higher ranks tend to be the toughest, not necessarily the smartest.
Anya









Since: 11-18-05
From: South Florida

Last post: 6298 days
Last view: 6296 days
Skype
Posted on 01-28-06 06:43 PM Link | Quote
Ew, sorry to hear that. It seems that they just wanted to screw around with the fresh meat and then they just forgot about ya. Hopefully it'll be better for you in the summer.
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