ManIAc's Military Diary

Greetings folks!
I don't know, for some reason I would like to make a simple diary on what I have done throughout the week, and I don't want it to be a blog that any bloke can see, so I thought that I would post it here. People can read, post, whatever in this thread, as long as it's on topic, so this won't get too messy with lots of spam-posts. (*shakes fist at Ofcos*)
I will put in as many details as possible, while still trying to make it actually interesting to read, and not just a bunch of text that doesn't make sense. If a day haven't been too interesting, I probably won't write too much on that day. Also, noone's forcing you to read this, this is basicly also a bit of reflection on my week for myself, which makes me able to remember it better. Anyhow!
Note that I have worked in the military for a little time now, but this is the start of the Sergent school.
Words that are bold and underlined are links you can press to see a picture mostly, or something which gives a deeper understanding.
I would like to apologize beforehand about my use of past tense and present. This is updated at different times, sometimes I write what's going to happen, sometimes it's what happened, and sometimes what's happening right now, so I hope you can live with it!

Welcome to ManIAc's Military Diary
Note that some things which are confidential, will be left out or censored

Week 1
Day 1: Monday
We arrived at Airstation Karup in Denmark Jutland the first day, some people just as green as I was myself when I first entered the military. My group consists of 22 people so far, 8 of these (including myself) who have had from 4months - 22years of military experience, below the rank of sergent), and the rest who had never set food inside the fence before.
We started out in a big conference room where we were greeted by the leader of our group, (our team was called Neuhausen 1. All teams are named after different weapons like Garrant.), and here we were briefed very shortly about what we have signed up for. We quickly handed in some information and other papers that we needed to fill out, and then we were taken to our barracks. We then changed into our training outfits, because we needed to do a test, which everyone does when they start. (Which is running 3km in 15min, doing 15 push-ups, 25 front and backsided exercises) After that, we were taken to our cafeteria, where we ate lunch. We were then guided around the area, and that was basicly that day. We sleep in 4-man rooms.

Day 2: Tuesday
Today we started out with breakfast like normally, we cleaned our rooms and the rest of the barracks as told by our instructors the day before, and then we were ready at 07:30. We were then driven to the... I have no idea what to call it. A big storage facility where they hand out your military equipment; like the uniform, fragmentation vest and CBRN-suit. (Short for: Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuklear), and alot of other things like sleeping bag, boots, socks and stuff.
Most of the day went with getting order on all our gear, learning about the different bits and pieces, (things I already knew) and then jamming them into the closet. Note that everything has an EXACT spot in the closet, and needs to be folded an EXACT way, which is a pain in the crack, something I still suck at. Then we were drilling the rest of the day untill lunch. (Drilling is where a soldier learns to stand, walk, talk and all that) And after Lunch we drilled some more.

Day 3: Wednesday
Im going to skip the stuff you already know, like that we woke up and ate breakfast.
Only difference was that we today had more areas which needed cleaning. (Every room in our building has a different area we're responsible for cleaning) Today we did alot more drills, and we got some general information regarding the Air Force, alot of trivial stuff really, but something that we needed to know at some point. After that, we had our first Physical Education class, where we're going to learn how to be our own trainer, and later on, how we can train others. (Recruits) We slowly prepared for thursday, when we were going on our first excursion.

Day 4: Thursday
Thursday had finally arrived, not that anyone was particularly looking forward to it, as it's still around -10c outside, but nevertheless the first experience of many being outside, sleeping in the open. The most of the early day was spent on preparing for the trip. We packed our Basis (Which is a series of straps, different bags, holders, and stuff, that the soldier carry on his back. It contains: Cantine bottle, CBRN Mask and gloves (Gas mask and rubber gloves), a big knife, (called "Knife, Kill") a bag for all sort of different stuff, shovel and 2 mag holders. This is also the day we recieved our weapons. (Carbine and Neuhausen) And then we put everything back in the locker, to only get yelled at to pull it out and pack our bags in 20min, later that day. This trip is designed to train us at being leaders, so we will be put in leader-roles all the time, and will need to take fast decissions.
We sat up in two military trucks and were driven off into the woods. We were sat down 5-6km from where we were supposed to camp, and had to march and run (switching between the two), to our camp site. Once we were there, we were devided into 3 teams, Red, Green and Blue, I was on red. We were then told how much they were going to push us, both mentally and physically, and they then yelled at my team to run around the corner, but let's just say that what we saw wasn't exactly what we expected. They had 3 colored tables set with lunch, where we ate. Afterwards we were set on our first task as a team. Two big tents needed to be risen, three firepits, fuel-generators, light, heater and then we needed to pain a flag for each of our teams.
(Skipping ahead, or this part will take too long)
Further on, our trip went on with lots of theory and practical lessons regarding leadership, and every once in a while, we were supposed to write down our thoughts on what we had learned, and what we would have done differently if we had been the leader in the given task. (We took turns) Around 22, we sat up on the trucks again, and were driven off to some location where we were going to run orienteering, with map and compass for 1½ hour. Then we got home, ate a late night snack, then went to bed. Sadly my team lost, so we had to make a campfire and take turns guarding it, and making sure the generators didn't run our of gas. Too bad the heaters didn't work, so the telt was freaking cold, making it almost impossible to sleep, so I ended up just sitting by the campfire most of the time.

Day 5: Friday
We were woken up surprisingly gentle, and then packed our things down in our backpack. We then had a little morning excercise to get the warmth back, and then got more theory. We did a little Tug of War, where red came in second, and then ate breakfast. Then our teams were broken up, so that Neuhausen 1 could once more be a whole. We then had our last theory, and were thrown up on the truck and driven home, where we needed to do maintenance on the things we used on the trip.. and then... FREEDOM!.. I got my leave. I then had to wait for 1½h to be able to start my 5½h trip home to the other end of Denmark. I was so tired from the 1½h sleep I had gotten, that I slept most of the way home.

Day 6: Saturday
Day off, sleep, girlfriend, computer.

Day 7: Sunday
Half of the day off, then took the 5½h trip back again to Karup, so I could prepare for monday where I had to clean all the personal stuff I had used on the trip. (Shovel, knife, boots, basis, backpack etc.)
Then went to bed.

Day 8: Monday (Again)
Today is one of the first shorter days. Usually we have untill 21-22, but this week, we have the day off already at 15-17. So we have time to train and have fun. We didn't do anything else than just sit in our classroom all day, learning about different things regarding giving orders, drilling and stuff like that. We only stepped out once to do a few of the practiced drills. Oh and btw, the items that needed cleaning were spotless.

Day 9: Tuesday
This was one of the first days where we actually got to lead a little, and the first day where we got homework except for the cleaning. We were first explained how to give orders in the correct way, and then we had to do an excercise to let out "our inner bear". We were first given an example, sadly I was the one that were going to be the "puppet". He told me to approach him, where he pushed me half-assedly and told me to "please go away", but then he suddenly yelled: "GET AWAY!", with a big push. I was about to soil my underwear. Then we had to do this excercise with eachother, and were then devided into two groups, where we had to yell orders at eachother. Was actually pretty fun! Then it was back to the classroom, where we had PE class again. We were taught more about the whole "be your own personal trianer"-thing, and then we had to do it practically, which was pretty hard.
Later that day, I did some PE myself, to get into better shape.
And this is the end of tuesday.

Day 10: Wednesday
So far, this week has not been the most interesting one, sadly. We have learned alot of things that we don't really care about. Some trivial stuff that everyone will forget very quickly. Today was no different, at least for us with previous military training. We had "SHOOT" today, which is a class about... shooting! (Gasp!) We were taught alot of basic stuff, like how to hold our carbine, reloading procedures; how to pull it apart and put it back together again, and alot more. This took most of the day, and then in the afternoon we had a little security briefing about Karup. And we practiced a few drills.
After we were dismissed, I played a little badminton. Someone had a birthday today, so 13 of us went to a Bones in the nearby city and ate dinner to celebrate. Got alot of helium baloons, which we had a laugh with on the way back in the cars.

Day 11: Thursday
Another short day was about to start. Just like the rest of the week. We had homework for thursday. We each had to prepare a 5min drill lesson about a particular drill, everyone had a different one. Then I can't remember what the hell we did. I believe we were taught a bit about becoming a securityofficer for the shootingrange. (One who is watching over the people shooting, making sure they are not breaking any rules, jeopardizing someone's safety.
Aaaand.. then im blank. I did some cardio training afterwards.

Day 12: Friday
Today was a VERY short day, which is awesome, as I could start my long journey home alot earlier than usual. First we had to report back to our class-leader (The one that changes every week), on how we thought she had done, both good and bad. Then we got our new laptops handed out! Wich is pretty damn awesome. The IT-technicians were pretty cool. In Denmark we have something called Multimedia tax. If you get a work-phone, laptop, PDA, anything like that, which you can take home with you, you have to pay that tax, as you are able to use it for private use aswell. It's a pain in the butt. Because we're students, we don't have to pay the multimedia tax, as long as we only use it for school-use. (Yeah right) The cool thing was that the IT-technicians which gave us the laptops said that they didn't want to answer ANY questions regarding stuff like that. What they didn't know, they didn't have to react on. So if we just shut up about what we used our laptop for, they wouldn't have to check or say anything. Pretty cool. Can't install anything on it though.
Then we got a short fire-drill, about what to do if there was a fire in our building; where the different fire extinguishers and hoses are. And then, at 11:00, we were dismissed! And then it was weekend!