Private Asper reporting for duty, Sir!

[Eagle Kammback]

Glad to hear from you, man!

If the Army is good for one thing, it is getting in shape.

Those tank recovery vehicles are EXTREME, we were talking about them on a site I'm on recently.

Stay safe man

[King of the Shrooms]

give it nothing but your best asper.

and stay safe.

[Guest FoXXX]

Hey Asper, good to hear from you again I'm glad you're managing Looking forward for you being fully back :)

[CrypticQuery]

Stay safe out there Asper, and I also look forward to your return :D

[Vy'drach]

That 416 is a good gun, don't have to worry about it exploding in your face as much as the M4A1. Glad to see you don't run as high a risk of your own equipment killing you.

Apart from being physically exhausted, how ya' been?

[FoxMcCloud]

Asper God Bless!!!

i wish you the best of luck, and that Tank Recovery Vehicle sure sounds like a beast of a vehicle

[Showtime 1-1]

Damn Asper, tank recovery? that's a good job. Good to hear that you're pulling through.

[Redeemer]

Glad you're okay Asper, keep up the good work! :D

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Hehe, sure is. But overall, it has also helped me realise how lucky most of us really are, how spoiled we've been or still are living in the civilian life. Definatively going to make me appreciate it much more when I get out again in 10 months time or so.

Found it myself. WARNING, contains some light swearing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5rRY2ICT4k

Aw, dammit, I missed ya', I'm sorry!

Glad you're doing okay though.

[Asper Sarnoff]

Hi folks. Been quite a while since I've hung around this place now. Or perhaps it's just that it feels like an eternity since I left for the army. Lots of things have changed. With me as well.

Now, if I were to sit and write down about the full experience of the recruit period, it would take me a small eternity. Zip-rep, if you haven't experienced it firsthand yourself, then know that with 99 % certainty that everything else you've faced of hardships most likely pales in comparison. Of course, it varies a lot on what officers one have, and where one gets stationed, but our troop chief unfortunately has a background from the Royal Guard, and didn't tolerate anything but the very best.

Up around 05.30 every day, and going trough days filled with physical exercise, marches, combat training, target shooting, maintenance of our weapons and gear often until late evenings. It leaves one completely exhausted, both physically and mentally.

Instead, I'm going to dive into the last week we had in the recruit period. We knew we'd be out in the field from Monday till Wednesday, and that it would be bloody hard, so we had spent the weekend, which we luckily had off this time round, to psyche ourself up. I swear, there's nothing better than heavy metal before going out into the field. Thanks Manowar, it was a true booster.

Monday came. As usual, we got up and cleaned our rooms for the inspection. Yeah, not only have we become somewhat good soldiers, we're also not to shabby at washing and cleaning either. Luckily, we all passed this time round, and were ordered to fetch our gear and line up outside the barrack. This meant one of our weapon(H&K 416, which recently replaced the aging AG3, "The Norwegian Handcannon" as it was called.) uniforms, helmet, battle-vest, and  backpack. Around 20-25 kg worth of stuff in total I think.

After the inspection of us, we were told to march to the other side of the camp, to the garage building of the troop. Here, we got a quick briefing about the field exercise, which we didn't really learn a lot from, as we were meant to be kept in the dark about most things.

We also got loaded up with the various team equipment, and split into the four teams of around 7-9 which we had been in for the last 7 weeks or so.

Then, we marched out into the field. It was quite a short one, this first march. Only about 2 hours. We regularly switched among eachother on carrying the 20 litre water bottle, as it was taxing on the two that were carrying it, and we knew we would need all our strength for later.

Arriving at our destination, we secured the area and started setting up camp. This means digging foxholes and trenches in a full circle around the camp. This took quite a while, and it was late evening before the camp was fully set up. After having our first lections in the use of signal flares and similar stuff, we were told to go and relax in our tents. Naturally setting up people on guard in the four main foxholes of the defence perimeter. I volunteered for the first shift, and as such spent the first hour sitting there and peering out into the dark woods around us, having a nasty feeling something was going to happen any time.

It didn't, then. So after my replacement came, I got back to the tent, hoping to catch some sleep. After around 10 minutes of sleep, we were told to get out and get into the trenches and foxholes, as there was suspicion of enemy activity.

Again, I found myself in one of the cold holes, trying to determine if that shadow 40 meteres in front of me was a bush, or an enemy peering back at me trough his foresight. We were lying there for about half an hour, before we got the signal for green preparedness, and we could return back to the tent, save for those out on guard.

I don't think I fell asleep even before we once again were told to get back out into the foxholes. Damn enemy seemed to be unfamiliar to the concept of bedtime.

It was very much the same as last time. We lay there for another half an hour, but neither saw or heard any enemy activity. And as such, we were allowed back into the tents.

Now, I managed to sleep for what I think is barely the better part of 15 minutes before we were given orders to break camp, get the tent down, and be ready for marching out in 30 minutes. We managed it in around 15-20 minutes.

Around 2-3 AM, the rest of the teams were also ready, and we set off on march. We later learned it was only an 8 km march. But it felt a lot longer, as it was straight up into the mountains. Some of the hills were incredibly steep, and some struggled with the load of their gear. If there was a moment this week where I shone, this was probably it. We had 9 shifts with carrying the now refilled 20 litre water can. I carried it on 7 of those.

While we're all allies, there is a strong rivalry between the 4 teams, and it felt really good to blow their hearts out and arrive at "Hill 305" long before anyone else. We immediately secured the hill and set up a 360 defence perimeter around it, waiting about an hour for the rest of the teams to catch up. Then, it was time to set up camp again and dig foxholes. It was a lot harder here, with there being solid mountain just a couple of feet beneath the soil. So we basically had to dig up large mounds first, and then dig the foxholes in them, and later camouflage them such that they looked natural from the outside. This took the rest of the night, and much of the Tuesday morning. We also observed two teams of hostiles(other recruits from other troops) passing by the hill, marching for their planned campsites, and had to stop working for a while and lay low while they passed by.

After being finished with the defences, it was up again with the tents, and we now had some time to make ourself some food. This turned out to be the last real meal we would have until Thursday as well.

The rest of Tuesday, we spent going out on patrols and charting where the enemy had made camp. This turned out quite successfull, and we managed to pinpoint their location very accurately. This came in handy later early next morning. Around 01.30 AM, after I had managed to catch nearly an hour of sleep, the troop gathered and set of on march towards the enemy camp. We marched for about 2 hours, taking long detours and coming up on their camp from the other side of where we started. Climbing up on top of a hill and letting loose a hellstorm of fire(blanks, of course) upon them, as one.

We took them completely by surprise, and as soon as they started to mass a defence, broke off our attack and set of on march back to camp again. If possible, we took even more detours now, passing the 3 hour mark.

As soon as we got back to the camp, we were told to break up once again and get prepared to march back to the base. This was of course news that made us properly happy, as we thought this was the end of our trials. How wrong we were...

Our team was the last to set off on march. Can't really blame the poor guy that made it so. The "BC" (For "Bæsj & Carry", would be "Poop & Carry" in English. The army's portable toilet.) ain't that nice a place to sit.

In any case, we had sworn that we would be the first team down again as well. Despite them having a long head start, we blew past them all, the first two falling early, and the last one had to bite the dust within sight of the entrance to the base. With hindsight, it was probably not the wisest move to do just then, nearly exhausting ourself without any good reason.

We got back to the barrack, and with orders to not go to the showers, but fill out some forms.

We got about an hour or so of rest before the fire alarm suddenly started blaring. We get out into the hallway, now filled with smoke belching out of smoke machines, speakers blaring out hard rock, and officers running around and shouting in our faces that we should change into another of our field uniforms, fetch our gear, and get the hell out.

So we did. Now, we were told that the time for our "Beret-challenge" had come. For those who wonder, the beret is the hat that symbolizes that we're finished as recruit, and have now become fully blown soldiers in the Norwegian Army. But, it's not something we're just given. We have to earn it, the hard way.

This year around, it was split into two parts. The first of them was a run. 15 kilometres, with weapon, helmet and vest, and we had to finish it in 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Might not sound that hard. Right? Well, it is when you have allready given as much blood and sweat as we had. We decided from the start on that the whole team was going to pass, and despite there being hefty doubts about if we would all make it during the run, we all came in before the 2 hours 10 minutes mark. The last 5 Kilometres were like a slow descent trough hell, and I came dangerously close to quiting several times. If there was one thing that kept me from it, more than my own wish to earn that beret, it was the thought of my girlfriend. Thank you Hun, you've got no idea how much you helped me trough that.

So, the whole team made it trough. Though a couple where so reduced after it. Sprained ankles and ruined knees, that they couldn't participate in the second part of the challenge. After getting about an hour to rest and tend our feet, we marched out again. But not before we had given away all our remaining food, tobacco and fluids except water. The second part of the challenge was some kind of orienteering, with 7 posts we had to go trough. I have trouble remembering them all, but there where tasks such as carrying two large logs round a track for one a half hour, pushing a two tonne MB G-Wagen up an incline, digging more trenches, traversing imaginary minefields, and perhaps worst of all, while having our gasmasks on, carry a teammate around 50 metres up a step hill. The glasses of the mask filled with dew, so we didn't see a thing, and just had to stumble foreward, step by step, changing direction when we felt we were close to falling off the hill.

These where the kind of things we spent the entirety of Wednesday evening, the night, and the following morning on. With temperatures falling below the freezing point, no rest and no food but what we earned at the various posts. A 65 gram chocolate bar to split among us if we did well.

As the morning on Thursday started to dawn and we had been trough all the posts, we received orders on the radio to march back to the base. While some had a faint hope this would be the end of it, most had learned enough from the last days events such that they feared the worst. As we got into the base again and stopped outside the main fuel station, we were asked to pull our hoods over our heads, and tighten them such that they covered our eyes, grab the backpack in front of you, and hang on. We were lead into the basement of the fuel station, pushed into line, and asked to stay still and keep quiet. We stayed like that for around 15 minutes, hearing more and more teams come in the same way we had done, and some others leaving as well.

Then, our turn came. We lead out of the building and on board a waiting truck. I now suspected what the next challenge would be. We'd be driven around in circles and then dropped off somewhere far away, and then told to make our way back to camp within the next day or so.

But, the truck never left tarmac, and the trip only lasted for a couple of minutes. I had no idea what would come next as we got out and down onto the ground again. We were told to take our gear off, lye it down on the ground, and follow the person in front of you.

We were lead into another building, and then told to take our hoods off. We found ourself in a dimly illuminated hallway, and were ushered in groups of 6 into a small room.

We lined up inside this room, the walls, floor and ceiling was entirely covered in camuflage-nets, with the exception of a spot on the wall in front of us, where the mark of the squadron I'm in shone down upon us. Hans Zimmer music came out from hidden speakers, it was truly special. An officer standing in front of us commanded us to kneel, and as we did he told us that we had now passed the final tests, and were no longer recruits in the Norwegian Army, but Dragoons in Panserbataljonen (Armoured-batalion). We got our berets handed to us, put them on, and rose to our feet, every single man and woman close to bursting with pride.

The rest of the day was set off to cleaning our gear and weapons before we could finally dive into our beds and catch up with sleep.(Which we really needed, having gone from Monday morning til midday Thursday with less than two hours of sleep in total.) As such, we marched back to the garage building. Halfway trough the cleaning process though, a Sergeant came up to me and three others in the troop and asked what our shoe sizes we used, and our general clothing sizes. We didn't know why they asked that then, but got to know half an hour later, when we four were called up to the office of one of the lieutenants. He told us that we were the four men selected to be the tank recoveries of the battalion, and due to the complex nature of our education, would have our leave of absence start one week earlier than with the others, and then jump straight into the education. This was truly the icing on the cake, as this was one of the positions I had hoped the most for. For those who don't know what a tank recovery vehicle is, it's a beast of a machine made to pull out main battle tanks stuck up to their turrets in mud. Build on the chassis of a Leopard tank, weighting in at 52 tonnes with all gear, big bulldozer blade up front, and with a 37.5 litre twin-supercharged V-10, this is one monster you don't want to stand in front of.

So, here I am. Back home again for the weekend, and ready to head out for my training on Monday. This time though, I'll bring my laptop and do my very best to keep contact. I've been missing you all deeply.

Dragoon Asper.

[CrypticQuery]

Congrats Dragoon Asper!  It's good to have you back! :P

[Fluxy]

Glad we will be seeing more of you. And Congratz! =]

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Damn, I'm sorry I missed ya'!  Well, Dragoon Asper, it's good to hear from ya' again.

I wish I coulda served in the military...course, I'm the type of guy who would wear the skeleton skull mandibles of his dead enemies on his arm as trophies, like that bad guy did in "Apocalypto"...probably why the Army refused to conscript me.  Damn Army psych. profilers and shrinks.

[Showtime 1-1]

YES! Congratulations! It takes more strength and determination then most people have to get through training like that. You're really a cut above the rest now, Asper.

[Vy'drach]

I'd be lying if I said that sounded like fun, Asper. Glad you're making it through well enough, though.

[Fira-Astrali]

Congratulations sweetheart, I'm so proud of you ^^ You definitely earned and deserve that beret <3

[FoxMcCloud]

Congrats dude!!!! that sounds so impressive!!!  :cool:

[Eagle Kammback]

Asper, you are awesome for surviving that. Congrats man!

[Asper Sarnoff]

Thanks everyone. It's good to be back again.

And as I am just that, back, this thread ain't really the right place to write about my day to day experiences within the army anymore. This week, we're going trough the theory parts of the complicated process it is to drive and maintain a vehicle based on the Leopard chassis, and next week, we'll start the driving training in itself. I'll probably pop by and write about it from time to time in the "good news" thread. Also, if there's anyone who have any questions in regards to me, my training, military life and armored vehicles in general, feel free to send me a PM anytime.

[Guest Julius Quasar]

Okay, but it's good to hear from you.