been a while...

Hello there, it's been forever since i had the time to write down things again, and i'm sorry for that, i do not intend to keep breaks like that every now and then :P

The main reason why i didn't write anything, was simply because i didn' have many things to write about, and when i did, i just didn't have the time. Army does that to you when you have to spend every working day at the barracs...

But now i'm free, done with the military, i completed my nine months of mandatory military service here in Finland, i guess i should talk about that for a bit, i can't, due to some law things, post pictures that show anyones face in particular or high end details of our training, but i got a bunch of pictures and things to tell you. Here we go.


Upon arriving at the bricade for the very first time, i really didn't know what i wanted to do with the time i had to spend there, i served at an artillery bricade, and artillery  wasn't my thing to be fair, so i didn't know what to do there, i first joined the basic training with the first artillery regiment, and during that 8 weeks of basic training, you get to apply to different line of trainings, and you will only get into one.


 So i did a bit of research, and went to different demonstrations in the barracs, and stumbled upon a military police training program info thingy, aaaand i applied, since it seemed to be something that interested me, and against the odds, i was chose for the training, i switched my "dorm" the same day and allready on the day after that, the MP applicants, me included were thrown into the forrest for three days of survival training, and so my service got hard and challenging in a blink of an eye.

Finding and detaining a dangerous person cases were more than fun...

It also ment that instead of the default 6 months of service, i would be doing 9 months. MP training itself was split into twocategories: War time tasks and peace time tasks.

All military police personnel are trained with basic police techniques and usually receive training for fighting in urban areas, which, more or less, was the thing that i sort of found so interesting when i applied. In wartime, the tasks are more extensive and include protection of key personnel and targets, especially against enemy special forces, and surveillance, control, pursuit, arrest and destruction missions. peace time tasks featured basic guard duty, detaining of a dangerous person, protecting a person, and basic police things.

Gateway duty at some training camp we had...

I sort of got chosen for a special job too, besides my basic MP training, i acted as the driver for the commander of our bricade, 4 of us were chosen, and i was one of them. That job included just driving different army members from point A to point B, i was completely surprised when i was asked for the job, and took it happily.



The best and the most intensive parts of the training were the training camps we had, once in two months or so, some of them included clearing an abandoned school for example, setting a base of operation in there, and defending it against anything the people that trained us could throw at us for 4 days, and that 4 days usually included a lot of weird scenarios and a lot of sleep depravation :)



















One thing i will not miss is the gas mask (unless im hit by teargas or something ever nastier) I still have nighmares about gas masks:D, we wore those a lot, while clearing a building, while werestling with someone, while doing push ups, while running up and down some set of stairs, at the shooting range, at that abandoned catering center, at that forrest during the night, at everywhere. Since battle gasses are a real threath while clearing a building, we were tought to live with those masks on, and we used them all the time...

Even the army is not 100% serious business ;)

  



 Don't get me wrong, i'm not complaining, i got into the training i wanted, i made a lot of new friends, i did things not many can say have done, i lost waight, and my fitness just increased during the training, i got addicted to self defence sports, mainly Krav maga, as that was the one we were trained in, and i got a lot of life experiences.



Right, after 9 months of handcuffing people, breathing throug a gas mask, living in the barracs and getting used to the lifestyle, spending time in the forrest, acting as a driver for high end army personell, clearing who knows how many buildings, shooting with different weapons, getting my face sprayed with mustard gas, tear gas, and crowd control substances (part of the training), wrestling people down, guarding things, tracking people with dogs, and doing different stuff with my team, or should i say, my firends :), it was finally time to say goodbye, to each other, and to the lifestyle. It felt really weird walking through those barracs gates for the last time, realizing "Damnit, i dont have to get back here next Sunday"

My MP insignia, right before i return it and head home.

 Except that i probably wont be saying goodbye to the lifestyle, at least permanently, as i sort of realised what i want to do with my life job vise. I decided that i will apply to police academy here in Finland, that was someting that i wasn't so sure of doing, but seeing how i enjoyed my MP training, i sort of felt like i could definatelly do this as a job, with out the war time things, of course :)

Damnit, it looks like i'll be a police officer someday, if things go the way i want them to go...

Right, enough about the army, ask away if you want to know more, let's move on and talk about the things that this blog is actually about. Metal. I'll start writing a new post sometimes tomorrow, which will be a small summary of those 9 months, since i did manage to see some live shows and do a bunch of other stuff on the weekends, when i wasnt at the barracs. See you 0/