I might as well list some things that happened to me.
I was in a mortar company of Kainuu Brigade for 6 months. I was trained primarily for communications service; that meant I could play with radios and phones and weird machinery for sending encrypted messages...
The training had three phases. The first was the recruit phase in which we learned how to "shut up and soldier" to quote Heinlein. This was common for everyone, including the paper warriors and other disrespectable lifeforms.
"Whistling noise!" (everyone shouts "Incoming!" and dive for cover) "That shell always comes to the place where I'm standing at. I'll die every time. That's fun." - one of our corporals
"Today you will learn how to extinguish a man who is on fire - without the fire, because infortunately we didn't get that napalm..." - an instructor
Funniest thing: A platoonful of men walking through a divinely beautiful, pure, clean Finnish nature (gotta love it)... wearing gas masks and rain capes. Didn't exactly fit into my idea of fallout or gas attack...
The second phase was the special training phase. First was the hell with 80mm mortars. Which meant, we took those things appart and carried them around, and tried to point at something with them. (Never got to shoot with them...) This was hell for me. I'm not used to carry things that weigh 20 kg...
The second part was the thing with the 120mm mortars. This was plausible. No one can carry things that weight half a ton, so we just needed to prepare the posts while the things were pulled around with trucks.
My most memorable events of this period was the visit of Norwegian cadets.
Okay, when we left, it had been raining over the night, and all the water from the truck roof came on me! It was... a cold morning...
Anyway, I was on the ammunition group at that time, so my part in that demo was to run and dive into the defence posts on the signal. So, we did. "KÄKI!" (ran into the posts) Then, one of the cadets came and photographed us. Interesting...
Well, I saw bunch of the rifle company folks emerging from the misty autumn forest... it was a scene that just craved to be filmed and placed to a war movie of some sort.
(I was looking out from window much later after this demo day, and a roommate asked...) "So, Lankinen, do you feel that out there in the dark the forces of darkness are after you? Do you hear them calling you?" (Me:) "'Military police! Don't move! Show your hands! Show your hands!'" (That was what the nearby-demoing MPs were shouting all the time =)
Well, we get more specialized after that. We learned how to use the communications equipment. A troublemaker by the name of Koskela used to call me "laku-Lankinen", in hopes of getting me to the cable squad (as opposed to the squad that puts up the command post). I, on the other hand, called him "Koskela of Finland, eats copper and plastic and shits cable". Guess who ended up in the cable team. Hint: it wasn't me... =)
I graduated from the exam as third to best. The platoon's commanding officer worried why I was so depressed and performed poorly when I did get such high grades, but the truth was that I had a lot of trouble in the civilian side...
The third and last part of our training was the "Mass training phase", which we practically spent in the frozen hell of Rovajärvi. That was the phase I had both the fondest memories of, and the lousiest memories of. I liked the moments I didn't needed to do the soldiering stuff; For most of the camp time, I sat in the tent ancknowledging incoming messages. The tent life was almost interesting. Now, war stuff... not really.
"So, everyone has a foxhole now? Okay. Full turn left... Three steps, go... man the near-1 post!... Okay, that was quick. Next time we'll take only two steps and it will be even faster." - one of our sergeants
I was finally demobilized in Jan 1, 1999.