There was alot of shit we had to endure but when i look back at military time it was the best time of my life.

The conscripts have ton of little traditions like playing a song with a number in it based on how many days you have left in the service. So for example if you have 69 days left, you play summer of 69. Or you can buy a really big comb in the cafeteria and for every day that passes you can snap off one of its teeth. When you don´t have a lot of days left you storm into the younger conscripts rooms and play with you´r fingers on the comb for them.

16:20 He's mostly giving them positive feedback saying "We have trained this plenty and it shows." He's also talking about how its important to explain the mission well to everyone, so if the leader falls, the others can continue on.

It was a blast sleeping in a tent at -35ºC. Skiing on the ocean ice in -20ºC with a wind chill factor that i don't even want to think about. I got my first leave after three months, and i was home to Sweden only twice during my service. 😄 But i got friends for life which i visit every time i'm to Finland.

I learned a lot from myself at consncript. When you feel that you are completely exhausted, you still can fight on. And whining about tired and feeling horrible helps no one. You just make others feel more bad and grumpy. Everyone was in same condition, so shut up and keep going.

To answer your question about if you joined the military you'd get evaluated physically and mentally and based on the results your classification will dictate how physically or mentally demanding your role in the army would be, if your physical health is so bad that you would be considered a B classification (extreme obesity, asthma, etc.) that would mean a low physical demand job like a driver, cook, logistics, clerk etc. Almost anyone with a strong mind can get through bootcamp even if their physical fitness isn't top notch, I wasn't in the best shape nor in the worst when I went to one of the toughest brigades in Finland during the winter when temperatures were around -40C and I managed to get through it, and I have mild scoliosis too, it's all in the mind, most important lesson I learned was that your mind will want to stop way before your body will stop, so don't stop.

FDF makes high quality videos these days. I served in late 1980s and when I see those videos I envy those conscripts a little because they have a lot better gear that we had :D

You don´t need to be in shape, it just makes it a lot less painfull. The parts of the armed forces that require realy strong physique also arn't that large, most soldiers will be driven into battle. The thing with conscription systems is also that they have to work with what they got, and they got many roles to fill out every year. Had fat friends who got to train as a cooks, tank drivers and other things that don't reqire running. Staff work for the asthmatics ;)

The fitness comes from physical training in the beginning, the training is split in three parts, or it used to be 6 months and 2 first months was physical training and basic skills, being in the forest doing basic soldier skill stuff. Skinny guys grow, big guys slim down some. Many tasks don't require jaeger physicality so the two months of physical training and soldier training does bring your fitness up usually enough. It's mostly your body you need to handle in the end. And a lot of it is just sitting on the truck, in the foxhole, in guard or something else, you don't need to be carrying heavy stuff while running and jumping all the time (fairly rarely in the end) as an average soldier. Everybody learns to carry a mine and dig a hole but just for the basic skill, most won't be doing it after basic training. It looks epic in the promotional hype material, but really, most of it is just like war without all the awfulness - boring sitting around, being a bit uncomfortable at times, but mostly just waiting and being told to do something annoying again. And I've never had benefits from having had military training when applying somewhere, let's be real. So many are doing civil service these days and the employers just don't see much value, because you can still be a useless prick even if you had military training or even officer training, they don't want to attribute traits to people based on status and prejudice because they've burned their hands like that. What I would say is that it's still a unique experience worth going through. Nowhere else you get that feeling that you have a purpose and your daily routine is psychologically easy in terms of you're just part of a group and follow the orders and the day schedule, you get food, exercise and consistent bed and wake up time. You get to shoot a rifle, it's quite enjoyable to train your accuracy and get to shoot a pretty decent rifle (that's also not made for hunting but action). You get to do stuff with your hands in the nature, you get to challenge yourself mentally in uncomfortable circumstances like cold rainy weather all day outside with sand sticking everywhere. And joke with other guys who are going through the same shitty experience. It's one of those things people hate you talking about on leave because either they have never experienced it and don't understand it or they just did and don't want to think about it more right now, and that's all your life is day in day out. 10 years later you chat with someone who did military training and you always find similar experiences to connect with and interesting different experiences to learn and laugh at. There's always funny stories from those 6-12 months. It becomes one of those almost shared traumas, having had bad time but everyone else did as well and you got through and now you can look at it from the other side with compassion. Of course it's smart to spend the 6-12 months before conscription, the time when you know you're going, running and training pullups and pushups if nothing more. Mainly running I'd say, that's where the most benefit comes from. If you have capacity, you can still build muscle and get by training without being totally run down, in my opinion. If you are out of breath right away if you do anything, that's when things get really tough for you. And it never hurts to not be relatively overweight. Inside or outside military. In fact there's been regular studies on young people's fitness just going down lower and lower in the last like 50 years. Your average fellow back in time would run the 3000 meters in Cooper's test that is nowadays awarded excellent grade, considered almost athlete level. Today the average young guy is expected to barely make 2400 meters if even that. And if you look up the physical test to ww2 american paratroopers, those requirements are really tough for modern people. I think I'd hardly make it even though I've ran 3000 meters back in the day, gone to the gym and do judo as a hobby. Back in the day men really were made of steel. Or they went outside and did things when they had no computers. Nowadays kids do sports only in the school class, even back in my childhood in the 90's/early 2000's we played sports and games in the pastime. Less than people would have in the past, but still some. Finnish defense forces actually released an app some years ago that is free and gives you training programming for physical fitness. Really cool thing for someone who has no idea how to approach physical training. Only personal experience, but for me it wasn't being away for 6 months that was tough and benefited from the weekend leaves back home. It was being in the barebones room with 10 other guys. When I got home for the weekends, I pretty much locked up in my room and communicated only a couple of words with my family. I missed the personal space and time the most when in the military. Btw they say good healthcare is provided, but in reality you get to see a nurse who prescribes painkillers/anti-inflammatory painkillers. There's funny stories how they prescribe burana (the default brand of anti-inflammatory painkillers here) when the guy's head is off. That being said, when I had sinusitis I did get appropriate treatment and bed rest. However if it's not a clear bed rest disease, you're bound to be treated very superficially. I went to see the nurse about shoulder back then in military when I was 18, I was told to carry things in the other hand. Today at 33 years old I've been trying to do physiotherapy for years to fix everything from foot to neck on that side because it didn't get treated or acknowledged seriously and it went up and down through the chain causing posture to warp and joints start working poorly. In the end the promo material was really good in terms of it really brings out the exact points someone who went through the military training would make, the benefits and how you get through, what it's like. One of the benefits is also that it applies to everyone, you have to apply for civil service as exception to not do it (it's easy though if you don't want to go to military service, you just inform that you want to do civil service) so almost everyone does it (used to, as I mentioned more and more people are not these days). That makes it easy to just go on about it, you don't feel like you're missing out on life and getting left behind because you do it. It's more like you're missing out if you don't. Although many kids these days don't think about it that way anymore though, they couldn't care less and can't think of how just that schedule thing could improve your life for good. And it shows, their thinking in general seems to be very self-centered but not necessarily future oriented in that sense, learning skills to manage yourself better for future. More like "I can't deal with taking orders from anyone and I don't want to be restricted to that kind of schedules and training, I want to get something else done right now". But I have to give it to them, just doing the service doesn't make you organised, scheduled and reliable person. It could just as well burn you out and when you get out you're just like "thank god now I won't be doing anything for weeks, no schedules no nothing".

I where a conscript 2004. I sometimes have dreams of laying down anti-tank minefields and setting up an ambush :D 20 years later, all i would need is a refresher on new antitank weapons, and maybe some time on the firing range. I were the youngest in my service group, and still managed to make the 6 months they asked of me. As a Jaeger, most of my time was spent training, and weekends were off. The weekends allowed me to sleep and recover, for the next weeks ordeals. As i've talked with my nephews, the training has not slacked, it has remained intensive. and fit to purpose.

I'm 100% honest. YOU are perfect for the military conscription RIGHT NOW. They will guide you to something you can do and lack of fitness will be fixed by force. They can turn even the softest marsmallows into war machines. We had a guy who on arrival attached pokemon posters on his cabin, that's how low can conscript be at start. We also had guy who could not swim so he spent all his free time at kiddypool until he could swim. 1/09 Heavy artillery battery, TAS-unit. It was lovely experience. I really wish brits could understand the value of conscription. It's not like you die for the elite in some 3rd world country. You do it for your country and if we are precise, you do it for everything and everyone you ever cared in your personal life. Like our old veterans say: "If we do not do it, then we have nothing." But in peacetimes conscripts do not think war or moral choises, they just have this epic extension of school that is out of this world. Many memories that can carry conversations with guys at the pub for generations. Right now Putin is schooling next wave of meat. They teach propaganda to preschool kids, far nationalist views, how to hate and kill westerners. Meanwhile we hear how less than 1/4 of britts would defend their country while 3/4 of Finland is ready to fight by british side till end. Russia is taking notes and ramping militarisation. Though I keep my army picture on for the Battlefield games.

Hi! Fin here. First of all, this video is an older one at this point. Secondly, typically we don't think that we "have to" do this, we want to do it, it's kinda like becoming an adult.

My time in the army is a long time ago, but I have to say that I would have liked to have gotten this kind of information before it. At my time, I just went into it blindly, going with no direction at all. Thus so much has improved, and I really think it is good for future conscripts.

Both of my grand dads fought in WW II. Both were MG gunners from 39-44. Both were decorated, there were never really doubt in me. I remember thinking when I was kid, that I wanna grow up so I can get into army. I served in anti-tank company.

We want to do it, it's called an obligation.

For me it was mentally hard, mainly because I was already 23 and most others were 18-19. I was also father of two little children at the time.

It’s kinda crazy to think that every finnish man is a trained soldier. Except those who weren’t able to participate on that training ofcourse.

For conscription we are all a big family who know what its like to dig trenches and fight under artillery fire under a lack of sleep and other comforts and thats how we work as a civilians we are finns

After the pre-training period, one night the garrison sergeant came to wake me up and said that there was a car waiting in front of the door to take me to my new duty station. Because of my skills, I was assigned to print the city's battle regulations for the Battle School, now the Military Academy.

evenings were at my time free too...spend in bars and got hammered couple times that i had to go to puke after morning "gathering" and assigning ppl to what ever jobs. I was a officer trainee so i was kinda responsible of whole unit. Luckily our officers (professional) got it. actual reserve officer training was fucking brutal. Lasted 3 months and one last missions was: you were dropped off by truck to random location with full pack on (40kg) and find back to "home". And that was air defence, not like actual land troops whose job is actually do that. Didn't die but it was an experience especially when it has just snowed about 15cm...and it was snowing all the 60km way. I have no idea how i did it bc i wasn't most sporty or fit but it was also a race. Which team get's back 1st. It wasn't out team lol. That was 1996 so dunno how soft they have gone nowadays. 😄 with finnish men there are always military stories. It's a subjext we can relate if some other country person has been in military...

4:00 They do actually give you time, like if you're having surgery or you're too overweight you get a year to sort it out. For me it was like that, I was meant to go in Jan 2022 but because I was too overweight I couldn't go. I lost weight and went in Jan 2023 instead. You could even completely skip military service if you have some chronic illness that makes you unable to participate. Another thing worth noting is that anyone (like conscientious objectors) can choose to do civillian jobs instead, basically working for non-profits or the government for one year instead. I only chose the military because I figured half a year of military is less draining than one whole year of working at some random government office for basically no pay :P

Thats right, the army does teach a lot for life in general.

Fitness on army... basically all are on same line when u come to army.. eaven u are big or small... but before army u have to go to "kutsunnat" what is ones in every year... means there is lot of young man/women there... And u get big paper where is obout 200-300 guestions what i remember. So thats how they know example your mental/fysical helth and other stuff... In that "kutsunnat" u know/choose the place where u go to army..

Yep, we are almost all trained so think twice!

Thankfuly my country of Poland got rid of conscription and let's hope they don't bring it back

You'd do just fine if you were conscripted. You don't have to be in great shape at the start, but it helps a lot. Also, your fitness is taken into consideration when assigning roles after basic training, so someone less fit might be assigned as a scribe, cook, driver, maintenance or something else less physically demanding. The whole system also acknowledges that no matter what shape you're in, good or bad, it's liable to change after your active service when you're in the reserves, so the requirements are fairly low when you receive your training. The important part is that you can participate fully in the training, without injuring yourself. If you can't, you'll either be sent home to recover eg from an injury you've sustained before entering service, you'll be relieved of the obligation to serve during peacetime, or you're deemed unfit for service both in peacetime and in wartime entirely. This may be a controversial statement, but the emphasis on fitness in professional armies with expeditionary capabilities is somewhat pointless in territorial defence forces (not counting special units like special forces or long range patrol units which already have far more strict requirements). The vast, VAST majority of casualties in territorial defence are caused by artillery, and there's next to nothing your fitness can do to improve your chances of survival.

Soon you guys in GB also will have the chance to be conscripts 😉🇫🇮♥️

We get to do this, just clearing out this typo in thumbnail! Old saying goes, army makes boys into men, for most of us its true

Jone Nikula... Et sä voi noin sanoo...😆 II/05 KaiRr Pesee Siivoaa ja Tiskaa ja kyllä, Kova Apilas ja Musti takana. Rekyylitön pst ase ...

There is few very good branches for your civil life. If you are interested about truck driving. You will get the truck driving license from there and you pay very very much less than in civil training.

Gear in this video is very outdated btw

Specialists rule ;)

Am not Finnish but the translation is not in point, some words that matter are missing aka lost in translation.

As for an older Finnish man I always find it fascinating how other Europeans (very civilian) marvel at our glorious FDF.. :D This tradition in Finland has lasted for 106 years now uninterrupted with four(4)different wars included in the mix. It makes me think like "..did you not know about we having this despite we're supposed to be one big family in the EU..?" What else is there that's not commonly known.? :D

The crazy thing is Finlands population 5.5 million (Military strength 280,000) The Taliban population unknown (Military strength 210,000) The UK's population 70 million (military strength 85,000 to 120,000) Something is amiss here after 14 years of Tory government and the wholesale depletion of our military forces we are now weaker than some supposed weaker less populated countries/groups. That should not be happening. PS: To those who are going to comment i should join the military (i would if i could but at 56 years old they wouldn't accept me now) in my youth i was in the territorial army (late 1980's) but wasn't allowed to join the full army because of my Asthma diagnosis.