In my opinion, the Summer of 2013 was one of the hottest in recent memory. The army is hard, there's no doubt about it. The sleep deprivation is what really gets to you in the long run. the days are long and one week feels like a month. The entire tank corps of Switzerland wears black berets with our dress uniforms. Each Corps has a different color beret indicating what corps they are. Every other corps wears a camouflaged cap while they work and are in their camo fatigues. We have the distinction of wearing black berets with our camouflage fatigues. Needless to say black berets don't offer much in the way of staying cool during the dog days of summer.
I am a Panzergrenadier Besatzer, that is, I'm a Tank grenadier crewman. As a crewman I wear a one piece jumpsuit instead of the normal two piece uniform worn by most other ground forces.
The first seven weeks of recruit's army service are spent learning the basics or being in the army. That is, how to shoot, how to correctly announce ones' self to a superior and comrade, the 5 basic firing positions, the ins and outs of our assault rifles, the basics of camouflage and tactics during night operations, how to properly align all your gear when placing it in a straight line, how to properly clean and grease our boots, what a properly cleaned and tidied room looks like and so on and so forth. On top of all that is the serious amount of physical exercise that we do on a daily basis. Unfortunately for me, I did little in the way of exercise before the army. In the beginning I felt I had bitten off more than I could chew. Fortunately I have my brothers in arms to encourage me, push me and keep me going on a day to day basis. We are a family, we rely on each other daily, and together we are strong. There were a few days that were real tough. I pulled through however and I'm sure glad I did.We pull each other through. All of the above mentioned sounds far simpler than it really is. It takes an awful lot of attention to detail, coordination and practice to get it all right, and after a few hard lessons in one or the other subject, you make sure it gets done right and after a while it becomes second nature.
Despite being some of the hardest weeks of my entire life, some good came out of basic training. In week 3, while at the 300 yard shooting range, the Company XO calls me over and informs me that I'd be attending an "Information & Recruiting" day for the Translation Officer Company. The following day I went to Bülach along with 35 other recruits from all across Switzerland. Out of these 35, myself and four others were selected to be aspiring Translation Officers. Prior to that point in time, I had been interested in pursuing a position as Feldweibel (Sergeant Major). The Sergeant Major of a company is responsible for the day to day workings of the company, from making sure the rooms have been cleaned properly (which can have disastrous consequences if they aren't), making sure equipment and gear is sent off for repairs in a timely fashion along with all sorts of other tasks. At the end of the Recruitment day, I had to weigh the pros and cons of both, and found Translation Officer to be far more beneficial to my life plans as well as something I would enjoy more throughout the rest of my army service. I am now among the those who will continue on to become NCO (Unteroffizier) or Officers. Instead of finishing off 21 weeks of RS (Rekrutenschule) I will go further and serve longer. And though the first few weeks were rough, I'm glad to be serving and glad to be able to capitalize upon this once in a life time opportunity.
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