On the first of July 2013, I entered service with the Swiss Armed Forces in Thun. Thun is the oldest and biggest of the Swiss army bases. Thun has always been the home of the cavalry in the Swiss army. As technology progressed and cavalry units were replaced by armored vehicles and eventually tanks, Thun became the home of all of Switzerland's armored units.
In January of 2012, I was recruited by the Swiss Armed Forces (SAF) as a Panzergrenadier at the Recruiting Depot in Windish. The Panzergrenadiers (Tank grenadier) are considered some of the toughest soldiers in the SAF, right behind the Infantry Grenadiers, the Parascouts and the Military Police Grenadiers. I was more or less oblivious to all of this at the time of my recruitment.
I took the train from Zurich to Thun on Monday the first of July. More than half of the train was full of young men much like myself. I don't think any of us knew what to expect, much less what awaited us when we arrived. I arrived at the Thun train station at 12:26. We poured out of the train on the the platform and followed the signs out to the street. For many of us, myself included, this was our first time in Thun. This horde of civilians made its way towards the specially arranged bus stop a ways down the street. The buses brought us to the the gates of the army base and from there, we made our way to our respective Halls depending on our assignment as either Command Echelon Soldiers, Reconnaissance and Anti-tank Soldiers, Tank Soldiers and Armored Sappers, or Tank Grenadiers.
We arrived, got checked in (they check to make sure everyone who is required to start their service actually shows up) and were sent to our respective platoon areas to begin to grab our gear and announce our arrival to our staff sergeant. Our company has 5 platoons: Ambos, Bivio, Canale, Dimitri and Emil. I was assigned to Dimitri. After announcing myself to my staff sergeant, I was ordered to grab a sleeping bag, put my name on it and place it along with my personal bag at the end of the row with the rest of the other sleeping bags and personal belongings of the other recruits in my platoon. Immediately there after we were ordered to shave our head. All but 2 out of 31 complied. Little did we know, but shaving our heads is not mandatory. The peer pressure to do so eventually persuaded the two to do so about two or three weeks down the line.
After the haircut, we began with platoon school, in which the staff sergeant or one of our PFCs (Private First Class) gives us orders to run around and eventually line up and practice marching in different formations. It takes a while to get right, though once it does work right it looks really cool.
The rest of the day was spent with receiving more of our gear and uniforms, getting to know each other and our officers as well as going to the barracks for the first time. It was all very exciting but also exhausting. Our first day drew to a close with the event known as ABV, which is short for Abendsverlesen. ABV is the practice of making sure everyone is in their rooms, present and accounted for at 23:00 as well as distributing important information for the next day. Because we were new to all this and there is a specific process in which ABV has to go down, the first couple of weeks it took anywhere between 30 and 40 minutes. Now this is fine if you are allowed to lay in bed and pretend to sleep. We were not. We want to be grenadiers therefore we had to stand at ease next to our beds. For anyone who isn't particularly in shape or used to standing at ease, 35 minutes is an awfully long time.
The first week felt very long and was stressful. Tuesday we received our personal weapon from our company CO. Through out the course of the week we received the rest of our gear and material. The last thing we received was our dress uniforms. It wasn't until weeks later I realized just how much we received and just how much it all weighed.
During the first week I averaged about 4 to 4.5 hours of sleep every night. Its quite a shock going from 7 to 9 hours of sleep to 4 or 5 hours a night. As with many things in the army, especially as a grenadier, you grit your teeth, put your head down and rough it out. After a while you get used to it.
On Saturday morning at 0630, the entire company clad in our dress uniforms, stood in a half circles around our staff sergeants. After standing in formation and then at attention for the company CO, we were released on leave for the weekend. I needed to be back on base for ABV at 2300 on Sunday night. We made our way to the train station, bade each other a pleasant and restful weekend, and took the respective trains back home.
I survived the first week. I was officially no longer a civilian, but a Tank grenadier recruit in the SAF. Though the hard part was yet to come.
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