06/04/2006

(Thursday 1800) Just got back from the first 2-day exercise, including 1 'night-out' of course. All went well and it seems as if the recruits got an experience out of it while having learned alot of important stuff. Tomorrow is the last day before Easter holidays, so we all look forward to head home and recharge.
Last Monday and Tuesday I took a few pictures of the aircraft at TLP and Brilliant Arrow exercises. I will upload them to the picture gallery during the weekend. Now it's time to get some food and then head off to bed, as we only got about 2 hours of sleep in all during the last 2 days, so we can feel that the batteries are low...
/Stephen

09/04/2006

(Sunday 1025) It feels great that I don't have to think about going back to base tonight. Sunday is always a bit of a drag, knowing that you have to leave and sit in a car for 3½ hours, and then knowing that I won't see Sara for a whole week.
Yesterday I remembered the time when PLA and myself bought a couple of cigars just before starting flying school and agreed to smoke them 'when the fat lady sings.' We sure smoked them during the final party and it was a great feeling that we had made it through the needle's eye. Perhaps it's time to buy a couple of new cigars for when we solo on the Hawk in Canada. It's a long time away, but I suppose it's ok to be prepared. Or perhaps we could smoke them when we've made it through the Officer's academy, which is just over 2 years away.
Anyway, I've started uploading some pictures which I took last week. There's wuite a few, so I'll upload about 30 every day during the course of this week. If you like fast jets, you'll probably like the pictures...
/Stephen

24/04/2006

(Monday 1840) It's been quite a while since last time that I wrote something in here, so I suppose it's about time that I write something. Last week I had the flu, so I wasn't able to work. It was the first time that I was on sick-leave since I've started in the military...apart from that 1 day at flying school where I fell with the bike.
Today we took the recruits out for a day where they had to work in groups in searching a piece of forest. I was group leader/ instructor for a group of 10 and it was great to teach them all the stuff. The weather was fantastic (for a change!). We had 15-20 degrees and almost cloud-free, so we really enjoyed the weather.
Tomorrow we have a whole day at the shooting range (one of the last actually), where they'll be having their shooting awards. Back in my time I got the bronze award. Hopefully they'll do better than me and get silver or gold. Let's just wait and see.
Now it's time to check my mail and then head off to prepare for Wednesday, as I have the last lesson in ABC (Atomic, Biological, Chemical wepaons) before the recruits go to their exam in the subject.
Take care.
/Stephen

30/04/2006

(Sunday 1420) The weekend is almost over and soon it's time to head back to base. The ABC exam went well for the class, however unfortunately one of the students failed. You can't win them all, I guess.
This week we'll start off with an orientation race in the forest. I'll be running with the students myself, in order to give them some extra motivation and at the same time I'll be doing some exercise.
Then on one of the days we'll be teaching them about battles in built-up areas, where we'll spend a whole day in a military village constructed purposely for training soldiers in the field. That's it for now.
/Stephen