Shipbucket

Why was it so bad? I had always been led to believe the week-long training for most of the state guard associations was fairly mild in comparison to other military training.

Because we had a Sergeant who decided that since we were in uniform for the week that we were Regular Army and that the 12 weeks of Basic Training should be crammed into 4 days. He had so many complaints about him that week that the higher-ups decided to demote him; he quit because he didn't want to be demoted. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Karma can be a major biz-notch.

Sounds like a genuinely helpful guy just being smacked by The Man.

Ok, now I'm speaking as someone who has never been in the army in the first place. But isn't the point of these reserve formations to have 12 weeks crammed into 4 days?

You should be glad you are not in the Norwegian home guard!

We're not Army Reserve or National Guard...we're State Guard.

What kind of training were they having you do?

Well I have holiday, so from 15 July I will be traveling to Hamburg (Germany), for fun. I need to get a little out of Norway for a bit. I will be in Hamburg in 2 week or so, so if there is anything a ship in Hamburg within my range, I'll can see if I can take an picture or two of it. I will also visit a ship/naval museum, so that will be fun.

I will be around since my hotel have inter"web", but what I use it to...

Oh, if you know about an nice museum... Let me know.

... Back to that ice...

I'll be away from the 18th until the 25th down in the Southwest. A whole week of sitting overlooking the Bristol Channel and watching steam trains.