Booze_Hound said:
Sonicron said:
The last 4 months of my mandatory 9 months at the Bundeswehr. Pushing papers and managing archives of serial numbers all damn day from 7 to 4.
Bummer, I didn't realise military service was required in Germany...
Yeah well, something like that. After graduating from school about 85% of males living here (picked at random) are required to either be in the military or do some kind of civil service for the duration of 9 months.
Some people con their way out of it by, say, smoking dope prior to the mandatory physical so it'll show up in the tests and render them 'unfit for service', but then again about half of the time karma comes back to bite them in the arse when the Bundeswehr actually bother to forward those files to the police.
Of course, if you actually have a condition that renders you unfit (say, both legs being different length, being prone to get slipped discs, significantly reduced eyesight etc) you are justly freed from doing either mandatory service.
Since I was deemed fit for service and deduced that I'd probably have a worse time caring for mentally impaired children or wiping butts at an old folks home, I gritted my teeth and signed up for the Bundeswehr. I learned an astounding amount about bureaucracy in those 9 months... but it wasn't all bad. I also got to steer a giant supply ship and take part in fun little activities such as performing controlled detonations of old naval mines. ^^