Friday: week 2, day 5
Friday was supposed to be the day of the first artillery shooting with the whole battalion. Our unit was planned to deliver ammunition, take it back after the shooting and then refuel the battalion. The maintenance platoon had to hold itself ready for vehicle defects, and the medic group set up something like a small emergency room.
We collected our radios and vehicles and prepared for a function check at 8 am. The electronic comm system was supposed to be set up at 8:30 am. Our captain didn’t show up until just before 9 am, so we went the ammo and fuel platoons away; I waited with the command vehicles a little longer. The “joining” didn’t work for the comm system, neither for us nor for a howitzer unit preparing nearby (see picture).
It seemed that the problem was on battalion HQ level, so we went back to our main building and waited. I did some more paperwork, finished the order for next week’s march and from time to time checked on the soldiers trying to set up the comms system.
We heard the howitzers shooting, so something must have worked, but it definitely wasn’t the systems we were supposed to use. Around 3 pm, we finally figured out that two cables were switched and the amplifier couldn’t work like that. At least something.
Around 5 pm, the shooting was over with, and we attended a little ceremony to honour St. Barbara, patron saint of the artillery. To this end, most vehicles of the whole battalion met at one place: 24 howitzers, 24 armoured ammo carriers, around 15 APCs and countless all terrain vehicles. Quite impressive, and we didn’t even bring our recovery tank which weighs almost the triple of a howitzer.
After dinner, we had set up a meeting with our captain and to representative of the battalion staff to discuss the problems we had among each other. The discussion was really constructive, but I don’t see our captain changing much of his behaviour yet. At least the staff guys told him in very clear words to stop doing useless stuff that only creates paper and stress. We’re no recruit school after all.
We finished the week in our own “logistics bar” with a few beers, mainly to celebrate the last day of service of the chief of the workshop. The staff guys were there, too, and it was great fun to listen to their tales and stories. Our captain was outside for most of the time and afterwards preferred to talk to the supporting staff instead of his platoon leaders. Oh well.
