War Story

Alright, so here's a moment in my life that I want you people to hear about. It made a tremendous impact on me that day when it took place, and I still think about it sometimes. So, anyways.. Let's begin.

During my service in the armed forces last year, I was ordered along with about three other people to participate in a large "expo"-type of a gathering of various companies and VIP's in Oulu. The defence forces naturally wanted to participate, and only a handful of guys were selected from my company, and I was among them since I had a good and clean record. I didn't really have choice, I was just summoned to a 2nd lieutenant one day, and he told me that he was going to order me along with a few other people to go to Oulu for a week on this expo. It was a large expo, too - about 40,000 people were expected to visit it in just a few days. So, naturally I had nothing against such an order - I mean, we got to go to Oulu, and pretty much spend a paid vacation just showing a bunch of civilians what the defence forces was all about.

So, during the days we pretty much acted as the show-and-tell - folk. Civilians came to us as we stood in front of various exhibitions of army equipment. During the nights we had some very heavy R n' R tours in the vibrant summer nightlife on the city. We even went to this modelling exhibition on the Radisson SAS-hotel in the city, and Satu Tuomisto (Miss Finland 2008) was there - naturally we all got her to sign her autograph into our beret's that beautiful Oulu summer evening. I still have that beret, and I remember when we took a picture of her among us and sent it to the other NCO's back at the barracks in Kajaani! Hahhahah, Dude, you could've probably heard the immense amount of swearing originating from Kajaani at night if you really listened quietly enough.

Anyways, naturally the exhibition had a section for the UN Peacekeepers and veterans of the service. There was a pair of old guys there, and they were like the real old school guys who had been in Lebanon, Sinai and stuff. They were very helpful and had interesting stories to tell. I quite literally harvested alot of useful information from them - both through stories and some manuals, too.

During the third day, this tanned guy showed up in Desert Camouflage into the UN tent. You could see that he had been "in country" fairly recently, and he had this tough look of a career officer on him. He was a sergeant, and I was corporal.

So, during the same day I went to have lunch near this small cafeteria at the expo-site, which was strictly reserved for the defence forces personnel serving at the expo. So, the tanned sarge shows up! And he sits into my table. Naturally me sitting there with a pair of friends turns the whole atmosphere a bit tense, since here we have like a real-life soldier who had been in Afghanistan up until a few days ago. We all eyed him a bit discreetly, unsure on what to say. He looked at us - a bunch of young corporals just staring at him in his desert cammies quietly having his meal. Quickly he looked up at us - and asked:

"So, like - guys, how are you doing?"

I immediately replied to him: "Sergeant, Sir - it's all good" - to which he immediately replied by stating that there was no need to call rank here in these circumstances. Instantly the atmosphere got a bit easier, and I and a bunch of other guys proceeded to talk to the sarge.

He told us that he had indeed just came from Afghanistan after three tours. He also told us alittle about the general atmosphere there and about the daily stuff they did there. We naturally listened to what he had to say, and eventually the Sarge told us that he had been a part of the patrol of a certain Sergeant Petri Immonen, who was KIA and made the news in this country in 2007 when it happened. Sgt. Immonen along with his patrol was ambushed by an IED (improvised explosive device) and he was among the badly injured there. He later on succuumbed to his wounds. So, this guy I met had been a part of the patrol. I remember reading about Immonen and the unfortunate events that took place when it happened a few years ago, and now quite frankly what I had there right in front of my eyes was a piece of real breathing and living legend.

So, naturally as the Sarge had told us about all the events there, one of the guys looked at him, and asked him frankly: "So, umm.. If stuff is so horrible there, why do you keep on going back?". The Sergeant deemed this as a reasonable enough of a question from a buch of us green-assed little sons of bitches, and he quietly nodded:

"Well, guys - I guess that's just it. I keep on asking that same thing from myself over and over, and right now I don't really have an answer. I suppose it has something to do with the men next to you. It's not about adventure or anything else out there anymore" he told us. We kept on talking for a while, and eventually he asked whether or not anyone of us would be interested on signing up for peacekeeping operations abroad in the future. None of the guys there were interested - except me. I told him that I had been thinking about it, not just for the money, but mostly because of the money, I guess.

As he left, he said his goodbyes to us, and finally patted me on the back as he left and enigmatically told me that "we'll be seeing each other". And then, the Sarge left. As mystically as he had come, he also went off to continue the tour.

I thought about what he said for a long time afterwards. This guy was a genuine vet, man. He had been down there several times and stood right in front of the face of death and looked upon it. He was one hardcore dude, man. Extraordinary men - such guys you do not see very often nowadays, I think. Men with such sense of duty and willingness to commit. True heroes, man.