As the title says.
We haven't had compulsory National Service since 1963 in Britain. I think I would have signed up for and enjoyed a voluntary form (not compulsory) of National Service, had such a thing existed.
I did try to join the Royal Navy when I was 20 but I was rejected due to my asthma. Apparently the rules around this are changing though. I guess they're having difficulty with recruitment.
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Not me, but my dad had to go there. He said it was total bullshit. Instead of learning about shooting and survival, they had to obey orders from some insecure alcoholic.
But he met some cool friends tho
I was conscripted into Finnish Defence Forces just like most men.
I was assigned to Anti-Air battery and on the second day they took all of those who had studied maths and physics and done well, and sent us to operate radars and communications equipment and do some signals stuff.
All in all, food was good, sleep deprivation was bad, equipment was good. I found out that I’m an excellent shot, I learnt how to parachute and made lifelong friends. Defence ministry should definitely spend some money on fixing the buildings, some of them are quite moldy.
I officially completed 15 months of military service. First, three months of basic training:
General military fundamentals in infantry combat. Accompanied by political training: learning the rights and responsibilities of a soldier.
Firearms training: learning how to handle small arms, including ballistics and weapon care.
Medical basics: first aid training and proper behavior in dangerous situations.
NBC defense: training in the handling of nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare agents.
Physical fitness: systematic training to improve physical and mental performance.
General services: formal service (marching), guard duty, and other general military duties. This was followed by several months of specialized training appropriate to the branch of service. In my case, training as a tank gunner. After that, the extremely tedious part of standby duty in the barracks, essentially a long, boring wait, interrupted by more or less pointless occupational therapy, guard duty, and occasional drills. The highlight was a four-week stay at a military training area in Canada. By accumulating time off for guard duty and training area visits, my 15-month military service effectively lasted only 13 months.
German army 1997-1998. Basic training (8 weeks) in a tank battalion, the remaining 8 months in a radio operator platoon in the brigade HQ.
In basic training we were maybe two times on the shooting range and I probably fired less than 50 live rounds in the whole 10 months of me being there.
The only truly useful thing that we did is help with the [Oder flooding of 1997 ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Central_European_flood)where we built/stabilized dams out of sandbags.
I only joined the army because it was 3 months less than civil service and allowed me to start university half a year earlier.