A reaffirmation of the oath by LTC Joe H.

[Swampy]

I fully acknowledge that I put my career and my pension at risk. I put my Post 9/11 GI Bill at risk. I put literally millions of dollars of personal and family benefits at risk. I G A F.
I do solemnly swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic...

Not "I do solemnly swear to support and defend my pension..."

What is going on is anathema to American ideals and the Constitution, and I cannot sit silent about it. Regardless of the consequences. Bring it on. I will provide for my family. They might suffer, but they won't starve. That's that.

Everyone should swear that oath or its equivalent for their country. I did so, when I became a New York lawyer, and that was a defining moment for me.

[dry]

fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sotilasvala


I myself have sworn the above oath, the Sotilasvala, the Finnish Soldier's Oath.


This happened IIRC in the church of the town Hyvinkää, a medium size town in the southern Finland.


When I ended the military service, I was told, that if the country on Finland ever got in a crisis situation, I would become an engineer officer.


fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erikoisupseeri


I would become an Engineer Lieutenant.



Later, seems I have been assigned to the intelligence, but those persons do not exist.

[Swampy]

What was your rank, DrY?

[Dr Y]

May 22, 2020 10:31:19 GMT -5 Swampy said:

What was your rank, DrY?

As I write this one, I'm an "alikersantti", "lower sergeant".

When I left the military service, Captain Ryhänen, the head of the unit, said to me, that if Finland would get in a crisis, I would be an Engineer Second Lieutenant.

fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alikersantti

The above mentioned means, if Finland would get in a crisis, I would be sent to the RUK, the Reservinupseerikoulu, to become an Engineer Second Lieutenant.

fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserviupseerikoulu

[Swampy]

So why didn't you stay longer to get your commission? I would love to have gotten one, if I was young enough.

[dry]

May 22, 2020 12:51:40 GMT -5 Swampy said:

So why didn't you stay longer to get your commission? I would love to have gotten one, if I was young enough.

The officers offered the Reservist Officers' School for me.   See    fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserviupseerikoulu

I had been accepted and entered the TKK, the Teknillinen Korkeakoulu, the Helsinki University of Technology.  I wanted to start the work at the TKK very soon, then.

Later on, many military persons have said to me that the TKK decision was a mistake.  I would have been a Second Lieutenant, the antiaircraft forces.

Many years later, we discussed a military intelligence position with the Finland Army, I would have received the military protocol of a "yliluutnantti", roughly a Lieutenant.  This business is not finished, now.

I would be a military intelligence officer with the Finnish Army.