Combat exercises are imaginary - coffee with doughnuts is real
The Soldiers' Home sisters are an important part of the Landslide 09 military exercise
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By Terhi Width
A green bus is manoeuvering carefully in a pine forest, weaving between trees in the Pohjankangas military training area in Niinisalo, close to Pori on the west coast of Finland.
The bus belongs to the Soldiers’ Home Association, Finland’s oldest voluntary defence organisation.
When Rita Ruotniemi-Siitari and Anja Rehula open the sales window of the canteen bus, a small group, heading for the front line, is already queueing at the service hatch.
Prior to combat, young men have to have their coffee with doughnuts and some sweets.
”Women working in canteens, the so-called green sisters, will bring a small break to soldiers even during field exercises”, says Ruotniemi-Siitari, shovelling doughnuts over the counter the while.
The slightly flagging group of young men seems to brighten up appreciably after they have drunk their coffee and put away their doughnuts.
The front line, the firefights, and the theatre of operations in Niinisalo are just a part of the Finnish Defence Forces’ main combat exercise, Maanvyöry 09 (Landslide 09), involving more than 18,000 soldiers.
The combat exercise is one of the largest military exercises in Europe, including four different sectors.
Ground troops will be practising on the land of several municipalities in the west (in Finland Proper and Satakunta), and in the north (in Kainuu and Northern Ostrobothnia). The Finnish Navy will train on the waters south of Hanko and Helsinki and in the Archipelago, while the Air Force will operate in all of the exercise areas.
Even though the military situation is imaginary, the doughnuts are all the more real - and so are the smiles of the green sisters as well as their friendly words to the ”boys in uniform”.
Green sisters have been carrying doughnuts, coffee, and refreshments to the forests since the 1930s, and the voluntary operation has continuously become more and more effective.
At garrisons, the canteens are the ”living room” of soldiers, while during exercises and at camps the mobile canteen is an oasis on wheels.
During the Maanvyöry 09 exercises, a total of 10 canteen buses are moving around in the forests. They stop for 15 minutes in certain areas that have been agreed upon beforehand.
In a pinch, the vehicles are camouflaged, and some soldiers are left to protect the bus in question. One canteen bus can carry out as many as ten gigs in a day.
Ruotniemi-Siitari got involved in the activities of the Soldiers’ Home some 15 years ago, first with her mother and later on with her sister, too.
”This is a hobby where one learns how to act in unusual conditions, to make fast decisions, and to adjust one’s actions to the circumstances”, Ruotniemi-Siitari notes.
At the outset, she did not even know what the Soldiers’ Home was. Now she can distinguish all badges of rank and knows all the weapons being carried.
Kirsi Tulkki, a member of the Board of the Soldiers’ Home Association, is confident that the Defence Forces would manage quite well - both in the exercises and if the real thing were to happen - without the Soldiers’ Home’s canteen buses.
”But then the troops would not be as cheerful as they are now”, Tulkki says after 17 years of experience.
”The men forget all about their miseries when they get some coffee and doughnuts”, Tulkki adds.
During large combat exercises, the green sisters test the workability of the organisation in crisis conditions, while also training logistics, leadership, and cooperation with the Defence Forces.
When it comes to the organisation of the Defence Forces, the division of the Defence Command is the partner of the Soldiers’ Home in crisis situations.
The Soldiers’ Home is a voluntary defence organisation that has a contract with the Defence Forces on the carrying out of its work even under exceptional circumstances, such as a disaster or conflict situation.
The Soldiers’ Home is a politically and religiously non-aligned organisation, with a total of some 6,000 members. Most are women, even though some men are also included in the number of green sisters.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 12.6.2009
A green bus is manoeuvering carefully in a pine forest, weaving between trees in the Pohjankangas military training area in Niinisalo, close to Pori on the west coast of Finland.
The bus belongs to the Soldiers’ Home Association, Finland’s oldest voluntary defence organisation.
When Rita Ruotniemi-Siitari and Anja Rehula open the sales window of the canteen bus, a small group, heading for the front line, is already queueing at the service hatch.
Prior to combat, young men have to have their coffee with doughnuts and some sweets.
”Women working in canteens, the so-called green sisters, will bring a small break to soldiers even during field exercises”, says Ruotniemi-Siitari, shovelling doughnuts over the counter the while.
The slightly flagging group of young men seems to brighten up appreciably after they have drunk their coffee and put away their doughnuts.
The front line, the firefights, and the theatre of operations in Niinisalo are just a part of the Finnish Defence Forces’ main combat exercise, Maanvyöry 09 (Landslide 09), involving more than 18,000 soldiers.
The combat exercise is one of the largest military exercises in Europe, including four different sectors.
Ground troops will be practising on the land of several municipalities in the west (in Finland Proper and Satakunta), and in the north (in Kainuu and Northern Ostrobothnia). The Finnish Navy will train on the waters south of Hanko and Helsinki and in the Archipelago, while the Air Force will operate in all of the exercise areas.
Even though the military situation is imaginary, the doughnuts are all the more real - and so are the smiles of the green sisters as well as their friendly words to the ”boys in uniform”.
Green sisters have been carrying doughnuts, coffee, and refreshments to the forests since the 1930s, and the voluntary operation has continuously become more and more effective.
At garrisons, the canteens are the ”living room” of soldiers, while during exercises and at camps the mobile canteen is an oasis on wheels.
During the Maanvyöry 09 exercises, a total of 10 canteen buses are moving around in the forests. They stop for 15 minutes in certain areas that have been agreed upon beforehand.
In a pinch, the vehicles are camouflaged, and some soldiers are left to protect the bus in question. One canteen bus can carry out as many as ten gigs in a day.
Ruotniemi-Siitari got involved in the activities of the Soldiers’ Home some 15 years ago, first with her mother and later on with her sister, too.
”This is a hobby where one learns how to act in unusual conditions, to make fast decisions, and to adjust one’s actions to the circumstances”, Ruotniemi-Siitari notes.
At the outset, she did not even know what the Soldiers’ Home was. Now she can distinguish all badges of rank and knows all the weapons being carried.
Kirsi Tulkki, a member of the Board of the Soldiers’ Home Association, is confident that the Defence Forces would manage quite well - both in the exercises and if the real thing were to happen - without the Soldiers’ Home’s canteen buses.
”But then the troops would not be as cheerful as they are now”, Tulkki says after 17 years of experience.
”The men forget all about their miseries when they get some coffee and doughnuts”, Tulkki adds.
During large combat exercises, the green sisters test the workability of the organisation in crisis conditions, while also training logistics, leadership, and cooperation with the Defence Forces.
When it comes to the organisation of the Defence Forces, the division of the Defence Command is the partner of the Soldiers’ Home in crisis situations.
The Soldiers’ Home is a voluntary defence organisation that has a contract with the Defence Forces on the carrying out of its work even under exceptional circumstances, such as a disaster or conflict situation.
The Soldiers’ Home is a politically and religiously non-aligned organisation, with a total of some 6,000 members. Most are women, even though some men are also included in the number of green sisters.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 12.6.2009
TERHI WIDTH / Helsingin Sanomat