I loved this one. I come from more or less military family, and all the menfolks in my family have served in the Finnish forces. Women were first allowed to serve 1992 - I had just finished my studies at HUT, and I was just wee too old to enlist. When I was young, I had a crush with my cousin who became a F-18 pilot. He eventually married his high school sweetheart, and I learned to fly on my own. But if I had had foresight, I could just as well have joined the FinnAF myself.

The right to serve for women was introduced by Minister of Defence Elisabeth Rehn. We had had a women's volunteer auxiliary force, Lotta Svärd, for non-combat duties, such as logistics, victuals, air defence, medical care and communications, already in WWII, but Minister Rehn, who herself had been a Lotta in WWII, expanded it also to combat duties. The change was quickly approved. A female soldier is called "kissa" ('cat') in the Finnish forces. Finnish hard rock band Popeda made a song "Kersantti Karoliina" (Sergeant Caroline) to parodize this - "I blame you, Elisabeth Rehn - my woman is now a lifer" is the famous stanza. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=cawQFCNbaXU&feature=related

My Female Bundeswehr site: http://femalesoldiers.greyfalcon.us/femalesoldiers.htm

The lady in the picture is wearing camouflage uniform M/05, nicknamed "cucumber salad". Her weapon is the trusty old RK-62, the predecessor of Valmet 95, which uses the same 7.62 mm short cartridge. She is wearing her hair long; the regulations state that hair must be "tidy" and if long, kept as either on ponytail or braided. The same applies also to boys - so the flattop haircut is not mandatory anymore! EU once complained that Finnish Army having the same physical standards for women and men is discriminatory. One of our female officers answered: "The enemy bullet is not going to ask if it is going to hit a boy or a girl. Sweat saves blood." On the underwear issue: own underwear may be used on field, if it is black, green, blue or camouflaged. The same applies to sleeping bags. Two civilian items are allowed when in uniform: spectacles and puukko (the traditional Finnish knife), which acts both as a tool and as a sidearm.

I once dated a Finnish girl... odd... but not as nearly as odd as the Icelandic chick. BTW, how old are you Susanna if I may be so bold? You sound like a strong female and I like ;-D

Rob, I wrote "At 33" to Janis Ian's "At Seventeen" in 2004, so you may do the math - unfortunately, I'm already married :) But the traditional idea of gender roles in Finland is that men are real men and women only slightly less hairy. Finland is way up in sixty north and the climate is hostile and soil is poor, so living here has meant always hard work for both genders - but also equality. My grandparents lived the inter-war years in US but returned to Finland just before WWII - it is mere chance I might be.American today.

TY Susanna for the info. I still would like to visit Finland someday and you might find it funny that I have to explain to the avaition idiots here that Finland operates F-18s and not F/A-18s b/c they are land-based!!! And I am also sorry for badgering you ont he train info- as a Finn you should know we Germans can be ruthless and willful to the point of death!!! If you get a chance mayeb look up some of my ship wreck parodies. i love yours and if you have any suggestions on anything militarily Finnish, I can write it. My family on the German side has high respect for the Finns as their best Co-beliggerent but the LW stories crack me up on the Finnish hatred of the Bf 109 and despised the German showing off of 2-point landings vs the Finnish 3-points!!! But as I understand it the Finns loved the German weapons to kill the Soviets with and HAD to reach an agreemnt to save what land was left by turning against the Germans. Self-preservation.