Vrooom! The caterpillar feet tear up dust on the gravel road before the over six tonne vehicle with trailer dives into a depression between two pines.
– One more meter! Maria Thorén, 43, shouts to the everyday environmental inspector in Skövde municipality, who is standing in front of the tracked vehicle.
Inside the cab nods Peter Cronell, 40, sheet metal worker from Kungsbacka. It is a Tuesday morning in June and we are in the outdoor area Bynäset in Östersund.
Here and elsewhere in the country, the voluntary defense organization Bilkåren, which turns 80 this year, trains crawler drivers for the Home Guard in the army. The training is five weeks, divided into three courses. The 16 students are out in combat pairs and learn to back up with trailers. A choir, a guide.
The vehicle slowly winds its way back up the gravel road again. Suddenly Maria Thorén shouts. In the turn, the trailer has folded like a folding knife. Peter Cronell drives forward, straightens the carriage and reverses again.
– We deliver warriors who will go out and work in a war organization. But just like reversing with a car and trailer, this is also an art, states the course director, Sergeant Håkan Ferner, 52, from Växjö cheerfully some distance away where he is looking.
In the light of Russia’s war towards Ukraine, people flock to the Home Guard and the Car Corps.
According to a previous report from the Swedish Defense Research Agency, FOI, about half of Swedes can imagine going into battle if Sweden is attacked and 84 percent are willing to take a role in civil defense.
In a normal year, the Home Guard receives 5,000 applications. This year there are a record number – 25,689 by the end of May. Then you should keep in mind that the Home Guard has 20,000 soldiers.
To handle this paper exercise, the Armed Forces needs to hire 30 recruiters – eleven have already started. At the turn of the year, the Home Guard is estimated to have a total of 25,000 soldiers. Then even more.
The car union has received 1,300 new members between January and May – as many as they normally recruit in two years. This year they have five trolley trainings and filling all the places is usually a bit tricky but no longer. Now there’s a queue. They also train drivers for buses, off-road vehicles, trucks and other logistics staff.
– I have been Secretary General for eight years and we have never had such a search pressure as after 24 February. Many people want to get involved as a vehicle driver in the Home Guard, but also many want to make contributions in the civil defense, where we train drivers for various authorities, says Eva Blomqvist, Secretary General of the Swedish Car Union, who wants to attract more women.
For this course in Östersund, 13 out of 16 students are men, between 20 and 58 years old.
– The military is male-dominated, especially motor training. We want to show that this is for girls too. You should really feel welcome as a girl, says Håkan Ferner.
– Of course it may be needed more women but the most important thing is that it is the right person in the right place. Honestly, I do not think about gender when we are at the camp, but we are 16 good people.
Maria Thorén wipes her forehead and sucks in water from a hose to the backpack’s fluid system. Otherwise you get a headache from the sun. Yesterday she did not think about drinking regularly.
Like others here, she hopes that more people will open their eyes to what the Home Guard and the Car Corps are actually doing. Before this training, they have received military training and after that they will be band wagon drivers in the Home Guard, where exercises await.
Facts. The difference between Bilkåren and Hemvärnet
The car union
* Is one of 18 voluntary defense organizations in Sweden and has the task of recruiting and training vehicle drivers for the military and civil defense, with authorities such as Svenska kraftnät, the Swedish Energy Agency and the Swedish Transport Administration.
* Has about 5,200 members throughout the country.
* It all started in 1939 when the Women’s Associations’ emergency committee, a reserve of female labor in Gothenburg, began to train female drivers for trucks and ambulances. Gothenburg’s female car corps came into being. In 1942, the Swedish Federation of Women’s Car Unions was formed. Until 2009, only women were welcome and the name was then changed to the Swedish Automobile Union’s national association or simply the Car Union.
The Home Guard
* Part of the army and there are 20,000 Home Guard soldiers, almost half of the Armed Forces’ uniformed personnel. The average age is 43 years. The proportion of women is about 12 percent.
* Are modern military units with the task of protecting, monitoring and supporting society in times of crisis. Has a readiness called 6-24-90: The units must have a basic ability to solve their task within six hours, full ability after 24 hours and 90 days of endurance.
* It all started in 1940 when spontaneous units to protect the home were formed, which after a parliamentary decision became the home guard with young people who did not do military service and older people who were too old for the regular defense. The first soldiers wore armbands with a land storm badge and a rifle or shotgun.
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If something serious happens in society, they will leave their civilian jobs to help. As in forest fires, storms or searches for missing persons. But they train for war tasks. The old image of the Home Guard as an Åsa-Nisse organization for good guys with a few beers in their bags does not give much for.
– That’s not how it looks today. It is a younger home guard with modern equipment, says Peter Cronell, who has stopped the tracked vehicle for some rest.
– And more commitment. So it is heading in the right direction, Maria Thorén continues and says that the spirit of friendship is still good.
She likes vehicles and was previously the motorcycle ordinance in the Home Guard but quit because it got a little too fast. Now that she is missing the green clothes again, it will be a bandwagon. Peter, in turn, says that he has long regretted that he chose not to work. That’s why he’s here.
– Track carriage is fun and challenging. You get around almost everywhere. But it requires some training, it does, he says and laughs considering today’s exercise.
– The Home Guard is screaming for tracked car drivers and it is very funny that so many are applying, that so many want to take social responsibility in case things go wrong.
On the front trailer, the Car Union’s emblem shines in the sun. Three triangles that symbolize their motto: Vigilant, gentle, effective.
Facts. Then you can get involved
* Application to the Home Guard is made online. All Swedish citizens between the ages of 18 and 60 can apply and the selection is made after home visits, security interviews and register checks. Those who have not done military service receive a 14-day basic military training from the voluntary defense organizations, such as the Defense Educators, the Navy, the Car Corps, the Lottery Corps, the Volunteer Air Corps or the Voluntary Motorcycle Corps. They then receive a three-day introduction to their Home Guard unit and sign an agreement to serve a certain number of days per year for a course or exercise.
* In addition to the regular service of a marksman, there are a large number of specialist positions that the voluntary defense organizations train. For example, dog handler, vehicle driver, boat driver, crew member, motorcycle ordinance, signalman, paramedic, CBRN soldier (chemical, biological and nuclear weapons), pioneer unit with mining, staff assistant and homeland security pilot.
* You can also get involved in civil defense. FRG, the Voluntary Resource Group, helps municipalities with fires, pandemics, water shortages, floods, long-term power outages, major accidents and crises. The application is made online at the Swedish Civil Defense Association and you are trained to be available for municipal assignments. The Red Cross also organizes spontaneous volunteers.
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