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Sweden’s Defence Minister Leni Björklund has said she is dismayed over a film showing naked Swedish soldiers firing practice ammunition.
The film was made the summer of 2004, according to Swedish Television’s Uppdrag Granskning. It shows a weapons exercise featuring conscript soldiers from the Amphibious Regiment on Vaxholm.
“This has no place in the Swedish military,” Björklund said.
Soldiers edited the film themselves and among other things show two naked soldiers - wearing only helmets – burning themselves on hot shell casings.
Rough language is heard from those behind the camera. The shooting is accompanied by loud music.
“The film feels like a throwback to old traditions that might exist, but there is no room for that in the Swedish military,” Björklund said.
She said Swedes will picture the military differently after the film.
“If they see this type of training exercise, I think people will have a lesser understanding of what a modern military does,” Björklund said.
The practice shoot was part of the basic education for the new soldiers.
The film was made the summer of 2004, according to Swedish Television’s Uppdrag Granskning. It shows a weapons exercise featuring conscript soldiers from the Amphibious Regiment on Vaxholm.
“This has no place in the Swedish military,” Björklund said.
Soldiers edited the film themselves and among other things show two naked soldiers - wearing only helmets – burning themselves on hot shell casings.
Rough language is heard from those behind the camera. The shooting is accompanied by loud music.
“The film feels like a throwback to old traditions that might exist, but there is no room for that in the Swedish military,” Björklund said.
She said Swedes will picture the military differently after the film.
“If they see this type of training exercise, I think people will have a lesser understanding of what a modern military does,” Björklund said.
The practice shoot was part of the basic education for the new soldiers.
edit. Avatar shape-shifting Schmawy - the patrol cat era...oh, I guess ya had to be there...
http://blog.videosift.com/schmawy/The-Many-Faces-of-Serious-Cat-II-100-200
There's plenty of Swedes 'round these parts. Perhaps they can offer some kind of explanation. That's some hot bazooka action right there, though. Sorta reminds me of KP's old avatar.
Unfortunatly there's very little explanation to be had on this topic. This film created quite the stir in sweden when it was first shown a few years ago. A few conscripts decided to goof off at the firing range and film it, and thier officer apprenetly allowed it. Ofcourse the video was spread, ended up with the press and created somewhat of a PR faux pas for the swedish army.
You get a bunch of 19 year old guys together for 10-15 months things like this sometimes happen, lack of good judgement for sure, but even more so for the officer that didnt stop it.
I also heard rumours that they changed regulations on account of this incident to require soldiers to wear clothes when firing weapons (apperently because, as you can see, they got burned when they did not wear them
-Karl