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Ataxerxes
Dec 2, 2011

What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?
While various experiences from various people from various conscription based armies occasionally pop up elsewhere I thought I'd make a thread for talking about experiences in them. The US haven't had national service since the Vietnam or something, but here in Finland it's still going on.

I did mine in 2002 so it's been a while since I was there, but back then the FDF had either 6, 9 or 12 months of service (which has changed since). There was the option to instead to unarmed service (you would serve in a garrison but not carry a weapon) or civilian service (2 weeks of training in non military related things and then 13 months (then, less now) helping in a care home, a library or something similar). If you refused to serve at all you would (and still do) get 6 months in a low-security prison. Universal to all male citizens, people with 2 different citizenships don't need to serve if you have served in the other country. I met a dude with both Turkish and Finnish citizenships, unsurprisingly he chose to serve in Finland. My grandfather who served in 1948 knew someone who had a Finnish and a German parent and had been forced into Hitler Jugend combat unit (I think he told my grandfather he flew some sort of bomber) at the end of WW2. As he became of adult age when he was living in Finland after the war he got conscripted (again).

Here it used to be, back in the 70's and 80's, that going for the civilian service could hurt your chances of landing certain jobs. It might still, in a super conservative area, but there aren't many of those.

After about 3 months of basic training some are (after various tests) selected for NCO training and from them, a smaller part for reserve officer training. If you want to become an active duty officer you must get at least the NCO training while in the service, though it is possible to apply for it afterwards (though there aren't many places in that). After your service is over you can apply to study at the Defence Academy and, if you graduate, you are an active officer. So there isn't a way of becoming an officer without going through the basic training as a grunt.

For my part spending 9 months away from my family after high school was super welcome, but there are people who didn't have such a good time.

Also, you don't get actual pay as a conscript, but a daily allowance of 5,20€ which goes up if you serve more than 6 months. You don't need to buy your own gear but back when I was in the rule was that you could use your own socks and other stuff that isn't visible from beneath of your clothes.

So, ask away or tell your stories of the strange things you did or ate.

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Ataxerxes
Dec 2, 2011

What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?
Here is a nice reference picture of the camo stuff we had back then, this has a nice 1960's pattern belt/webbing that wasn't in active use, but the cucumber salad camo can be seen. There was a more modern uniform used in parades etc, but this was what you had while in the woods.

SMEGMA_MAIL
May 4, 2018
Are you telling me you are allowed to wear WHITE SOCKS

maffew buildings
Apr 29, 2009

too dumb to be probated; not too dumb to be autobanned

Ataxerxes posted:

If you want to become an active duty officer you must get at least the NCO training while in the service, though it is possible to apply for it afterwards (though there aren't many places in that). After your service is over you can apply to study at the Defence Academy and, if you graduate, you are an active officer. So there isn't a way of becoming an officer without going through the basic training as a grunt.

I wish the US would do something like this, but we would still somehow gently caress it up to select for the absolute worst people.

Ataxerxes
Dec 2, 2011

What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?

SMEGMA_MAIL posted:

Are you telling me you are allowed to wear WHITE SOCKS

Sure, if you could keep your sergeant from seeing them.

And if you spent time in the woods you wouldn't take your shoes all that much. It's not like anyone sees the colour of your socks in a tent anyway.

Ataxerxes
Dec 2, 2011

What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?

maffew buildings posted:

I wish the US would do something like this, but we would still somehow gently caress it up to select for the absolute worst people.

I think we started it early after the Finnish civil war of 1918. I think the reason for that was to avoid forming an upper class of officers that knew nothing about the men they might command in a war situation. Or possibly the simple logistics of it. Give someone a few months of basic training. If they haven't injured themselves too much they can get nco/reserve officer training. Once they have gotten that and served as one for some months you can sorta see if they are worth the effort of getting (initially) 1,5 years of training.

Godholio
Aug 28, 2002

Does a bear split in the woods near Zheleznogorsk?

maffew buildings posted:

I wish the US would do something like this, but we would still somehow gently caress it up to select for the absolute worst people.

We have that, it's just optional. The results are mixed.

Edit: This is a cool thread idea and I'm looking forward to it.

maffew buildings
Apr 29, 2009

too dumb to be probated; not too dumb to be autobanned
I mean mandatory "Congrats, you're an AD E-nothing for a couple years in a line company/deck company on a ship, still want to do this?" kinda thing. Like straight up go mop the concrete in the rain level stupid E-nothing experience. Would it benefit anything? I don't know. Would it dramatically reduce the number of khaki short teal polos boat shoes with no socks weirdos at the mandatory fundays? Probably, and I think that would be a net win.

maffew buildings fucked around with this message at 05:15 on Feb 27, 2021

Mustang
Jun 18, 2006

“We don’t really know where this goes — and I’m not sure we really care.”

Godholio posted:

We have that, it's just optional. The results are mixed.

Edit: This is a cool thread idea and I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah I think it would just end up being a wash, some good and some not.

All those stupid shithead officers you've worked with? Probably still going to be stupid shitheads even if they had spent a few years enlisted first.

Prior enlisted experience also doesn't correlate to better fashion sense; the khakis, polos and and loafers will somehow make it into their wardrobe.

I do see value in having all officers go through their branches basic training though. A shared entry experience into the military and a better appreciation for the experience and knowledge of the junior Soldiers and NCOs they will soon be leading.

Gatac
Apr 22, 2008

Fifty Cent's next biopic.
Two German experiences, briefly:

My Dad did the mandatory 18-month hitch with the GDR's NVA (Nationale Volksarmee). This was the whole enchilada, drill, weapons training, weekend passes. They pulled him at 27, seeing as he got a deferment due to studying at university. The whole time didn't add up to much for him and he was glad to be out and back on career track afterwards.

I served 9 months in 2003 with the Luftwaffe. After our first day of basic let out, we went to the base Mannschaftsheim (literally Enlisteds' Club, basically a little bistro/shop thing open to just about everyone on base), got a couple of lovely cheeseburgers and had a couple of beers, to the point where one of my roomies got in trouble for not having sobered up 'til morning. They tried to teach us to be good little soldiers in basic, they really did, but there was an extremely German "We're all just doing our jobs here" energy to it all that made it hard to take anything too seriously. I went home every weekend but one (where I volunteered to bus some officer's going away party) and spent the six months of 'real' duty after basic in the POGest possible office job, where I only ever touched guns again when I came up on rotation for guard duty, which was basically two hours standing post out in the night, four hours watching movies on some dude's laptop/eating pizza/catching up on Zs. We got paid what was an inordinate amount of money for fresh-out-of-high-school me, directly financing my first laptop, the beginning of my DVD collection and several purchases even more regrettable than that. The hardest part literally was the commute - riding trains frequently sitting in the hallways every weekend was not my idea of fun.

In conclusion, German national service was a land of contrasts.

Pikehead
Dec 3, 2006

Looking for WMDs, PM if you have A+ grade stuff
Fun Shoe
My dad's birthdate come up during the draft draw and he was called into the Australian National Service during the Vietnam War.

He talks a little bit being posted to Vietnam as infantry - generally there wasn't much difference between the Nashos and the regs once they were over there.

One of the stories he tells was about a month or two after getting back and being demobilised, he went to a recruitment office to see if he could get back in, and was told that he was physically unfit to serve in the Army.

I'll see if he's interested in posting in this thread.

Nebakenezzer
Sep 13, 2005

The Mote in God's Eye

Pikehead posted:

generally there wasn't much difference between the Nashos and the regs once they were over there.

The officers and the enlisted, I'm guessing?

Burt
Sep 23, 2007

Poke.



Nebakenezzer posted:

The officers and the enlisted, I'm guessing?

National Servicemen and regulars.

aphid_licker
Jan 7, 2009


They were out of a bunch of clothes and poo poo when I got there, the guys training us didn't seem to know too much stuff themselves and it was all super perfunctory, but lots of wanky pseudo Full Metal Jacket dude style yelling, barracks were a dump, after basic they had no real work for me but if you told them that they'd make you sweep the parking lot in a snowstorm or something, lot of time spent polishing boots, I learned the Horst-Wessel-Lied off a guy who used "jew" as a pejorative, served in a barracks named after a nazi general, food really bad, it was super dumb, 2.5/10 would not recommend.

German national service in the remfiest of remf units, 9 months 2001/2

Ataxerxes
Dec 2, 2011

What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?

Gatac posted:


My Dad did the mandatory 18-month hitch with the GDR's NVA (Nationale Volksarmee). This was the whole enchilada, drill, weapons training, weekend passes. They pulled him at 27, seeing as he got a deferment due to studying at university. The whole time didn't add up to much for him and he was glad to be out and back on career track afterwards.


My dad had the same, went in at 26 because he had gotten it deferred due to studies.

Also, back in 2002 it was for us very much like you describe for the NVA. Having a long ground border to Russia is kinda the reason most people take the service rather seriously still. Drills, camping in tent for weeks (though for my unit not for several weeks in a row), the works.
One of my strangest memories was marching in a parade like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdp3LWlyuso

There were cops on horses in front of us and one horse started making GBS threads on the street a few meters ahead of the company. There was no space to avoid it, so one line of the marching soldiers stomped straight through the fresh shitheap, splashing it everywhere.

Miloshe
Oct 25, 2009

The little chicken girl wants me to ease up!
He can't handle!
He cries like woman!

Ataxerxes posted:

My dad had the same, went in at 26 because he had gotten it deferred due to studies.

Also, back in 2002 it was for us very much like you describe for the NVA. Having a long ground border to Russia is kinda the reason most people take the service rather seriously still. Drills, camping in tent for weeks (though for my unit not for several weeks in a row), the works.
One of my strangest memories was marching in a parade like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdp3LWlyuso

There were cops on horses in front of us and one horse started making GBS threads on the street a few meters ahead of the company. There was no space to avoid it, so one line of the marching soldiers stomped straight through the fresh shitheap, splashing it everywhere.

That is some of the sloppiest drill I have ever loving seen and it makes me love the Finns all the more for it.

Ataxerxes
Dec 2, 2011

What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?

Miloshe posted:

That is some of the sloppiest drill I have ever loving seen and it makes me love the Finns all the more for it.

Yeah, even for the folks who do it aren't doing it full time, its just one thing among many others.

Miloshe
Oct 25, 2009

The little chicken girl wants me to ease up!
He can't handle!
He cries like woman!

So in the USMC from the first day of bootcamp you are forced to submit to rote memory institutionalized "knowledge" of the history of the Corps. Absolute horse poo poo that would make an intelligent 5th grader embarrassed to recite, such as the first commandant, highly decorated Marines, the names of battles like Chosin and Hue City. Apparently it's supposed to imbue a sense of tradition.

If there's anything comparable in conscripted forces I'd be interested to hear about it, especially those sharing land borders with Russia. Did you receive similar simplistic propaganda? Was it openly discussed who you were preparing to go to war with? What kind of unique national military history was taught and how?

Valtonen
May 13, 2014

Tanks still suck but you don't gotta hand it to the Axis either.

Miloshe posted:

So in the USMC from the first day of bootcamp you are forced to submit to rote memory institutionalized "knowledge" of the history of the Corps. Absolute horse poo poo that would make an intelligent 5th grader embarrassed to recite, such as the first commandant, highly decorated Marines, the names of battles like Chosin and Hue City. Apparently it's supposed to imbue a sense of tradition.

If there's anything comparable in conscripted forces I'd be interested to hear about it, especially those sharing land borders with Russia. Did you receive similar simplistic propaganda? Was it openly discussed who you were preparing to go to war with? What kind of unique national military history was taught and how?

Finnish tank conscripts have a ceremony of “handing down the traditions” which I will briefly explain: the older conscript class about to reserve out (all tankers independent of rank serve 12 months, a unique branch for regular FDF) makes a formation. The younger class makes a formation facing them. Background is usually the Stug 40 of our most famous tank ace, börje brotell. (12-15 kills with a stug, including IS2s) That is sitting right outside the häme panssaribattalion front door. Then the older class head honcho hands a closed scroll that contains ”traditions” ( propably a drawing of a dick) to the equivalent of the younger class. Instructors call that traditions have been passed. Ceremony ends.

Aside from that and knowing that börje brotell is a tank demigod, Thats about it. Oh, and like 4 lectures on why Finland needs conscription, and a propaganda video How we are totally qualified real soldiers.

Oh, and for training purposes the FDF always fights the Yellow Nation. Yellow Nation speaks Russian, drinks vodka and drives Russian tanks. And comes from the east. Go figure. Also at least in 2007 Yellow nation was very adept at SIGINT and radio discipline and camouflage was drilled like mad- movement to contact was radio silence, staging If possible with non-transmitting means (motorcycle runners) If radios on- yellow nation jamming and indirect is immediate and brutal.

U.S Army OSUT training included WAY more bad propaganda and indoctrination at least for tankers.

Ataxerxes
Dec 2, 2011

What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?

Valtonen posted:

Aside from that and knowing that börje brotell is a tank demigod, Thats about it. Oh, and like 4 lectures on why Finland needs conscription, and a propaganda video How we are totally qualified real soldiers.

Oh, and for training purposes the FDF always fights the Yellow Nation. Yellow Nation speaks Russian, drinks vodka and drives Russian tanks. And comes from the east. Go figure. Also at least in 2007 Yellow nation was very adept at SIGINT and radio discipline and camouflage was drilled like mad- movement to contact was radio silence, staging If possible with non-transmitting means (motorcycle runners) If radios on- yellow nation jamming and indirect is immediate and brutal.

Yeah, pretty much the same experience. We had a memorial room of the regiment (Kaartin Jääkärirykmentti / Guard's Jaeger Regiment) which had a few old flags, mannequins in old uniforms and that kind of stuff. Meant more for a few days during the year when civilians could visit the garrison. There would be some grunts showing them around and talking about gear.

And Yellow Nation, indeed. Omnipresent and dastardly cunning. Me and some friends thought about volunteering for reservist events, going in for being the agressors of the conscripts (the Yellow Nation combatants) and making the Battle Flag of the Yellow Nation, with a huge skull and two crossed sausages.

Ataxerxes
Dec 2, 2011

What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?

Miloshe posted:

If there's anything comparable in conscripted forces I'd be interested to hear about it, especially those sharing land borders with Russia. Did you receive similar simplistic propaganda? Was it openly discussed who you were preparing to go to war with? What kind of unique national military history was taught and how?

The lectures, "why fight" etc weren't really that simplistic at 2002 even. I think there was a sort of "the army makes you a man" thing in earlier decades, but it wasn't very much around by the time I was in. Since the military history of independent Finland consists of a Civil War and WW2 there aren't any recent wars to talk about. There was a bit of a talk of what might happen if there was a war, what your unit would do etc, but not really anything of the "we are the best rah rah rah" - thing you see in bigger countries.

These films are quite telling, both called "Battlefield" and are a short film about how the political situation might escalate into a war and what it might look like.

The first one is from 1998:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJvrY04r8io

The second from 2020:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTmWCbcYwb8

Both start with a fake news broadcast about rising tensions etc, with eventually armed conflict breaking out. The agressor state is not named (but is implied to be Russia, kinda). There was, back then, and still sorta is, the mentality that people don't think that there will be an outright shooting war anytime soon, but who knowns what might happen.

There is quite a contrast to this film, "The Defenders":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-En5SIa0QE

Which is from 1988, so Cold War era, with the Soviet Union still in the picture. From the occupation of Czheshoslovakia in 1968 until the end of the Cold War the Finnish defense mentality was centered around Aluepuolustus, a doctrine where the country was split into semi-independent military areas that could operate without each other. The idea was that if a 1968 "occupy the capitol and crush the government" - thing happens it won't decapitate the defense effort. Near the end of the Cold War the Finnish reserve was something like 500,000 men to be mobilized if the war breaks out, but things have changed since.

aphid_licker
Jan 7, 2009


Valtonen posted:

Finnish tank conscripts have a ceremony of “handing down the traditions” which I will briefly explain: the older conscript class about to reserve out (all tankers independent of rank serve 12 months, a unique branch for regular FDF) makes a formation. The younger class makes a formation facing them. Background is usually the Stug 40 of our most famous tank ace, börje brotell. (12-15 kills with a stug, including IS2s) That is sitting right outside the häme panssaribattalion front door. Then the older class head honcho hands a closed scroll that contains ”traditions” ( propably a drawing of a dick) to the equivalent of the younger class. Instructors call that traditions have been passed. Ceremony ends.

I fuckin love this :lol:

Steezo
Jun 16, 2003
Now go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!


Ataxerxes posted:



And Yellow Nation, indeed. Omnipresent and dastardly cunning. Me and some friends thought about volunteering for reservist events, going in for being the agressors of the conscripts (the Yellow Nation combatants) and making the Battle Flag of the Yellow Nation, with a huge skull and two crossed sausages.

God forbid they make me do anything fun at AT this year, you mind if I steal that flag idea?

Ataxerxes
Dec 2, 2011

What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?

Steezo posted:

God forbid they make me do anything fun at AT this year, you mind if I steal that flag idea?

Go ahead! If you can, please post a picture once it's done.

Ataxerxes
Dec 2, 2011

What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?
Oh, just came across this. A Finnish dude wrote a study on the social dynamics of a Finnish infantry company after WW2 and it seems there is a free, official English translation: https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/74160

Grimnarsson
Sep 4, 2018

Ataxerxes posted:

Oh, just came across this. A Finnish dude wrote a study on the social dynamics of a Finnish infantry company after WW2 and it seems there is a free, official English translation: https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/74160

I'm reading this and getting the itch to read Väinö Linna's The Unknown Soldier again. Thanks for the link!

Ataxerxes
Dec 2, 2011

What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?

Grimnarsson posted:

I'm reading this and getting the itch to read Väinö Linna's The Unknown Soldier again. Thanks for the link!

No probs, someone posted it in the Finnish politics thread and I thought people here might also be interested.

Ataxerxes
Dec 2, 2011

What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?
Also, there is a thing contrasted to the US I have noticed while reading these forums. To me it seems that any person who has been in the various US services is considered a veteran. While this might technically be true to persons who have served in any army it really isn't used that way in Finland. Usually if you talk about veterans it means veterans of WW2 (since Finland hasn't been in an actual shooting war inside its borders since that), or the rare few who have seen combat in the armies of other nations (for example in the French Foreign Legion). If you have the official status of veteran you get certain benefits. Since quite a few Finns have been UN Peacekeepers I think there has been talk of recognizing them as "veterans of crisis management", to recognize their efforts but to tell them apart from the veterans of WW2. I would be weirded out if I was called a veteran, since while I did my national service I have never been close to a situation where I could have gotten shot at by actual hostile combatants.

Wibla
Feb 16, 2011

Ataxerxes posted:

Also, there is a thing contrasted to the US I have noticed while reading these forums. To me it seems that any person who has been in the various US services is considered a veteran. While this might technically be true to persons who have served in any army it really isn't used that way in Finland. Usually if you talk about veterans it means veterans of WW2 (since Finland hasn't been in an actual shooting war inside its borders since that), or the rare few who have seen combat in the armies of other nations (for example in the French Foreign Legion). If you have the official status of veteran you get certain benefits. Since quite a few Finns have been UN Peacekeepers I think there has been talk of recognizing them as "veterans of crisis management", to recognize their efforts but to tell them apart from the veterans of WW2. I would be weirded out if I was called a veteran, since while I did my national service I have never been close to a situation where I could have gotten shot at by actual hostile combatants.

Same goes for Norway, you have to be deployed overseas with NATO or otherwise for a set amount of time to be counted as a veteran by the authorities. I've been deployed with the Navy on a NATO article 5 operation, but the duration wasn't long enough to qualify for veteran status :v:

SMEGMA_MAIL
May 4, 2018

Ataxerxes posted:

Also, there is a thing contrasted to the US I have noticed while reading these forums. To me it seems that any person who has been in the various US services is considered a veteran. While this might technically be true to persons who have served in any army it really isn't used that way in Finland. Usually if you talk about veterans it means veterans of WW2 (since Finland hasn't been in an actual shooting war inside its borders since that), or the rare few who have seen combat in the armies of other nations (for example in the French Foreign Legion). If you have the official status of veteran you get certain benefits. Since quite a few Finns have been UN Peacekeepers I think there has been talk of recognizing them as "veterans of crisis management", to recognize their efforts but to tell them apart from the veterans of WW2. I would be weirded out if I was called a veteran, since while I did my national service I have never been close to a situation where I could have gotten shot at by actual hostile combatants.

It actually used to be the same here prior to the all volunteer military.

ASAPI
Apr 20, 2007
I invented the line.

Ataxerxes posted:

Also, there is a thing contrasted to the US I have noticed while reading these forums. To me it seems that any person who has been in the various US services is considered a veteran. While this might technically be true to persons who have served in any army it really isn't used that way in Finland. Usually if you talk about veterans it means veterans of WW2 (since Finland hasn't been in an actual shooting war inside its borders since that), or the rare few who have seen combat in the armies of other nations (for example in the French Foreign Legion). If you have the official status of veteran you get certain benefits. Since quite a few Finns have been UN Peacekeepers I think there has been talk of recognizing them as "veterans of crisis management", to recognize their efforts but to tell them apart from the veterans of WW2. I would be weirded out if I was called a veteran, since while I did my national service I have never been close to a situation where I could have gotten shot at by actual hostile combatants.

We used to be more in line with that. I was always taught that a "veteran" needed to be in a warzone to "earn" that title. In the US, those lines instantly blurred on 9/11. Ever since then the definition for a "veteran" has become very loose here in the US.

Godholio
Aug 28, 2002

Does a bear split in the woods near Zheleznogorsk?
That might be a cultural thing in some places, because legally it was never true. I heard both growing up so :shrug: It definitely all went out the window after 9/11.

stinkypete
Nov 27, 2007
wow

What was the best meal you looked forward to and what was the worst? Anyone and all can comment.

Ataxerxes
Dec 2, 2011

What is a soldier but a miserable pile of eaten cats and strange language?

stinkypete posted:

What was the best meal you looked forward to and what was the worst? Anyone and all can comment.

Best meal? Anything after a day in the woods really, I can't remember what the things we ate during camps were, but you run around hours with your gear and anything will do. We didn't really have MRE's, barring some very few exceptions there was always hot food.

Worst was "sunny" or "summery" meat sauce. Brown meat sauce with oranges or something like that chopped into it. It would have been nice if you had had brown meat sauce with a whole orange on the side, to be peeled and eaten separetedly. But put together it was dire.

Noosphere
Aug 31, 2008

[[[error]]] Damn not found.

stinkypete posted:

What was the best meal you looked forward to and what was the worst? Anyone and all can comment.

Worst, probably the mystery meat in far too salty brown sauce served with awful polenta that I got far too often as a recruit.

Best, hard to tell, but certainly the most memorable was when we got fondue mix to prepare in our mess tins in the officer school endurance week. They'd hosed with our food for the previous couple of days, so we were all famished. Turns out, the fondue was to gently caress with us too since that kind of digestive load and a 25km march absolutely do not mix.

SMEGMA_MAIL
May 4, 2018
I went to a Brazilian steakhouse for the first time the night before I had a 5am PST (in the US Navy it’s our frogman/diver fitness test) and every bit of vomiting was completely worth it.

I definitely would have fallen for the fondue.

rifles
Oct 8, 2007
is this thing working
Mermite meals suck every time I've ever had one. The food sucks, it's been sitting so it's always soggier than it should be, the portions always have to be miniscule, and I swear every time I've had it I'll get my food and sit down and it starts to pour down rain onto my open tray. I'd rather have an MRE any day because at least I'd get calories out of it and I can keep my food from floating away.

EBB
Feb 15, 2005

Mermite chili mac will forever be good to me. Can't say no to hot slop on a cold day.

SMEGMA_MAIL
May 4, 2018
I never found chili Mac particularly good. Above average but not the best.

I’d always go for the vegetarian ones because they had the best sides and nobody wanted them even though they were a HELL of a lot better than some of the other options.

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EBB
Feb 15, 2005

SMEGMA_MAIL posted:

I’d always go for the vegetarian ones because they had the best sides

This is true, I never really complained about the veggie omelets because they always came with a scone, a pop tart, and candy.

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