Quote:
Originally posted by Vets Dottir
I've been wondering since I joined about the symbolism behind your avatars. Some meanings are pretty obvious, but most of them, espcially the military symbols and numbers, I don't "get". i'd love to hear what they mean  I know some have stories behind them.
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The story of my avatar tells us a bit on military planning.
1) In Dec 1992 the Soviet Union fell apart. The Royal Swedish Army however followed the extant plans to strenghten the defense against our mighty neighbor. (The train keeps rolling by it´s own speed). So on 1st July 1995 a new unit was formed for the defense of Stockholm: 446th Regimental Combat Team (RCT) with two Infantry Battalions and two Anti-Aircraft Batteries (Improwed Hawk) plus some minor units.
2) In summer 1998 i visited the German town of Biberach where it was a Factory making a o military bagdes. I found out that the town coat-of-arms suited our unit since it was in blue and yellow with a standing beaver. The 446th HQ was in Bäverdalen (Beaver valley) some 15 km NW Stockholm. The owner of the Factory was kind enough to give me badges for all the HQ personell free of costs.
3) Finally realizing that the Soviet Union was gone cutbacks were made in the Army. Facing the 1999 Army manoevers my personell was used to fill up other units within Stockholm Defense District to full strenght. So in fact I myself was the only remaining human beeing in the 446th RCT.
4) It was a quite interesting situation. Here I was alone with the keys to an underground NBC-protected HQ with complete signals equipment, weapons e t c.
5) Anyhow on Jan 1st 2000 my HQ was formally disbanded and in Jan 2003 I got a letter from the Army that my wartime posting was not valid any longer. So many units had been dissolved so it took three (3) years for the Army to notify the personell that their units had vanished. (In 16-17 September 2004 our Government will cut another 30% of the Army).
6) To conclude: I am the only one that have been wearing the badge of 446th RCT - for less than half a year (Jan 1st - June 1st 1999). During this period I had a full-time job planning the 1999 Army manoevers (moving around an Armoured Brigade of 6.000 men in downtown Stockholm - we had several foreign observers amongst whom six US and they were astonished to see Leopard 2 main battle tanks on tre streets of Stockholm). On Jun 1st 1999 i was transferred to the General Staff College of the Armed Forces and had to wear their badge - but my "shadow" HQ lived for another half year.
"The last beaver in the Beaver valley" was transferred to the reserve list on 1st September 2003. Now mainly working as a consumer with the local pub. If I survive the beer consumption I will finally retire on 1st Sept 2009 with almost 50 years time in service, since I joined the Army on 20th September 1959.
So now my main hobby is to read MLU and Overvalwagens.
Stellan