Now,
being an Austrian, I had to do military service last year, which all in all was ok. I got trained as a guardpost (glorified security guard with a big gun), and guess who gets the new year's eve shift? Yes, me, at some godforsaken military storage thing of no importance whatsoever.

Me and the guy I was on duty with had our own little office and because there obviously wasn't anything going on, we basically did what we wanted and discovered the "party button" (should have put that in best of graffiti - never mind), a little red button underneath the desk. Every couple of hours or so a high-grade NCO would come in and check if everything was ok, that we weren't getting pissed and, credit to the guy, watch the fireworks with us on the roof at midnight (great view of the city where we were).

We entered casual conversation and I asked about aforementioned button, to which he lets out a strong laugh and says "don't do it."

Apparently the year before the two stupid bastards who were there did this 10 minutes before midnight, and 15 minutes later the place was swarming with very PISSED OFF special forces operatives who'd been having their own little party on watch - and the brigadier who was on duty came later as well.

I don't know what the operation will have cost, but the two conscripts were fined the rest of their wages (4 and a half months worth), which amounted to about 1200 euros. So they basically got paid to do their basic training and then cleaned military offices for free.

OOOO I was so tempted to go press that button

length? 24 hours on duty with 4 hours sleep, a day off and the cycle restarts :)
( morrybyte made a subtle namechange at, Fri 26 Oct 2007, 2:36, Reply)