The suitability of a future soldier or sailor for military service is determined by the draft and medical commission of the military registration and enlistment office. But they are not the only ones. A careful selection of recruits is also made by the "buyers" who have come from the units. Often claiming that the best troops in the world are those where they are serving, officers and warrant officers take a new recruit, not always taking into account his desire and talents.
There is a contract
Only the contract service introduced not so long ago is capable of "curing" the modern Russian army, which was badly collapsed and beaten at the end of the last century, and attracting people who shoot from machine guns not under duress, but voluntarily and skillfully, into the army.
It is the contract servicemen, who are already adults and have passed the urgent emergency, who are called upon to return the former glory, attractiveness and prestige to the country's armed forces. First of all, this applies to the airborne and border troops, intelligence, marines and special forces. Service in them is considered a kind of introduction to the military elite, so not everyone is taken there.
According to the head of the defense department Sergei Shoigu, the army should be recruited either entirely from contract soldiers or from conscripts called up for five years.
However, when choosing troops, a conscript needs to be guided not only by ostentatious beauty and rating. After all, each genus or species has its own obvious pros and cons in disguise. And if, for example, you played basketball or volleyball and are very tall, then, no matter how you ask, you will not be sent to tank troops or a submarine. Exclusively because of growth.
Army at home
Having faced the choice “Where to go to serve?”, It is easier not to wait for a happy occasion in uniform, but to use the skills acquired at home. For example, you love technology and have the appropriate rights. This means that you may well ask for the same tankers, in the automobile troops or in the navy. For those who thoroughly understand radio and computers, there is certainly a suitable vacancy in the signal troops. For young people who have successfully mastered a parachute in the flying club and have been engaged in martial arts, the very place is in the Airborne Forces. Those who have learned to conquer climbing walls or even rocks well will be welcome in the mountain infantry units of the ground forces. Having decided to become a civil aviation pilot after being retired, it is better to serve, of course, in the Air Force.
By the way, sometimes the military registration and enlistment offices meet the wishes of the recruits and leave them near the house. This is done more often for family reasons, say, in the case of illness of parents or the presence of their own family with a child. But in this case, the young soldier must be ready to send far from the troops that he expected to get into. For example, if a guy living in Yekaterinburg was preparing to become a paratrooper or a sailor, he will definitely not succeed. After all, the amphibious training unit closest to the land capital of the Urals is located in the Omsk region. And in Yekaterinburg, he can only stay as a military chemist, railway worker or signalman.
The Office of the General Staff, responsible for organizing the conscription, suggested that the Minister of Defense return to the ex-territorial system and send recruits away from their region.
Remember Dynamo
Speaking about the conscription and assessment of troops, it is worth immediately separating the modern army from the one that until 1992 was called "Soviet". Even the now all-powerful NATO bloc was afraid of her, and she never knew about the shortage of soldiers. Everyone was not called there, including the sick and former criminals. On the contrary, it was carefully selected and well prepared for replenishment through the system of sports schools of the society "Dynamo" and DOSAAF clubs.
And the answer to the amateurish question "Where is the best service?" many recruits of the 70s and 80s gave on their own and long before receiving the summons. Therefore, 18-year-old Soviet boys, especially those who grew up in the villages and had already managed to pump up muscles at physical work, went to the troops confident and prepared. A very serious incentive for the desire to serve was the opportunity to receive benefits when entering a good university. For example, to one of the three legal institutes in the country, where the path was closed to an ordinary graduate of a secondary Soviet school. Unfortunately, these benefits have now almost disappeared.
