Can we defend old panties in the Armed Forces? – Dagsavisen

While the news boils over with military troop transfers and skirmishes elsewhere in the world, Norwegian soldiers must now hand over their underpants when they graduate. I think we should be happy that this is the first news of the year from the Armed Forces, instead of us sending peacekeeping forces into Sweden.

This has long been one of the foremost incentives to complete the first service: Bringing the underwear home. Now this perk is over. New soldiers must inherit frayed underwear from the previous litter. This was a temporary arrangement due to problems with deliveries early in the pandemic, but is now becoming permanent, since the Armed Forces appears to have had a chronic shortage of equipment.

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I was in the military myself 40-50 years ago, so I thought I knew this alt about. In the same way that everyone who had a strong attack of influenza at this time now knows everything about infection control. We went to the laundry and handed in the dirty clothes every week, at least once a month, and could not demand to get the same panties and socks that were handed in last time back. Now it turns out that for many years these have been to “share and own”, after the soldiers were given the responsibility for washing personal clothing and equipment (militarily called PBU) themselves.

However, many have more important tasks to do in the service. The Armed Forces Forum says that during hectic periods, many have used the washing program Superlyn15, which washes clothes in cold water for 15 minutes. Rumors that this led to scabies, smallpox and athlete’s foot were rejected. So dangerous it should not be in the military.

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In the pictures that the Armed Forces shows of their underpants, they look almost ordinary. The ones we were given in my boyhood days were defined as «trousers, under, winter, long», I think of my own dissatisfied winter at Gardermoen, how little these trousers stretched to all mornings in minus 30 degrees (this does not quite match the statistics from Meteorological department, but they must remember wrong). We went with “pants, under, winter, long” until the time was finally in for “pants, under, summer, short”. None of these shapes were something you as a 20-year-old wanted to carry on in life, as it was hoped that the next undressing in front of others would take place under more atmospheric conditions. For many years, however, I had with me machine guns and a box of sharp shots for storage in the closet, but it was not something you went with everyday.

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I do not remember that we complained that we did not get thermoactive underwear, wool terry or rhovyl, as they now discuss back and forth on a website for special interests. They have as many views on optimal underwear as others had when it was still discussed which fighter planes we should buy. The F-16 aircraft we have had are now being phased out after 40 years of service. I do not know if the underwear is intended to last as long. After all, the new F-35 aircraft cost NOK 90 billion. You could get a lot of underwear for that price. At the same time, we should not ignore the deterrent effect of old, well-used panties.

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