Voluntary conscription numbers increase

  • 2012-07-25
  • From wire reports

TALLINN - In mid-July, 1,699 young men began to discharge their military conscript service obligation; of them, 560 or 33 percent requested to enter conscript service themselves, the Defense Ministry of Estonia said, reports LETA. Kairi Rikko, director general of the Defense Resources Agency, said she is particularly pleased with this call-up because of the high proportion of voluntary conscripts.

“This is the first call-up in which one-third of the young men have entered conscript service on their own initiative, without waiting to be called up by the Agency. Undoubtedly, it is a very good result and shows that young people increasingly appreciate the experience of conscript service, that they are including conscript service in their life plans and that their motivation to contribute to defense is high,” Rikko highlighted.
The proportion of no-shows was low. Of those called up, 63 young men or 3.6 percent failed to turn up for their conscript service.

In the course of 11 months of training, the young men who have entered service in the July call-up will be trained as squad leaders for the young men entering service in the main call-up in October, or they will take up posts requiring specific training. Of the young men who have entered service, 97.8 percent have a secondary or higher education.
The young men have begun to discharge their conscript service obligation in the Headquarters Support and Signal Battalion, Logistics Battalion of the Logistics Center of the Estonian Defense Forces, Combat Service Support Battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade, Engineer Battalion, Artillery Battalion, Viru Infantry Battalion, Air Defense Battalion, Guard Battalion, at the Tallinn Naval Base and in the Kuperjanov Infantry Battalion.