History, Politics And Current Affairs

I’ve spent the last few days in uniform, taking part in the initial stage of Exercise Aurora 26. This is the large Swedish exercise that takes place every three years, and which includes participants from various other countries. This time around there were French, American, Canadian, and Ukrainian elements (and others) making up part of the 18,000 participants,

I can’t go into all the details, but in general the exercise scenario is modelled on the real world scenario that we’re facing, and is practicing both defense of Sweden and in the NATO context, with a particular focus on receiving and handling transiting allied forces this time around.

It’s been fun, and while I didn’t have too much interaction personally with allied units I ran into US Army soldiers a few times. It’s interesting to observe the cultural differences first hand. At the military base which I spent part of the exercise at only the soldiers going through basic have their separate mess area, the rest (soldiers including Home Guard, and officers) usually mess together in the same area. I noticed that this made some young US Army soldiers very uncomfortable, they didn’t seem to know how to act when they were in the same chow line with officers and such. Had some 18-19 year old-ish specialist step out of line and wanted to let me (and more or less everyone else as well) pass in front of him even though I only have sergeant insignia (three chevrons). Had to encourage him to just stay in line and get his food, and boy did he look incredibly uncomfortable. The senior NCOs seemed to take it in stride though.

Aurora continues next week as well, even though I won’t be taking part in this latter stage. My impression so far is that things are going well, frictions have been handled well, and I expect that all involved will have learned a lot from the exercise.

Yes, it's hard for young uns. In England it is worse. When I started at Land Rover I had the choice of canteens, Hourly paid, junior staff, staff, senior staff and directors. Well obviously not the last 2. Staff had sort of waitress service, only went there once. I then went to Lotus, and was gob-smacked when Mike Kimberley walked into our one and only canteen for lunch , I'd literally never seen a CEO before, let alone eat in the same room.

Boring MK anecdote -earlier than that, I was in the workshop doing some sort of experiment on a Saturday morning. We all had photo tags, and were supposed to challenge anyone who wasn't wearing one. Tall bloke wanders into the otherwise empty workshop and starts poking around, I go over and asked him (politely) where his tag was. He said "I don't need one, I'm the boss", and walked off (yeah this is back then, these days of course upper management are squeaky clean). He walked off, and as he drove out the gate told our funniest and least reliable security guy, Neil, what had happened. As I drove out through the gates Neil had great fun explaining exactly who I'd bailed up.

As I said I can’t go into any details on what’s going on that I’ve learned through my own participation. Some things being communicated publicly are the Canadians are doing stuff with the army engineers, crossing rivers with the aid of bridge laying units and such. The US Marines kitted out in Norway and crossed into Sweden. The Ukrainians are drone operators that are busy hunting Swedish AD units. Plus Apaches from the Netherlands seems to be getting busy:

warshipadmin wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2026 9:20 am Yes, it's hard for young uns. In England it is worse. When I started at Land Rover I had the choice of canteens, Hourly paid, junior staff, staff, senior staff and directors. Well obviously not the last 2. Staff had sort of waitress service, only went there once. I then went to Lotus, and was gob-smacked when Mike Kimberley walked into our one and only canteen for lunch , I'd literally never seen a CEO before, let alone eat in the same room.

Boring MK anecdote -earlier than that, I was in the workshop doing some sort of experiment on a Saturday morning. We all had photo tags, and were supposed to challenge anyone who wasn't wearing one. Tall bloke wanders into the otherwise empty workshop and starts poking around, I go over and asked him (politely) where his tag was. He said "I don't need one, I'm the boss", and walked off (yeah this is back then, these days of course upper management are squeaky clean). He walked off, and as he drove out the gate told our funniest and least reliable security guy, Neil, what had happened. As I drove out through the gates Neil had great fun explaining exactly who I'd bailed up.

HA!!!!! Back about 6 years ago, I had just gotten my airport badge for the Westchester County airport, and we were supposed to ask anyone we saw without a badge for their badge. Since I had just gotten my badge, I figured the guy (without a badge) who was standing there watching my drill rig do its thing was a plant sent to test me on my willingness to follow security protocols.

So I walked over to him and asked him for his badge. He said he'd left it in the office and he would go and get it. Being the newly badged person I was, I asked him to please hold on a minute because I had to call security to escort him since he didn't have his badge.

I pulled out my radio, called it in, and the tower said they'd send someone out. I hear, coming out of the guy's car, on the security channel, "Hey, Rob, Tower tells us there's someone over by the drillers without a badge. Can you check on it, since you're over there?"

Rob looks at me, picks up the radio and says "I'm on it".

The guy on the radio responds "Thanks, boss."

He looks at me, smiles a little bit, and then took pity on me. He told me that I had done a good thing to call it in and if he had established his bona fides, he would now head back to the security office to get his badge.

Belushi TD

I fear that I have to admit that the airforce yet again wins the coolest exercise patch contest.

If this was the USAF, it was designed during a round of golf.

Okay so the marines won the optics contest.