A Real Manly Adventure With ‘80s Style Conscription

An unconventional ’conscription’ was advertised on several websites by the Mogyoród Military Traditionalist Association. Wednesday afternoon they were waiting for young people to come to Kassák Club in Budapest-Zugló who would like to try a military camp in the summer. As honvedelem.hu experienced it on the spot, there were more than enough courageous applicants…

The Traditionalist Association of Mogyoród was founded in 1993 with the aim of collecting the technical equipments of the former Hungarian People’s Army. These vehicles are not put ’behind glass’ but are shown to every visitor. Therefore the members did not spare time or money and renovated every piece, making them ready for operation, so anyone who wants can also try the several decade old military antiques. At the moment the association owns a FUG (Hungarian abbr. for reconnaissance-swimming motorized vehicle), a PSZH (armoured transport combat vehicle), a GAZ-69 and a Csepel lorry, an UAZ all-terrain vehicle, and a track-laying ferry – says Zsolt Horváth, Chairman of the Association and organizer of the unconventional recruitment.

There is a place in ‘Angyalbõrben’ (title of a popular TV series about the life of new recruits in the Hungarian military in the ’80s) Military Camp organized by the Association for thirty youngsters between the age of 10 and 16, who are interested in national defence and military service, and are not afraid of tough training – the organizer said, also noting that a similar camp was held last year for the young people participating in the work of the Association on a regular basis. Encouraged by the huge success, they have decided that this year everyone can apply to the camp.

– Many children of those serving in various armed organizations and of the members of the Association have applied to the camp. But there are a few vacant places we wanted to fill in the framework of a really special event. This was when the idea of an unconventional conscription was born – Zsolt Horváth said, adding: the reason why they held the program in Kassák Club in Zugló was that in the era of the Hungarian People’s Army, conscription took place in ’culture houses’.

At the conscription on Wednesday afternoon Zsolt Horváth – a military engineer in ’civil life’, who graduated from Zrínyi Miklós University of National Defence and works as a journalist – was waiting for those who were interested, wearing a green military uniform of the period and a hat with a major’s patch. His ’aides’, the youngsters of the Mogyoród Traditionalist Association – Róbert Dancsa, Roland Kálmán, László Kocsány, and Zsombor Gál – were also wearing ’military green’ training uniforms, dressed as privates. They have already been to the military camp of the association last year (and what is more, they have been invited to several towns all around the country and they have also participated in the last three international air shows in Kecskemét) where they had a very good time. Like they said: the week spent in the camp was a real manly adventure and they can only recommend it to every teenager.

‘Major’ Horváth told the young people turning up for the conscription and their parents: the aim of the camp is that children could experience what the ordinary days of enlisted soldiers were like a few decades ago. Therefore in this one-week period, they concentrate everything new recruits used to learn during the one-month basic training. Naturally, this has resulted in a very strict daily routine for the campers. After the reveille, the morning exercises and breakfast, there is formal training, and in the afternoon there are various special trainings – for example chemical protection, signalling, and survival trainings – in the daily routine of the camp. Moreover, the campers will also participate in a shooting practice but will be given blank cartridges, of course. In addition to that, they will also learn how to dress different kinds of battlefield wounds or write a report in cipher.

But the high point of the camp to be organized between 28 June–5 July in Mogyoród will undoubtedly be the morning of the penultimate day, when in the presence of the parents, the ’new recruits’ will be ’sworn in’ – the ’Commander’ informed us.

They will do so in the same formation like enlisted men used to do. And on the last day, a morning ‘tactical exercise’ will be conducted for the campers, and the parents will also be welcome to this event for they will have tasks as well. They will drive the old military vehicles by which their children will go to the exercise.

Those who have applied to Angyalbõrben Military Camp were given some really special gifts at the unconventional conscription by ’Major’ Horváth. A military cutlery set – known as spoon machine by everyone –, a gas mask, and a carrier bag for holding the mask. Of course, they will have to take these things with them to the camp, where they will be living in military tents and sleeping in camp beds for a week. So there is a real manly military challenge waiting for everyone…

– I read about the camp on the internet, and since my favourite TV series was Angyalbõrben I did not hesitate for a minute and immediately decided that I would like to go to Mogyoród and see for myself in what circumstaces the ’olives’ (nickname of new recruits, given by their commander in the abovementioned Hungarian TV series) were living back then. Fortunately, my parents did not have anything to say against the camp, so now we have come to the conscription. I can hardly wait for the camp to begin, mainly the arms and the formal training – 14-year-old Bálint Braun said.

The young man also told us that he is already thinking about becoming a contracted or a professional soldier in a few years’ time. He has found many interesting pieces of information about the service on website honvedelem.hu.

Bálint also told us that the reason why he likes the military is that his father told him a lot of stories from the days when he was an enlisted soldier. More precisely, he used to be a border guard and servied at the Austrian–Hungarian border.

13-year-old Attila Szakács has also found the advertisement of the camp on an internet site. Since he has already read a lot about the military, he asked his parents to sign him up for the camp so that he can have first hand experience about the life of enlisted men in earlier days. He has also convinced his cousin, 12-year-old Barnabás Horváth to join him in the camp, so now they are waiting together for the big adventure to begin. Barnabás told us: he likes military vehicles very much and he is glad that he will have the chance to examine a few of them closely. And of course, he is also looking forward to the ’oath’, when he can show his parents what he has learnt during the week spent in the camp.