Reserve Officer School (Finnish: Reserviupseerikoulu, RUK), located in Hamina by the South-Eastern border, is the unit responsible for the training of the bulk of the Finnish reserve officers. This means two yearly courses of some 750 men and women. The School is organized into a Reserve Officer Course, two supporting companies, a Logistics Centre and the Kymenlaakso Regional Office. The Reserve Officer Course is divided into eight companies:
- 1st Company: infantry and anti-tank weapons
- Ranger Company: sissi troops, reconnoissance and artillery forward observers
- Artillery Battery: mortar and artillery, as well as artillery forward observers for infantry
- Air Defence Battery: anti-aircraft fire control and firing positions, as well as military police
- Engineer Company: combat engineers, EOD and counter-CBRN
- Signal Company: signals corps and the signals service of field artillery, anti-aircraft troops, mortar units and Finnish Air Force.
In addition to the eight units of the Reserve Officer Course, the School has a Jäger Company and a Transportation Company which are responsible for providing support personnel for the school, most importantly, the military policemen, drivers and medics.
Organizationally, Reserve Officer School is a brigade-level unit which belongs to the Eastern Finland Military Province. The unit was founded in 1920 and has operated continually with a single break from 1945 to 1947 when the Finnish officer training was stopped by order of the Allied Control Commission. Since its founding, the school has been situated in Hamina, with the exception of war-time 1939–1945, when the school was evacuated to Niinisalo in Kankaanpää. During the years 1942–1945, the school operated under the name of Officer School (Finnish: Upseerikoulu). Since 1920, the School has trained over 168,000 reserve officers for the Finnish Defence Forces.
Read more about Reserve Officer School: The Training in The Reserve Officer School, Other Reserve Officer Training
Famous quotes containing the words reserve, officer and/or school:
“We must reserve a back shop all our own, entirely free, in which to establish our real liberty and our principal retreat and solitude.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“There was something so free and self-contained about him, something in the young fellow’s movements, that made that officer aware of him. And this irritated the Prussian. He did not choose to be touched into life by his servant.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Today, only a fool would offer herself as the singular role model for the Good Mother. Most of us know not to tempt the fates. The moment I felt sure I had everything under control would invariably be the moment right before the principal called to report that one of my sons had just driven somebody’s motorcycle through the high school gymnasium.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)