During the first two days of registration, about 2,000 people have already expressed their desire to join the military commandantships. Lithuanian population – half as much as L. Kasčiūnas predicted when registering during the entire registration period.
News portal lrytas.lt wondered what attracted the country’s residents to choose this particular, rather than other existing methods of national defense, and whether the future work and training of citizens will be complicated by the larger than predicted flow of interested people.
L. Kasčiūnas: “I didn’t expect my best dreams”
The Ministry of National Defense announced that during the first two days, about 2,000 people registered at the military commandant’s offices in peacetime. people.
The largest number of people registered for military commandant offices during peacetime was in the Vilnius region – 885 people, of which 796 – in the city of Vilnius. In the Kaunas region, 348 people registered for commandant offices, 261 of them in Kaunas.
In the Klaipėda region, 138 people join the commandant offices, of which 114 are in Klaipėda, 100 in the Alytus region, 92 in the Šiauliai region, and 37 in the Panevėžys region.
From the total number of registered people, 456 people or 27.5 percent have basic military training. Among those who registered at military commandant’s offices during peacetime, 1,032 people (62.2 percent of those registered) have a higher education.
Minister of National Defense L. Kasčiūnas, who introduced the peace model of military commandants, said that he could not even dream of such interest from citizens.
Now L. Kasčiūnas has revised his initial estimate that about 4-5 thousand could join the military commandantries. citizens, doubled – the minister predicts that the total number of interested people could reach 10 thousand. people.
“Very, very impressive would be the right word for those paces. I really didn’t expect in my wildest dreams that there could be this much interest. I am very happy that people are connecting”, – to the news portal lrytas.lt L. Kasčiūnas spoke.
The minister was happy that Lithuanian citizens who have the will and determination to resist, and who want to acquire or renew their skills, find their place in the defense plans, can find it precisely in the commandant’s offices.
“It would be difficult to hope that we will be able to maintain this pace during the remaining four months of registration – probably not, but now they wrote to me that there are already almost 2 thousand. registered. It’s solid”, assessed L. Kasčiūnas.
The minister assured that the large number of interested people does not change the training plans prepared by the ministry.
“For now, let’s not think about it, if something changes – we will adapt, and we will also see the profile of the connected citizens themselves. I think we will be able to talk not about combat personnel, but about civil defense people,” the minister shared.
The requirements are still to be determined
At that time, Arūnas Balčiūnas, director of the Military Conscription and Recruitment Service (KPKT) of the Lithuanian Army, told the news portal lrytas.lt said that the rates of registration observed in the first days exceeded the expectations of the army representatives.
“We expected to have maybe a little more than a thousand by the end of the day yesterday, but it far exceeded our calculations, our forecasts, because people really quickly filled out the questionnaires in the evening, maybe after returning from work”, – to the portal lrytas.lt said A. Balčiūnas.
And only one third of those who registered have received military training.
All those who wish to register for the military commandant offices can register until August 31, and then, according to A. Balčiūnas, the KPKT will evaluate these questionnaires in more detail – they will group them according to districts, according to people’s competencies and military readiness.
Then there will be certain requirements – certain positions will have health requirements, and, for example, active reserve soldiers will not be able to apply for commandant positions, because they are already assigned to military units.
Then, according to the competencies and military preparedness of the registrants, different trainings will be organized – however, A.Balčiūnas does not expect great difficulties in organizing them, because not all registrants will really need training, for example, how to handle a weapon.
“Training will be organized according to the competence of citizens, whether they have served in the military or not, and then they will be divided into certain groups of people – those who need to refresh their knowledge of handling weapons will be one category, others – those who are not planned to be deployed, related to the weapon, who will not need military training, they will be organized general exercises on citizenship, duties that should be performed in wartime.
So far, there is no clear picture of how those programs will be structured, what the training will be like. We will assess the possibilities, how many instructors, training tools, ranges, shooting ranges we will have”, said A. Balčiūnas.
Best choice
Vykintas Glodenis, a programmer from Vilnius, was one of the first to register for the military commandant’s office – the man said that he had been considering how to contribute to the defense of the country for some time, but the military commandant’s office turned out to be the best choice.
“I first saw it on the news and I just thought it was a good idea because I was critical of the government until now. A. Anušauskas, I think, did not prepare intensively enough – his attitude was a little too puffed up.
I thought that if the war was going on nearby, and if the war started in Lithuania, we should be fully prepared. And I don’t think we are ready. Full preparedness, I believe, must involve the entire society in every way, not just the military directly.
And then I saw a post by the Ministry of National Defense that they are already inviting you to fill out the form, and I thought why not – you need to fill it out right away,” – to the portal lrytas.lt said V. Glodenis.
The man from Vilnius himself said that ten years ago he went through basic military training, but now he would not know where to go and what to do in case of war.
“It’s been almost ten years and I haven’t had a skill update – I don’t know if there will be one, maybe in the summer, but I’ve heard absolutely nothing about it,” he noted.
V. Glodenis said that after the start of the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine, he considered joining the Sagittarius Union, but that time he did not do so due to lack of time and the need for additional health certificates.
“In particular, the commandant’s office seems to me to be an even more suitable place, because I basically have that basic training as a soldier – of course, I would need to update my skills, but the most important thing for me would be to know if the war starts, where should I go, what should I do, what would be the communication channels?” he said. he.
Anyone who fills out the application form for joining the Military Command can also choose the desired field: infantry specialty, combat supply / logistics / support or training and military training.
V. Glodenis said that he indicated in his questionnaire that he would go where the army would see the greatest need for him.
“I myself have a higher education, an artificial intelligence trainer and author of programs, a programmer, so I could probably contribute to the defense of Lithuania in this way, working with technologies, optimization and so on.
But I wrote that if a pawn is needed, then I will be ready to be a pawn, because it is not for me to decide what is most needed,” he said.
Tags: Assessed populations interest war commandants hidden numbers
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