Military-grade unmentionables

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Conscripts in Norway have been ordered to return their underwear, bras and socks after the end of their military service so that the next group of recruits can use them.

The Norwegian military said Monday that it is struggling with dwindling supplies, in part due to the pandemic.

The Norwegian Defense Logistics Organization said because of “a challenging stockpile situation, this move is necessary as it provides the Armed Forces with greater garment volumes available for new soldiers starting their initial service.”

Its press spokesman Hans Meisingset said that with “proper checks and cleaning, the reuse of garments is considered an adequate and sound practice.”

Until recently, the roughly 8,000 young men and women who every year do their military service returned their outer clothing but were allowed to leave barracks with the underwear and socks they were issued.

Military service is mandatory for both men and women in Norway and lasts between 12 and 19 months.

Meisingset said the pandemic was not the only reason why the stock of garments is low for some items. It also depends on finance, contracts and other issues.

NATO-member Norway’s national defense magazine, Forsvarets Forum, reported that it was not the first time that the Armed Forces had struggled with such shortcomings, with a union spokesman saying it “has been a recurring problem” for years. In June 2020, a third of the soldiers’ clothing and equipment was missing.

“A year ago, we looked at exactly the same shortcomings in close-fitting clothing that we see now, and earlier this autumn, the largest and smallest sizes of footwear were missing,” Eirik Sjoehelle Eiksund was quoted as saying. adding that he believed it was due to errors in the system around ordering and delivery.

TME – Thank you for your service, but we’re going to need those underpants back.

Rescue dog?

LEBANON, N.H. (AP) — A German shepherd named Tinsley, first thought to be a lost dog, successfully led New Hampshire state police to the site of its owner’s rollover crash.

Both the vehicle’s occupants were seriously hurt, but thanks to Tinsley’s dogged efforts they quickly received medical assistance once officers discovered the truck, which went off the road near a Vermont interstate junction, WMUR-TV reported Tuesday.

“The dog was trying to show them something,” said Lt. Daniel Baldassarre of the New Hampshire State Police. “He kept trying to get away from them but didn’t run away totally.

“It was kind of, ‘Follow me. Follow me.’ And they did that and you know, to their surprise to see the guardrail damaged and to look down to where the dog is looking at, it’s just, they were almost in disbelief,” he said.

A New Hampshire state trooper and police from the nearby city of Lebanon responded to the crash site late Monday, just across the state line in Vermont.

TME – Truly, a very good boy.

My river with Andre

KINGSTON, N.Y. (AP) — A juvenile harbor seal has forgone life in the ocean, instead choosing a home nearly 100 miles up the Hudson River — behavior that wildlife officials called “unprecedented.”

The animal was likely abandoned as a pup by his mother in Maine, officials say. A Connecticut rescue center cared for him, then released him in Rhode Island in early 2019 with an electronic tracking tag.

By that August, he’d settled down on the Hudson near Saugerties Lighthouse, under the watchful eye of the lighthouse keeper, staying for 620 days.

“It is a story like none we have ever heard of … a marine mammal showing such extended affinity and fidelity to freshwater,” said Tom Lake of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Hudson River Almanac, The Daily Freeman reported Tuesday.

But the seal’s life on the river had one interruption.

Harbor Seal No. 246 — as he’s known officially — disappeared last April, leaving wildlife officials stumped for months.

Turns out he needed rescuing again, catching an infection and a skin condition called “seal pox” after swimming down to Long Island’s Atlantic Beach.

TME – Signed, sealed, delivered.

If I fits, I sits

GENESEO, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois family has solved the mystery of what happened to their missing cat that likes to sit on horses and donkeys.

Ann Kandis said the cat, named Noodles, jumped into the trunk of her father’s car in November 2018 while he was at the family’s farm in Geneseo, the Quad-City Times reported. Her father drove off, but stopped along the road when he heard a noise. He opened the trunk and the cat jumped out.

The family posted “lost cat” notices and searched along the road but couldn’t find Noodles.

Kandis had given up on finding Noodles until she stumbled across a Facebook message that a fellow horse lover posted around the time Noodles went missing. The post showed a cat sitting on a horse and asked whether anybody recognized the cat?

Kandis messaged the woman on Christmas Eve and she still had Noodles. When Kandis and her son went over to the woman’s house, Noodles ran up to them.

Kandis, who works as an emergency room physician for Genesis Medical Center, said finding Noodles brought her emotional relief during a stressful time. She didn’t take Noodles home because she said he has a “good gig,” but added that she can still visit the cat.

TME – Cat-astrophe averted.