Book Recommendation

[texas pinzgauer]

John McPhee is one of my favorite authors. He's written on a multitude of subjects with lots of first hand, on the ground type research. One of my favorites is "La Place de la Concorde Suisse".

It's all about the Swiss military system and its intertwining with the Swiss banking business. I probably need to go back and reread it to see if the Pinzgauer gets much of a mention but it's definitely worth readinga and I remember it being a fast read and a very interesting book on subjects I knew nothing about. It sounds like our man Jan in Geneva has some experience on this subject.

[GenevaPinz]

Hey David, you know how to get me typing...

Until the beginning of the 1990s, military experience was highly regarded by swiss corporates. All citizens had to do their military service and most of the army (except the seniorest offcers -above colonel- and a handful of instructors) were organized the same as the US National Guard: as a part-time militia. A bank or insurance company employee had more chances of climbing the ranks of corporate hierarchy if he was similarly climbing the ranks of the military, as the leadership and responsibilities of an officer rank were recognized in the civilian life as well.

Employers had to let soldiers and officers leave work to do their military service (3 weeks a year for a soldier, about 5 weeks for a captain, more for higher ranks) ,with the guy's employer bridging the gap between the state compensation and the guy's salary. Also, when a bank executive was attributed with a personnal secretary (and pre-MS Word there were more than today), the secretary was expected to also handle the military paperwork if the executive was an officer. Basically the large corporations were supporting in full the military life of its soldiers-employees, and the military was a reflexion of the civilian society, with CEOs having in most cases higher ranks in the army as well.

Life was not as rosy for people employed by smaller companies, or self-employed, for which time in the military could not be compensated as easily as in large corporates. This was especially true for advancement service. Every citizen was doing 4 months basic training to become a soldier, at age 18. If he was to become a corporal, he would add another month of "corporal school" plus training the next batch of recruits for 4 months, in his new position of corporal. To become a lieutenant, he would add another 5 months of officer school, and another batch of recruits to train, for 4 months again, this time as lieutenant... so this is 18 months of military service away from the job. Ok for a bank, but a big effort for a smaller company (The only advantage is that the 4-star general has been a simple soldier at some point).

By the time I had to do my service in '92, the picture changed quite a bit. Large corporates started to realise that being less supportive of the military could provide them with a lot more productivity, and with the Eastern block falling apart, this was felt less like lowering the country's guard as it would have some years earlier. For some time, banks considered military rank as "an experience like another", but eventually they started to favor people who would not have to leave the job for tens of months after being hired.

One of the ill effects of this is that the army quickly got short of volunteers to become corporal, a lackluster grade which "cost" 5 months of civilian life, and there were just enough volunteers to become officer. In reality, this meant that people were trying to look dumber than they actually were during basic training, so that they would not be picked to become corporals, and I bumped into a few officers that would make most horses look like Einstein...

Since then, the system has been changed so people have more incentive into achieving higher ranks in the military. It was about time...

[texas pinzgauer]

I need to reread the book but my recollection was that it was written in the late 1980s or early 1990s so your description is roughly as I recall it in the book. McPhee's books are very popular and he's written in a very broad cros section of topics. His book about the Swiss military might be of interest to this group as I suspect Pinzgauers must be mentioned as they were certainly part of the landscape in that era.