You can read more on the Swedish Total defence and Civil defence service on the website of the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), soon to be renamed the Swedish Defence and Resilience Agency (Myndigheten för civilt försvar). www.msb.se/en/advice-fo...

The Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) is currently investigating the needs for civil defence service in the field of transport infrastructure.

But they also proposed that young adults without any previous health care education should be able to do health care conscription, if they're not called to military conscription.

Last week the Swedish Board of Social Affairs and Health (Socialstyrelsen) proposed that the civic defence service should extend to former health care workers. Today, all current health care workers have their war time posting at their current workplace.

The Swedish Transmission System Operator (Svenska Kraftnät) is the government agency responsible for this civic defence training. They are hoping that more people will volunteer in the future, when it's more widely known that this kind of training exists.

As this is the first training of its kind, the minister for civil defence attended the inauguration a few weeks ago. Another participant from Gotland in the Baltic sea says: "He explained our contribution [to the Total defence]. Then you realised it's for real."

As one participant says: "[Even though I'll lose income] I figured I'll pull my weight to the pile. Should war come, I'll be at the right place, and not on the frontline. It's better to be able to contribute with one's expertice."

After the training, all participants will get a war time posting.

But the interesting fact about the article is that it isn't an angry David vs. Goliath article, but that the participants express that they understand the necessity of the training.

The training last 25 days and is far away from home. Many of the participants are self-employed and says that they'll lose 10 000's of Euros being forced to participate. The participants receive up to 150 Euros per day, and the self-employed can apply for extra renumeration.

And I'm calling it conscription, because as the headline reads, these guys are not volunteers. They are civilians forced to participate in the training, under penalty of prison should they refuse. A number or certified electricians from the West coast and Gotland have been chosen for this training.

Last year, the Swedish government decided to reintroduce civil defence service for rescue services and grid maintenance. Now, my local newspaper is reporting that the first "conscripts" for grid maintenance has arrived in my county for training.

Well, he was a tall man. Here’s a contemporary cartoon of him.

Of course back then Sweden practiced ARMED neutrality, because we assumed the Soviets would come one way or another, regardless of neutrality or NATO membership.

But did this really come as a surprise? When I did my military service as a conscript in the Swedish armed forces during the end of the Cold War absolutely everyone assumed there were detailed Soviet plans to attack Sweden in case of a war with the West.

The Swedish aerospace and defence company SAAB also uses the Scanian version of the griffin in its logotype, as the company traces parts of its origin to Scania. The fighter aircraft JAS 39 Gripen is named after the griffin in the company’s logotype.

Thus the legacy of the House of Griffin is still in wide use across the south Baltic area today. Versions appears in the coat-of-arms of the county of Scania in Sweden, the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Polish voivodeships of West Pomerania and Pomerania.

Thus, when the 7th South Scanian Regiment was raised in 1811 it used the coat-of-arms of the province of Scania. The 12th Division in Poland was raised by Polish volunteers in France by the end of WW1. At the end of WW2 the division was located to Szczecin, and adopted a coat-of-arms from the city.

When king Charles X died in 1660, the royal council needed to get coat-of-arms from the Skåneland provinces to represent them at the funeral. For the province of Scania the council went with the coat-of-arms of Malmö, but with the colours of the Duchy of Swedish Pomerania.

Ten years later, in 1658, king Charles X of defeated Denmark and won the eastern third of the Danish kingdom, the provinces of Skåneland. At this point in time both the city of Szczecin and the city of Malmö were ruled by the Swedish king. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_...