As Taiwan’s compulsory military service is being restored to a full year, a group of military conscripts were given nuclear, biological and chemical training on Saturday in a gas chamber for the first time in more than a decade.
During the training session held on Cheng Kung Lin Base in Taichung to familiarize soldiers with gas masks, the new conscripts were first taught how to properly wear their masks, the state-run Military News Agency said in an article yesterday.
After military instructors checked each conscript to make sure their masks were put on properly, the conscripts were instructed to enter the chamber — about the size of a classroom — one after another in their protective gear and gather around a burner emitting tear gas, the agency said.
Photo courtesy of Military News Agency
The goal was for the conscripts to gain confidence in their protective equipment and also experience how the tear gas would affect their skin before leaving the room, it said.
Next, the instructors told the group to go back into the chamber without their masks to understand what dealing with tear gas without protection would be like, it said.
The volunteers, who left the chamber with their eyes filled with tears and coughing, were instructed to use cool water to avoid further irritation.
The gas chamber training was standard practice for all conscripts during boot camp until compulsory military service was shortened to four months in 2013, the Ministry of National Defense said.
With the reimposition of the one-year military service program that began on Jan. 1, the ministry reintroduced the gas chamber drill, and the conscripts in Taichung were the first ones doing a year of military service to face this type of training in Taiwan in 11 years.
The extension of military service to a full year applies to conscripts who were born on or after Jan. 1, 2005. Compulsory military service for those born before that date is for four months.
The decision to lengthen the period of compulsory military service for Taiwanese men was aimed at strengthening the nation’s combat readiness in the face of threats from China, the government said.
Other steps have been taken on that front, including updating training regimens, providing conscripts with new helmets and bulletproof vests, and purchasing new mortars, cannons and machine guns.
The one-year compulsory service consists of eight weeks of boot camp and then an assignment with a designated unit in the army, navy, air force, Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command, military police, the Political Warfare Bureau, or the Medical Affairs Bureau, based on each individual’s skills, the ministry said.
The Taiwanese military is mainly a volunteer force of about 215,000 people, with conscripts serving in a supporting role.
As of 2021, there were 160,000 voluntary military personnel in the armed forces.
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