Our lad (newly Swiss) is approaching 18 and the call to military service. For various reasons, it’s now unlikely he’ll be considered ‘fit for military service’ or the civil protection option, but he always planned to fit this in before Uni and it’s a big part of being Swiss, so we’re looking at other possibilities.
I’ve asked around but no-one can tell me what kind of service is required - everyone of similar age round here has either deferred to go to Uni or was considered fit enough to serve. The website is understandably vague: no weapons training, away from other recruits, either office work or manual work, no choice of location, same duration as military service.
I don’t suppose anyone here has any experience/opinion on what this means in practice and whether it’s problematic at all or looked down on? 18 weeks isolated from your peers doing endless filing/digging holes must be pretty tough (although sounds like some of my holiday jobs when I was a student, albeit for less time) and would be worse if everyone just thought you were just doing it to avoid Wehrpflichtersatzabgabe. The stories I’ve heard about military/civil service have all been positive (on balance) and lads feel they benefited from the experience - this option seems a bit different.
It's not clear to me: does your son want to do military, but has been told he absolutely cannot? Or can he participate with some restrictions? Or is it already clear he must do civil service?
Do be able to do civil service ( Zivildienst ) one must be fit for military service. Civil service is for those fit for military, but do not like to do military due to reasons.
If one is not fit for military service they will be assigned to civil protection ( Zivilschutz ). If fit for that.
According OP: The son is not deemed fit for either. For example he might be in a wheelchair.
Thanks to the s tubbornness of Nouh Arhab and others , the military now offers an option to serve if normally deemed unfit. There are still some restrictions and bureaucracy.
To Rowan: I think there are not many stories of people which did it. I cannot say what office job he might have to do, but there are also regular “office soldiers”, Büroordnonanz and accountants . Both which can be done in one go ( Durchdiener ).
No choice of location, is also often the case for regular soldiers.
I asked this very question on a different thread the other day and now have a bit more information on it.
A friend of my son was deemed medically unfit for military service due to a cardiac problem which therefore made him unfit for civil service and civil protection too.
He wanted to do the service if at all possible so he contacted the commander in charge of recruitment for this area to ask about the possibly of doing restricted service due to medical reasons and he has been assigned to the computing section to work in cyber security as he is doing a degree in computer science right now.
He had no choice about where he would be based so I believe he will be going to Schaffhausen but then that’s the case for pretty much all recruits and the location is often dependent on the field the choose to go into. He’s excluded from anything related to firearms or driving etc due to his condition so he will basically be doing a desk bound job.
I think my son also said he had to do the service in one go for the year but not 100% sure on that.
Thank you everyone - especially @ASwissintheUS and @BelgianMum
Sorry if my original post wasn't clear. As a Swiss man, he'd like to fulfil his obligation to serve rather than opt out and pay Military Service Exemption Tax. However, there's a very strong chance that he will be considered 'unfit' due to medical issues outside of his control [doesn't seem that unusual; Wiki cites 1/5 recruits are found 'unfit' for military or civil service]. 'Military service with special medical restrictions' is an option available in this circumstance, so I was asking specifically for experience/opinion about that.
It's great to hear that roles other than 'secretary' and 'officer's orderly' might be considered. Also really interesting to read about the 'long service' option, to request to complete service in a block. I'm sure he'll get more specific guidance in the recruitment process
For Strat. Funkaufklärer his chances increase if he did the Vordienstliche EKF-Ausbildung or if he has an Amateur Radio license (HB3 or even better HB9) https://www.vtg.admin.ch/de/organisa…ldung-vde.html
Why does he want to do this? Does he have a realist understanding of what military service means? I can understand wanting to do his country some service, but doing some administrative job in the military is not going to contribute as much as social service for example.
As far as I understand it, he loses the option of civil/social service if he’s not judged ‘fit for service’, otherwise alternative civilian service would have been his preferred option https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Civilian_Service
From what I have heard, many are probably fine doing it but the military are concerned about being sued in the long term if a chronic condition is exacerbated because of military service.
I don't believe he will share the same experience that his peers will talk about for about a year (barracks stuff, weapons, trucks), which could still feel like he was excluded. If his motivations are purely patriotic and to get out of military tax OK, but if it's just because others do it I am not sure it's worth it. Those who can afford it and don't have to do military often go for a gap year to travel, learn another language abroad or do some volunteering, now that is an experience that is worth a lot more at that age imho.
In any case, when the time comes it's better to ask directly about this option as officially there is no right to choose what and where, it's a gamble.