We were told to salute all officers and those who outranked us. We were enlisted soldiers, so everybody outranked us. We either had to raise our right hand to the side of the head, or say ?Good morning, sir?, if we were in a transport means. I remember everything perfectly. Once I took the tram and I was about to buy a ticket from the conductor, when I spotted something dressed in khaki; I immediately saluted, and then I saw a small gypsy dressed in khaki who grinned at me. Usually, the officers were making bad sexist jokes when we saluted them; a colleague of mine was on a bus and stood up to offer her seat to a higher rank officer, a general as it happened, but he started screaming at her, telling her that a women was not supposed to offer her seat to a man, even an older man.

I can?t remember what exactly we were doing while in the army. We took some sort of classes. We were divided on specific units, just like the boys. I was in the Local Anti-aircraft Defense Unit, which later turned into Chemical Defense. They were supposedly giving us theoretic courses. Those so-called lectures were given by some second lieutenants who most likely came from the streets, and then put in school for a few months. There was one in the last year who bullied us all the time. They were sinister characters. And you had to obey them because you were in the army. I remember this drills we had in the summer. Every 8^th day of the month, for two weeks, they took us to some fields around Bucharest, where we spent days. One time we were on  an exercise of defense and attack. We were all geared up, with guns and everything, and we decided to go and get some water, as there was a house nearby. We left our guns before entering the yard and wen to the back of the yard where the fountain was. Meanwhile, that horrible second lieutenant woman came. I can?t tell you how badly we were shouted at. I think I still know how to clean a gun. (S. R.-B., D. R.-B., 137)

The people in the army were a bit weak-minded. Once a year, we had firing sessions. The Anti-Aircraft Defense. Everybody had to do the same thing. They explained us how to shoot while kneeling, keeping the top of the heel between your buttocks, and we were making jokes about it. One winter they told there had been a shooting accident. We immediately thought somebody had been shot, interesting. But that wasn?t the case; when getting off the bus, somebody slipped on ice and broke his leg. So that was the shooting accident. (S. R.-B., D. R.-B., 138)