Scrivener.net

Friday, February 04, 2005


Corporal Klinger lives in Norway.
OSLO, Norway - A Norwegian doctor called in for military service would have made the malingering Cpl. Klinger of "M A S H" proud.

The doctor rubbed sour cream in his hair, poured sticky liqueur in his shoes, spilled beer on his clothes and sat in a closet smoking 40 cigarettes at once in a bid to convince the military that he wasn't fit mentally for service, the Fredrikstad Blad newspaper reported Thursday.

And just to be sure he looked and felt his worst, he stayed awake for two days before his physical, the newspaper said...

It worked, too. He was so convincing that the military doctor alerted the national health authority about the man they had licensed to work as physician.

An analysis of his records, however, showed that not only was he not insane, but he had received high marks from his patients, the newspaper said. Now, the doctor is facing likely disciplinary action from the military and the medical board. [AP]
And Norway isn't even fighting a war for the guy to try get out of.

However, Norway is different from most other Western European weeny states in that it is maintaining a military that remains a real fighting machine, fully capable of projecting force in proportion to its size.

Norway's Defense Minister, Kristin "War Kristin" Krohn Devold (posing at right just after the start of the Iraq war) is one of America's most notable friends in a leadership position on the Continent -- in more ways than one.

So maybe the doctor did have something to fear.