About

Welcome to the blog of Corporal Frisk! Let me start by introducing myself: I am not mr Frisk, and neither am I a Corporal. That is only a pen name, which I’ve ‘borrowed’ from an 18th century ancestor who had the dubious joy of serving in the army in an age when wars were a common sight in northern Europe.

My name is Robin Häggblom, and I am the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of the real Corporal Frisk. Born and raised in the same city of Kokkola, my own military career is markedly less exciting, being limited to 362 days of conscription service as a skipper/machinist on the landing crafts of the Nyland Brigade in 2007. After this, I was sent into the reserve with the rank of Private. Professionally, I’ve studied mechanical engineering at the University of Oulu, and worked a few years at a local boatyard, after which I spent five years with Rolls-Royce/Kongsberg Maritime waterjets. Currently I work for InPlace Solutions as an operations manager. Note that the company is not in any way associated with this blog, which represents purely my personal views, and is only mentioned in the interest of providing full disclosure of my ties to the defense industry. As a reservist, I am currently active as a board member of Keski-Pohjanmaan Meripuolustajat ry (the association of the naval reserve of Central-Ostrobothnia). My family consists of my wonderful wife, and our three energetic kids.

The aim behind this blog is to take part in the (Finnish) defence debate, which I plan to do by posting news, analyses, and my own opinions. This idea was born after following some of the major Swedish defence bloggers for a few years. I found that they became an important feature of the Swedish defence debate, and while I do believe that, as a general rule, questions regarding national security and the armed forces have been handled better in Finland than in Sweden, I still think that there is room for more discussion here too.

I come from the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, meaning that I have the possibility of following the discussion in both countries without the problems of a language barrier. I also believe that much of what is written in one country could be of much use to the other, but that the language barrier often hinders or at least slows this transfer of knowledge. Though I am by no means unique in understanding both languages, I still feel that there is room in the blogosphere for yet another place that acts as a kind of a ‘bridge’ between the debate in Sweden and here in Finland.

Although events in our corner of the world, i.e. the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, is the most important topic of this blog, I am going to write about events I find interesting regardless of their geographical location. In the same way, while the posts probably will be tilted towards the naval field, I will not set down any strict ‘rules’ for what I will report on or not.

If you would like to get in contact, feel free to leave a comment, or send an e-mail to Corporal.Frisk(a)gmail.com