Quote:
Originally Posted by dragoon500ly
They fulill two roles, they are the bodyguards of the Pope and the ceremonial guard of the Vatican.
They are never seen without the Michaelangelo-designed uniforms and halbreds/swords. But there is a lot of speculation about what is behind the scenes. Some of the requirements is that the Swiss Guard have served in the military, they must be Catholic and they swear an oath directly to the Pope.
During the shooting of the Pope, several Guardsmen were observed with pistols/smgs...
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Guardsmen are usually catholic german speaking young men from swiss countryside. They have normal swiss military training (conscription). Guardsmen are real soldiers even if they have lots of seremonial guarding duties. They use those fancy uniforms only on seremonial duties (armed with halberd and pepper spray). Yes they do have modern weapons, uniforms and equipment they just wont like to show them.
Life in switzerland is very boring and most people are very conservative. Joining swiss guard can be very vise choice if you dont want live very dull life in swiss farm or if you dont want boring customer service job from the nearest town or city.
You can meet swiss volunteers nearly anywhere in this planet. Swiss army is purely defensive force for defending Switzerland and its impossible to serve abroad.