Twenty-five years ago, mandatory military service meant two years of discipline without the comforts of home for young Greek men. And there was no suggestion box.

"We sat under the trees and ate our chicken or spaghetti" cooked in the mess, says 51-year-old Nikos. Not today: "They tell me that at my old boot camp a private catering company serves the recruits their meals on trays, and that they get dessert. We never got dessert."

"It's like you're in college now," says 22-year-old university graduate Ilias, sitting in his parents' home on a four-day furlough after two weeks of basic training. "The military has realised it has a great responsibility to the soldiers' families. As long as you're under oath, the army's responsible for you. They tell us to be careful if we're going to ride a motorbike or drive a car."

New recruits are not only getting more attention and having an easier time, they are spending less time in uniform. They used to serve 24 months, but in February the first group of conscripts who will serve just 12 months took their oaths.

More For Less

The defence minister says the lifestyle changes are a consequence of a broader modernisation process. Yannos Papantoniou also says that since he became minister just over a year ago, he has been spearheading "the biggest reform effort in fifty years," to produce a better fighting force and provide youths in uniform with a higher standard of living and better career prospects. And all on a shrinking share of the gross domestic product (GDP).

Papantoniou, formerly the finance minister, says the more-for-less strategy rests on rationalisation. Three years ago the government took the first step, indefinitely mothballing much of a five-year, $1 billion-plus plan for major weapons procurements.

Now the defence minister says he is cutting costs by eliminating duplication and "buying things in smaller quantities." The military, he adds, is also trying to unify procurement procedures across the armed services, to benefit from "economies of scale and better coordination."

Reigning in Spending

Papantoniou says there have already been results: the defence budget was 4.9% of GDP in 2000; it is 3.9% for 2003, close to the 1998 level; and he forecasts a 2004 budget of between 3.3% and 3.5% of GDP. He says he would like to see it stay at that level for a decade.

One per cent of GDP is e1.5 billion, and the money saved could allow the government to spend more money in non-defence areas. Back on the bases, Papantoniou says, the careful planning and spending are allowing the military to buy state-of-the-art weapons systems and fund projects that improve soldiers' quality of life and career prospects. The "social package" includes 40 new libraries, 56 gyms and 45 internet centres; professional training for conscripts, a e100 monthly bonus for soldiers from poor families and, starting in April, universal provision of meals by private catering companies.

Private contractors are also being brought in to renovate existing military housing and to build over two thousand flats for the new professional soldiers who will serve a minimum of seven years. The first batch of professionals, 8850 in number, pulled on their boots in March, and Papantoniou says he wants to ensure that the career non-commissioned officers "are happy in their private lives."

Full-time Professionals

The government says it wants half the men and women in uniform to be professionals by 2005, and for naval vessels eventually to be staffed exclusively by professionals trained to handle sophisticated equipment.

200 of the professionals who join up in 2003 will be women who will help with the reorganisation of the recruitment services. Deputy defence minister Lazaros Lotides was quoted in one newspaper as saying that the government is going to computerise the country's recruitment centres completely and retrain the people who staff them.

The minister says the improved administrative and unified operations command efficiency made possible by rationalisation, new communications technology, faster transportation, modern weapons and the recruitment of professional soldiers have made possible the obligatory term of 12 months for non-professional soldiers.

But less, he says, will be more: "In upgrading the service, the government is determined to make time spent in the military a substantive, productive, beneficial element in the development of the citizen. 12 months in the service will be a worthwhile experience," and will not keep soldiers away from their social and professional lives for too long.