abstract
| - Vaalto was born in Kaamanen, Finland in 1921. His mother was a saleswoman who would go around Europe selling the saunas his father made. His father owned ‘Laukkanen Saunas,’ a small hand crafting sauna maker whose products were set up all over northern Europe. His father, Somya Laukkanen hired some of the local boys of the town to cut trees before he fashioned them into the steam house. Vaalto was one of the stranger looking Scandinavians in that he had light brown hair and green eyes rather than the ever so clichéd blonde hair. Aside from his appearance, Vaalto grew up like any good Finn; at the age of ten, his father took him hunting. Winter brought caribou and fall brought deer to the northernmost woods of the Finnish landscape. His father had fought in The Great War under the Russian Army. He came home and fought for the Finnish Independence. In the Great War he was in the 3rd Army and carried a Mosin-Nagant, as a rifleman. He still had the rifle when he came home. When Vaalto turned 15 his father gave him a Mosen-Nagant to hunt with. Vaalto was also hunt alone. In this time, Vaalto thought about better ways to find and kill his prey. He began taking days to track and kill a caribou with deadly efficiency. When he watched his prey, he would study it to see its weaknesses, patterns, and habits to use against them. It always ended up with dead prey. At age 17 Vaalto went and worked in his father’s sauna making business. He started by being with the lumberjacks and cutting down trees, leading the horses to the lumber mills, and carrying the felled timber. The work was hard and tedious. After working in the business for a year, he joined the Finnish Army. He was in the 1st Army, and an infantryman when the Russians attacked.
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