Your wife in the Army is your M16!
I was drafted into NS in a state of blurriness... You see, all along I was under the illusion that I was only a P.R. (Permanent Resident) and I had the option of choosing whether to serve my NS. The real fact struck me when I received my enlistment letter - Under the amended law, I was to serve my NS since I am the second generation. So there I went to do my round of duty as all other medically fit guys - serving the nation. I was enlisted on 2nd April 1999.
I was posted into BMTC School 2. We signed out our equipment and stores and in we went into the 3 months of Basic Military Training. Thank God I passed my fitness day or else I would have to go in earlier by 2 months for fitness training... I was posted into Mohawk Company, Platoon 4, Section 2, Bed 12 (or was it 13? but they identify us like that?!) . My CSM was an ex-commando while my OC was a Guardsman with a Ranger tag. (~~sweat~~). Luckily my PC, Platoon SGT and Section SGT were superbly nice guys.
Cutting our recruit crew-cut was particular memorable. I had not had such a short durian haircut for a long long time! The photo on the left certainly look familiar... was it a sign many years ago? Anyway, the cookhouse was blasting the song "Short Hair" RIGHT AFTER OUR HAIRCUT! My bunkmates joked that our eyebrow is actually longer than our hair!
I never knew that the Coke and the McDonald fries tasted so nice until my parents brought it to me during the parents' visiting day after 2 weeks of confinement. It must have been the lousy food we had in the cookhouse - the rice were rock-hard (can't even be soften with the "plain-water" soup)! For those enlisted after us – year 2000 and onwards, you will never understand. The difference of the food standard was hell and heaven. Trust me, don't believe - ask you brother or senior who witness the memorable change in the standard.
We learned a lot of stuff ion BMT - firing and taking good care of our wife the dear M16S1, camping out in the wild, digging the trenches, camouflaging, section movements, standard obstacle course and so much more. I am an average bloke, so keeping up with the bigger, fitter and more "on" section mates was tiring. I personally enjoyed the SIT(uation) Test the most as I did pretty well in the mission planning and execution with my teammates.
Soon after the BMT, it was another nerve-wrecking moment of our lives again - the posting. I knew most likely I would not be posted to combat vocation (as I was still a Malaysian then), but the unknown path still cause many sleepless nights.
Finally, I was posted to STTS as Auto-Tech. What the heck is that? No one knew... Soon, I discovered with a few other recruits with the same funny vocation title that it is a special vocation. We were to be trained as Recovery Techs... (Still blur???). Well put it more specifically, we are Automobile B-Technician with Recovery capabilities.
The STTS - is only a place for us to learn our driving. We were to learn to drive vehicles from class 3 to class 5! And all of us had no driving licenses! It was nerve-wrecking for us and for the driving instructor. My instructor was an old soldier... it was from him that I learned Hokkien vulgarity actually contains a lot of deep vocabularies and can be spoken in such catchy rhythm. He was a nice guy though. At least, I passed all my tests and driving (class 3 and 4) all in my first attempt within a month! I was subsequently posted to another sub-unit in another camp to learn to drive the Monster Truck - The Wrecker - MB2636. And I passed the test within a week and hence obtain my class 5 license.
Soon, I was picked up by my unit - 3DSMB. It was there I spend most of my time serving. I was attached to the MT-Line and understudy 3SG Kevin Yap and 2SG Ganesh. Hahaha, Kevin had a hell of time from me...;p I help to run the reports and administration of the MT-Line. All the Recovery Techs in the MT-Line were actually under 1SG Ong - a nice guy who fight for his men and an expert in Recovery mission. I was also send to OETI (OETI - coined the Only Eat, Talk & Idle heaven) for my Recovery Technician (Basic & Specialist) course. We were sent there to attend technician course and making friends from all over Singapore repair base.
I had my close misses in my military life. Once, I almost hit a LandRover while on a Recovery mission. The Rover was packed at the bottom of a hill slope in a blind spot (Well, they are in a mission, you see). My MB2636 was 26 tons, you can imagine the momentum downhill, it was purely God's grace that kept me, my understudy and an Officer all safe - not to mention the 4 people in the Rover! If I had panic and jammed my brakes, the vehicle will surely crash into them! So, I took the turn quickly while applying air-brakes, for a moment, my vehicle was on 3-wheels (well, MB2636 had 6 wheels) and we were slanting towards the cliff! Nothing happened, thank God and Praise him that all of the people was safe and sound.
I served two and a-quarter years of national service and I converted my citizenship to Singaporean. I ORD on the 1st of August 1999 as a 3SG. A lot of people it was a long time, it is true. I could never possibly pen down the struggles, trials and stresses that I encountered in the Army. However, it is during this time that a boy grows up to become a man.
Howard - That's Me
Growing Up
Playtime
Nerdy Primary Schools
Havoc Secondary School (BMSS)!
Saints Family (SAJC)
Army Daze (NS)
Stressful University Days (NTU)
Memoirs of an Officer (SJAB)
