National Service Days (1997 - 1999)
[1] Basic Military Training
(BMT)
[2] School of Infantry Specialists
(SISPEC)
[3] Rest of NS
Basic Military Training (BMT)
April 1997 - July 1997
Maybe many of you are not too sure what National Service is all about...well to tell you the truth after going through it I'm not too sure either. Singapore's military consists of mainly conscripts...well any male 16 1/2 years of age are eligible for NS...I think...I went in when I was 18. I can still remember the date 2nd of April 97...and it was raining that day...My mum and my girlfriend (then) came to see me off...man! it was terrible! The very thought of not seeing my girl everyday simply tore me apart!
I can remember the first day in the military...they brought us in a rickety bus to a warehouse somewhere in Singapore (totally disoriented) to collect our military gear...yeah....helmets, camouflage uniform, boots, shoes and many other stuff...stuffed all the stuffs in my "äli-baba" bag...got barked around abit and up the bus again and off to Nee Soon Camp. Nee Soon camp will be the home for the next 8 - 10 weeks...the whole duration of my Basic Military Training...BMT in short. I met my "buddy" for BMT not long after I arrived. He's a cool kid...Aloysius...he went on with me after BMT for a couple of months training as Infantry Section Commanders.
The Haircut
So...on with the story...we were sent to the barber and were told to march in
unison to the barber shop some distance away...and obviously haven't been in the
army at all for most of us...we were more like a platoon of penguins trying to
swing our arms and move our legs in time...hahaha! Once at the barber, he shoved me down
the seat and pushed our heads down and all I could hear is the buzzing of the
shaver and all around me was my precious little hair that I had left...in less
than 10 seconds he pulls me out of the chair and called the next dumbarse to
come in...it was pretty cool though....bald and all...we call it "botak"
back in Singapore. At first, I couldn't recognise myself in the mirror...I mean
who's the dumb fuck staring at me....I looked awful! Oh...I couldn't recognise
my buddy as well...haha we all looked the same! Framed specs on a head with
little hair....
Punishments
- The PUSH UP
Every week one of us...will be chosen to become the platoon I/C (in-charge).
Sooner or later it got to my turn....haha it was terrible! being blamed for all
the shit your platoon mates do...those dumb asses had to do all the stupid shit
during my week stint as the platoon I/C. How were we punished? Well...there's
the usual cursing at you and your parents by our esteemed and very knowledgeable
sergeants....else there's always good old push-ups...and HOLD IT THERE!
yeah...just when your chest is about to explode and crash to the floor they ask
you to stay in the push up position while you are halfway completing your
push-up...stuck in mid stance is like...two cats in the middle of love making
and people just stand there and stare at them (we were like the cats) ....oh did i forget that
while trying to hold it there we were carrying a M16 assault rifle, a freaking SBO
(Skeleton Battle Order), a shovel, your helmet, and last but not the least your
20kg Bag.
- The Numbers
There was this strange habit amongst the instructors...they seemed to love
2353535(delivery number for Pizza Hut in Singapore) very much...there were these
huge lamp posts that were numbered from 1 till god knows what number...and as
always...we were made to touch the posts according to the number he wished us
to...what a stinky trick...which I did move on to use when I graduated as a
Section Commander.
There were tons of other things they made us do when we were"thinking"soldiers...meaning when we sought to reason that things done their way wasn't quite the best way...but in all our efforts they preferred us to follow their orders without questions.
The Standard Obstacle Course (SOC)
This was basically the playground for every soldier...whether you be in the
navy, airforce or the army...you must have played it at least once during your
stint in the military. I forgot how many stations there were but the first time
i did it with my SBO and rifle...i thought my lungs collapsed...they will make
you run like 700m with helmet, SBO and rifle...next you will have to do about
200m worth of obstacles....then another 600m rundown.
The first obstacle we faced was the Low wall...and trust me....it didn't look
that low after the run...with all the weight we were carrying it was like
climbing Everest...haha there were times where a recruit ran straight into the
low wall without even blinking his eyes because his legs just wouldn't respond
to"JUMP"...and he goes SPLAT into the wall...and falls to the ground
with others shoving him outta the way and the instructors barking behind him and
dragging him to his feet...haha what torture. We also had to do the Horizontal
Bars I think....they made us do it so many times my palms started to bleed!
Yeah...it's all part of soldiering i guess. There were other obstacles like the
Jacob's Ladder where you have to climb an ascending set of logs and then descend
on the other side /\. On the whole after about a billion practices, the SOC is
pretty fun to do.
Trench Digging
Believe me...never in your life would you EVER wanna do this crap! The rule is
simple...you get a shovel and dig like mad! Interestingly enough...there are
actually grenade...whatever...holes slumps....just in case the enemy throws a
grenade into your trench u can kick the arse stabbing ball of crap into the
little tunnel so that it doesn't fill your body with a million pieces of bite
sized metal...or blow your face out. I'll probably describe this in more detail
when I move on to my stint in the School of Infantry Specialists.
Fieldcraft
As we were all recruits and didn't know a thing about simple military
signals and maneuvers...and neither did we know a damn thing about camouflaging
ourselves...so we had to be taught these basic soldiering methods before they
can send us off to our various units.
Camouflaging was the most hilarious part of this part of BMT. Most pf us have never touched greens except for cabbage, lettuce and kang kong...well...we were given a few minutes to cover ourselves from head to toe with vegetation so that we will be able to merge as one with the forest. When the time was up you could see all sorts of funny ungodly creations around...some covered totally we couldn't even see his eyes...we were wondering how in the world he is going to see the enemy...others had literally dead plants on them...wahahaha in anycase when all of us were made to jump on the spot...opps! all our hardwork stuffing the veges into our uniform went to waste...all the camouflage promptly fell to the ground revealing 30 bald headed bespectacled goons.
Range
The colt M-16 A1 was the standard issue when I was in the Singapore
Armed Forces..I think it has since been changed to a Singapore made weapon
SAR-21. Anyway here's a little information for the geeks...its gas-operated and
has basically two working modes;the semi-automatic fire meaning one squeeze for
one shot and the automatic fire meaning if you squeeze the trigger and don't let
go then the rifle will spray all the guts out of the magazine...one squeeze with
the auto on will probably let loose 3 bullets. Oh did I mention how these nasty
little metal bullets kill? When fired through the M-16 it is twirled in circles
through the barrel and when it hits the target it acts like a little drill and
when it is in your body it messes around with your guts and leave your body with
a hole larger than its entry like the .(entry) as compared to O (exit
wound, relative).
We were trained with the electronic system called the IMT (Individual
Marksmanship Trainer or something like that). After which we moved on to the
live range and trained with live ammo and....yeah you were hoping live
targets right? But damn! no unfortunate animals or humans were shot during our
trainings. We shot at 100m, 50m and 25m.
Bayonet Fighting
What happens when we are about to rush the enemy? That's right we fix on a
little dagger which isn't even sharp on its sides onto our rifles. We basically
learnt the basic moves with the extended length of the rifle. We were also made
to shout "KILL! KILL! KILL!" everytime we stabbed or butt stroked with
the damn thing. The only silly thing is that we had to follow a series of
movements with every beep of the whistle which seemed odd to me.
Facing live firing
There was this once near our Passing Out Parade when they brought us to a
far away place in some deserted corner of Singapore. We were made to go behind
some trenches in groups of 7 men (later I realised the significance of the
number). Then the sky around us roared with the sound of the GPMG (General
Purpose Machine Gun...something that can chew you to bits with a shot) and
explosions. We were told to charge to the front where there was another row of
trench before some rubber tyres. So we did crawling and ducking away from the
explosions (which were clearly marked on the ground) and the flying bullets
above us. After a mad rush, we finally jumped into the last row of trench. I
threw a dummy grenade and charged towards the tyres...and put to full use my
bayonet fighting skills and stabbed the tyre to death...muahaha i was king of
the hill for the moment until the barking dogs came screaming and asked me to
get the hell out!
Road/Route March
Basically all we did was to carry all our battle equipment and walked
and walked and walked...we would walk for hours straight and from there was
light till the night and still we walked...haha nah it wasn't that bad during
the BMT though it got worse during my later trainings...we walked 4, 8 , 16,
24km.
Passing Out Parade
After about 10 weeks of stupid shit, I was getting out of the Basic
Military Training School. All we wanted was to go into the Officer Cadet School
(OCS) but sadly not many of us made it. It was kinda weird because the many
(100+)of the previous batch (Jan batch of recruits) of High School graduates had
gone on to OCS and for my batch (April)..we had like 4 from our company of about
300 men. It must have been a government agenda...hahaha yeah well the Jan Batch
were the batch of Scholars...mostly with 3As in there A levels (HSC) .... So now
we were faced with the harsh reality of the society...which reaches even into
National Service...damn Pay and Pay...= ).
The Parade was like a mass orgy with thousands of recruits and more of their family members all in the camp. All parades are the same so I will spare you the details...I got my posting which was to the School of Infantry Specialists...by the comments of my instructors (who graduated from there) is the largest pile of Dung I will ever have walked into. Most people felt that either be an officer or be a clerk...not in the middle of the food-chain...sheesh and there I was slated to be in the middle of the food-chain...the tough unforgiving...hell-raising sergeant...Oh yeah! I was going to be the biggest Bitch in town...the biggest sadist my men will ever meet! MUAHAHAHA!....i forgot I had to first graduate from SISPEC....and from all sources...many drop out of the course....Yupz I head into the depths of hell with a pissed off feeling that the army has cheated me of my bar...DEATH to all officers was all I had in my mind...sore loser...yeah i was...i still am! = P