School of Infantry Specialists (SISPEC)
July 1997 - Decemeber 1999
The course I went through in SISPEC was basically seperated into two parts:
(1) Basic Section Leader Course (BSLC)
(2) Advance Section Leader Course (ASLC, Infantry)
(1) BSLC
The day I reported back to camp after my week break after I graduated from a
recruit to a private...was a sad sad day indeed after spending almost everyday
with my girlfriend then. The separation was almost unbearable. We were brought
to a camp far far west of Singapore...near Nanyang
Technological University . There we were met with many other sad looking
people....yeah the "I'm done for" look...it was like the end of the
world....despair abound.
I can remember clearly that we had to lug our huge bags...the banana shaped
bag that was almost to my chest in height...yeah the Ali-baba bag all the way
from the main parade square to our rooms like a million miles away...or so it
seemed at that time. With our chins firmly attached to the ground that day we
were a cheerful lot indeed! But we were pleasantly surprised that our bunks or
rooms were in a newly renovated section of the otherwise rundown crap. And on top
of that, we were allocated 2 to a room! wow! And the floor in my room was tiled!
Imagine...the army and tiled floors! Guess what? remember Aloysius...yupz
he's my buddy again! We were given time that day to rest the day out and perform
some administrative work. It didn't seem so bad after all...at least not yet...
Basically what we were in the BSLC was to learn some field movements and
commands, various techniques to defend our base and to attack the enemy. I
cannot really recall all the excercises I went for. But here are some that I can
recall...fondly... = P.
My first topography excercise outside Pasir Labar Camp
We were given our checkpoints the day before and were to plan our movements in
the jungle...this was more of a map reading excercise more than anything. We
went down to a place called Mandai somewhere in the middle of Singapore. We were
dropped off at around 9am in the morning and were given 12 hours to find our
checkpoints in the jungle...well...some will beg to differ but it was my first
time out there with my buddy it seemed HUGE to me. The day wasn't too bad as we
managed to find our checkpoints fairly easily with certain help from other
groups of trainees. However when night fell, being cowards the two of us...we
proceeded with EXTREME caution into the darkness. When you are in the jungle
there are faint trails that leads to the checkpoints but in the night the trails
seem to be everywhere and on every tree seemed to have someone looking at us. It
gave us the creeps! I remember very clearly when we had to go into a part of the
jungle where it was totally dark! And from our calculations (which very often
was a million miles off the mark) the next checkpoint was right inside that
patch of black. When we saw the place we looked at one another and turned
around immediately not even speaking a word. Yeah, we took 5 steps and started
running! We could feel something following us all the way till we bumped into
another 2 trainees who were lost. And our group of 4 slowly turned into a group
of 6 then 8 then 12...yeah strength in unity...haha...we were chickens. In the
end we failed the test...having not found a single night checkpoint at all.
Firing Blanks
We had lots of excercises in the jungles around my camp. And very often we have
to simulate real battle atmosphere. The first time I received my 100 rounds of
blanks I was totally thrilled for I had never fired a blank round before! And
besides this was the first time we had our magazines totally filled with
ammunition. We were finally like soldiers...acting tough and all...but in the
end they were still blanks. And the cleaning that comes with firing the shit was
terrible! In the end not many of us wanted to fire them anymore. Haha.
The Section
In Singapore, due to the lack of manpower because our population is so small our
section consists of 7 men in active units but when we were training, we normally
had twice the number of men. There were several different weapons used in the
section. The standard issue M16 A1, the M16 A1 with M203 grenade launcher
attached, the Section Automatic Weapon (SAW) and the Light Antitank Weapon (LAW).
The SAW was basically like the GPMG except that it is smaller and lighter than
the GPMG and fires 5.56mm rounds instead of 7.62mm rounds. The LAW is mainly
used to destroy lightly armoured vehicles...nothing like the sort of M1 Abrahams
Tank.
The
Section and the LAW.
Field Maneuvers
The trainings we had were mainly around the jungles near the camp or abit
further out near the cemeteries. Basically we moved from one objective to
another patrolling and looking for "enemies". Once spotted we would
find the best approach into the enemy's base and basically rush them with a
section providing support fire from a firebase at another position. There are
numerous other excercises like the Ambush where we just lay flares and claymore
mines around and lie waiting for the unsuspecting section to come in and we
would blow the shit out of them.
Signaling
Signaling was the essence of every military operation, transmitting
information about the enemy and all. We learnt abit about the works of the
signals set and its operation. Anyway these are not your regular mobile
phones...they are about the size of a school bag and weighs a ton.
We had physical training as well but not as frequent as in BMT as we were
here to learn how to do battle. There was still the usual SOC and IPPT
(Individual Physical Proficiency Test).
I remembered that my section's instructor was someone named James Sim. I can
still remember him because he was public enemy number...but he was just doing
his job. Well, just so happens that I was very Kuai Lan...meaning always trying
to be funny...doing all the opposite of what he commands and trying to be smart
most of the time...mostly rebellious. The BSLC was not very interesting and
monotonous. After the course some of the outstanding trainees got to crossover
to OCS...those lucky bastards! Aloysius and my ex-classmate and roommate in NTU
Chon Kiat.
The
Section and the LAW.