A well built sergeant started ordering me and a few other poor souls to "double up"(to run, not walk) as soon as my parents are out of sight. Minutes later we were organised according to companies whch we were posted into.
Somehow my bad day did not end there, as another sergeant led me to the wrong company. As if the extra distance I marched with my "barang barang" wasn't enough, I got some extra scoldings from my platoon sergeant for delaying his time. Sigh....
You can guess what's going to happen in after a few hours time, all the new recruits' heads have been clean shaven and what I can say is that there are so many people who looked just like others as all of us had the same haircut!!
One bright side about BMT is that you get to know people from different backgrounds, and as for me I'm very fortunate to know new friends from other JCs and the best thing is that those new friends from top JCs are not snobs.
In fact they are all very friendly and we got along with each other very well, whenever I need help there's always a few helping hands ready to give me a hand.
We would always spend our free time "talking cock", like imitating the way our commanders talked or behaved, or simply some dirty jokes we could think of =P.
Training to be Soldiers, Fight For Our Land....
To pass out successfully from the Pulau Tekong "paradise", the very first thing you have to do is to make sure you passed your IPPT. I can only blame myself for being too "slack" after my 'A' Levels because no matter how hard I tried,
I just could not jump pass the "magical" 216 cm passing mark in the standing broad jump(SBJ) or pull the "impossible" 6 chin ups that could have helped me escape from the evil clutches of weekend remedial training(RT).
One by one my platoon mates had completed "Mission Impossible" and escaped from weekend RT, and by the final week I'm all alone in my Platoon together with a handful of poor souls from other platoons being trapped in this 'paradise'
instead of spending our free time as "civilians" during the most precious 2 days of the week. The unthinkable was beginning to become a reality-- Am I destined to go for BMT recourse? Are all the 10 weeks of hectic training going to be wasted and repeated?
In the end, my platoon commander(PC) had no choice but to leave me out from the 24km route march, the march which signifies the end of our life as recruits in Pulau Tekong. As if the bad news of not being able to get my parents to witness
the passing out parade(POP) wasn't bad enough, my PC only broke the bad news to me after days hard training and all the heavy load and sunburn I suffered during the POP rehearsal had all went down the drain!!
In the end I became part of the fatigue party that helped to transport all the logistics to and fro the island.... Anyway I got a last chance to redeem myself, but that means I have to burn the first day of my 5 days block leave by coming back to Tekong for the Final IPPT Test.
Somwhow Lady Luck must be smiling at me that day, as I managed to pull 6 chin ups for the very first time in my life in Tekong!! Never mind if I failed SBJ by 4cm, because the results enough to allow me to escape this "paradise".
Then Heaven must have played a joke on me when I fell sick in the afternoon and I have to stay at the stupid sick bay till the next day morning!! That means my precious 5 days bock leave had been shrunk to 3.5 days because by the time
I booked out from the island in the morning and spent $20+ on the cab fare that sent me from Changi to Jurong West.... yes I'm back home, HOME SWEET HOME!! At what time? ALmost afternoon!! And I'm still feeling sick, vomitting once every few hours. Sigh....
The next few days passed by rather uneventfully and time really flies: Saturday--the fateful when new privates like me will know where our new vocation/unit will be. I got posted to School of Signals(SOS) together with some of my good friends.
Some who performed well went to OCS to train to become officers,
some unfortunate ones got stuck in Tekong for the monstrous training in SISPEC(Suffer In Silence Plus Extra Confinement =P) while others got posted to units in Armour, Guards, etc....
No Comms, No Rest
Unlike many soldiers who claimed that their greatest improvement in their physical fitness came during their BMT, I beg to differ as my "golden period" came during this short 6 weeks in SOS.
I volunteered myself as the safety store IC, so you could see me carrying a manpack radio set, insulator filled with ice with my left hand and a fully filled jerry can with my right hand almost everyday.
Not neccessarily a bad thing, because at the end of the training in SOS I managed to do 11 chin ups easily.
One thing that made mad was that I was one of the lucky souls being chosen for a Sunday 24-hour guard duty, on MOTHER'S DAY!!
Isn't it cruel to a 3 month old soldier who's still trying to adapt to military life by depriving him a chance to show his love for his mom during this special day?
Anyway the new friends I made are not the same as those in BMT. There were Hokkien pengs(soldiers who are fluent in hokkien), and I'll always remember one of them, TK, who claimed that he can complete SOC in 9m30s with 2 fully filled jerry cans!!
And I'll also never forget Kelvin, who always took the longest time to "absorb" new infomation, or ZW, the "hobbit" who used to wash his face with soap =D
The Cutting Edge!!
6 weeks really passed by quickly and we were posted to our new Unit--42SAR. For the next few years my fellow platoon mates and I were stuck in this ultra super remote camp in Lim Chu Kang in which we have to walk a few hundred metres just to catch the one and only
TIBs bus service that could send us to civilian heaven every Tuesday, Thursday and weekends. Count yourself lucky if you managed to catch the bus panting and sweating....
If you failed to catch it, good luck to you!! You can give nearby mosquitoes a sumptuous treat for another 10-20 minutes before the next bus comes.
The first few weeks passed by rather uneventfully, 16 men were crammed into a bunk with 8, creaky double decker beds.
We did nothing much, except talking cock, play game boy, read comic etc.
In June 2001 after a battalion run at Pasir Ris I met up with a few JC friends of mine as they just got their posting results.
This is the first time I'm so happy in army life because my hair's back to normal length while all my friends' are still botak.
By the way , my friends are TH, St, Waffle and Momo. So I've always imagined that one of them(probably Momo) would go to SOS and eventually become my bunk mate.
So, I asked them one by one, "Where have you been posted to?" and here's their replies....
TH: "I'm going to SISPEC."(good luck pal!!)
St: "I'm going to GSMC(as a mechanic or something)."
Waffle: "I'm going to become a medic."
Momo: "SOS"
And my mind was REALLY?? Ok so half of my imagination had turned into reality. A few days later I SMSed Momo and asked if he knew which unit he would be posted to after he completed his course. He wasn't sure at first, maybe he'll be posted to infantry or something.
A few weeks later, St had completed his course and he would be posted into my camp. Haha another friend's coming here. Soon after Momo SMSed me and told me that he would be posted to 4SAB, which was then just opposite 42.
Well, that's 2/3 of my imagination came true....
My imagination couldn't have been more accurate, soon after Momo got posted into 4SAB my PC requested for more signallers because we were shorthanded at that time. So guess what? Momo got posted into my unit and a few days later he was my bunk mate =)
Cheong Sua Again!!
Good times never last my friend.... Soon after Momo joined us he realised that life in 42 wasn't exactly a bed of roses. Just weeks after he got posted in, our unit had started outfield training more intensively,
maybe once every 2-3 weeks and the duration for every outfield would be like 3-4 days. The word "siong" (tough in hokkien) is NOT enough to describe outfield.
Everytime we went outfield we have to apply those sickening green and black 'camoucream' onto your face while you're sweating like hell from all the dismounting action and hot weather.
Applying camou on your face can be a tricky job, because if you do not do it well your face may end up like a huge watermelon!!
Can you imagine how much damage it does to our face? Furthermore, all those hungry mosquitoes out there are probably commando trained or something,
for they even managed to suck blood out from our feet even though they were supposed to be protected by our thick leather boots!
Momo once claimed that his back was bitten by mosquitoes even though he slept while lying flat on his back!!
The day had come--4th February 2002
Who said that all the sweat and blood that flowed during the last few months are for nothing?
The big day had come as our unit had prepared for the big test that's going to be of a great significance to our unit's overall performance--ATEC.
Hot, sweaty and tired, I just did not have the appetite to eat much and at the end of the first day all I ate was a can of sardines and a few biscuits. All I want was just a good sleep....
0400hr, 5th February 2002
Shucks man, the new Medical Officer(MO) (I was an MO signaller that time) woke me up and asked me to dismount with him-AGAIN.
Why can't he just leave me alone for once? Never mind then, I carried the heavy radio set and followed him.
Minutes later we were near the river and we needed to put on life jackets as a safety precaution. I must have overestimated the size of the lifejacket and the next thing i knew,
my spectacles snapped as i tried to pull on the stupid lifejacket. Okay, now you have an inexperienced MO being followed by a half blind signaller.
So it just went on and on.... I went 33 hours without sleeping and you should know why.... Got scolded occasionally for slow movement.... And poor vision throughout.
1300hr, 6th February 2002
Finally get to sleep.... so tired man!! And yes! In less than 24 hours everything's going to be over! Had a fabulous dinner of luncheon meat with bread, canned curry chicken,
and instant noodles. The very first time I had such a good meal in days....
7th February 2002
Woohoo!! Everything's over!!
National Day Parade 2002
The next big commitment for our unit was the NDP 2002. Needless to say, our unit had to report to National Stadium every Saturday to do fatigue work in our uniform.
My platoon was divided into 2 groups: The first group would handle the PA system at the Indoor Stadium or elsewhere, depending on the organisers. The second group would help to carry the hot air balloon. I'm in the second group.
Honestly speaking, most of the time we did not have much to do, but we would have to sweat a lot when there's work to be done.
Another plus side was that we get to eat free KFC and Pizza Hut meals everytime we went to National Stadium, but soon we got sick of them =P.
Watching NDP from the stadium was really different from what you viewed from TV. It's the atmosphere I suppose, and instead of watching the show from one angle at a time, you can browse your eyes to anywhere you want and feel like it.
Furthermore, the fireworks at the stadium are simply fabulous. And yeah, my uniform was soaked wet because my friends were throwing water at me as a way to 'celebrate' my birthday.
ORD Loh!!
Seeing your friends collecting their pink ICs while you're still stuck in the clutches of the SAF for another few months can be one of the most painful things in your life.
That's exactly what happened a few months later. First they started clearing their annual leave, then they started clearing their cupboards, and the next thing you know, it's goodbye.
They can wave their pink ICs in front of our face and shouted' "ORD lor!!" while you still have 6 months left. Uh uh uh uh uh....
Even just months before my ORD my friends and I were not spared from outfield(again!!) and all the mundane fatigue that we were doing over and over and over again in the last 2 years.
Our superiors had instructed us to clear early leave so that we can spend our last month in the army doing all the mundane stuff for them (what the?!) and expected us to act like soldiers
because we are not civilians yet.... Why can't they just leave us alone and let us clear our leave in peace?
Fortunately time really flies(like real) and soon we are the ones waving our pink ICs in front of other peoples' faces and shout "ORD loh!!", well except for poor Momo who was enlisted 11 weeks later than us.
Hey Momo, be patient ok? Soon you can be like us, waving your pink IC at those new recruits and shout (everybody together) "ORD LOH!!!"
Honestly speaking I've made alot of friends in the army, especially those who were in the same bunk with me for the past 1 year and 7+ months.
To nayc: I'll always remember your hardcore ways of 'punishing hai_ren' and that touching 1% speech of yours.
To hai_ren: I'll always remember your 101 methods of hai ren and your obssession with dinosaurs. Good luck in NUS and hope you'll find true love with your fastest legs haha!!
To Wind Feynman: I'll remember you as an Initial D nut and your undying love for you know who. Good luck to you in US!!
To Jackie: Yeah your ducky voice will be the most unforgettable one haha, good luck in NUS!!
To P***Y: Oei dun cheat xiao mei mei anymore leh? Haha good luck in NUS too!!
To Momo: Thanks to NSF I get to know you even better buddy, good luck in NUS and your love life too =)
To LaoNa: Yeah man I'll always remember the way you prayed in our bunk. Good luck to your future studies!!
To ES: Your shokubutsu joke is just so funny!! Keep in touch ok?
All you guys studying in NUS listen ok? We must always try to meet up for lunch ok? Of course we'll always try to find some ways to organise a platoon(or at least bunk) outing!!