Saturday, February 10, 2007

I'm out! Well, it's my second book out, but only just finally able to blog about it.

Life's a holiday in the army. I'm paid to eat, to sleep and to wait. Well, that was mostly the first two weeks. A lot of time was really spent waiting for the next thing to happen, "Rush to wait, Wait to rush" is the fine print of SAF's slogan. Basically, the first two weeks of NS was a lot of a holiday, with a lot of my time spent waiting, eating, sleeping, and just bumming around. Oh! not to mention, i actually can play pool in camp. However, with a table like what there is at my company line, better off not playing. Punishments were forbidden in the first two weeks, so it was a real holiday in one of the more shiong companies in school 1. JAGUAR!

That was so wayang. Thankfully no one in my company would be reading this. Well, so after two weeks of BMT, punishments started, but most of the time it's the platoon IC that gets the shit, "If you can't discipline your platoon, than all we have to do is discipline you", so one of the lieutenants in my company said one day. There have been company level punishments, to some extent manageable, the bigger problem would be mental stamina to handle it.

After book out 2 weeks ago, I booked in again for another 2 weeks of what I thought would be another holiday. To my honest surprise, it is still pretty much a holiday, a lot of eating and sleeping and waiting.
That was only until field camp started, did the holiday end. 6 days 5 nights out field is an experience that shouldn't be missed. Aside from the no showers, just powder baths, and sometimes foul tasting combat rations, and doing your business in the open, the rest of it was a good experience.
Sleeping outdoors I must say isn't the best thing for me. Being a light sleeper, I'd wake up every 2-3 hours just to look around, to bites or to sounds - which range from mosquitoes buzzing at your ear; to wild boar grunts; to grinding teeth; and at times no sounds.
Combat rations are well, combat rations. thankfully for all those meals where rations were to be consumed, I always had the best packs. So no complaints on my part, but seeing my section mates getting bland yellow rise with chicken, or some other disgusting thing, can't help but complain for them. Honestly, as an individual, you wouldn't want to eat rations if you had proper food at the side. No fiber and gets boring.
Training was one of the toughest I've had in BMT thus far. BIC - Battle Inoculation Course for those who haven't or will never be go into the army - was crazy. Most physically draining to be more specific, especially when it's on the last day of field camp. It's just a long leopard crawl - or commando crawl as many would know it - 100m or so, which is über tiring. However at the end, training is the craziest thing that field camp offers.
Company level punishments are the worst. Imagine 80 counts of 4 jumping jacks with your rifle - none stop mind you, or leopard crawl as a punishment, or endless push ups after the leopard crawl. Try all that with being the platoon IC and getting a lot more on top.

I guess the one thing I miss in camp is the freedom to make my own decisions and do things at my own time. Imagine having to ask for permission to go to the toilet, or even to wait for everyone before heading back to the company line. You can't even adjust your attire - if you in file - without permission from your commander.

Well, as of now, I'm still enjoying life in the army, sadly now I've got to book in tomorrow evening, only given 26 hours! Oh well, after situational test the next three days, I'll be having a lot of long weekends, so just got to bear with it for now.

Posted by charles at 1:54 AM