Omg, i just came back from army camp and suddenly got this urge to write in great detail abt what i experienced and learnt for these past few days in army reservice. However, this time, i shall write it in proper english. Starting from now!! The story may be pretty long but I hope it satisfies everyone's curiousity about the perculiar, fun but streneous and adverse nature of every soldier's life. I believe not all soldiers may share the same feeling as me but who cares, this is the way i feel.
Day1:I carried my army duffel bag, boarded the cab and headed for the Tuas camp very unwillingly. In the cab, i had this dreaded feeling that i was suddenly going to be so far away from home, so far away from everybody i knew. I missed everything so badly, especially those who mean so much to me. Somehow, in me, i was contemplating this thought of escaping from the in-camp training whereby there was nobody i knew at all (i have been posted to a reservice unit different from all my other army friends). But, the other side of me told me i had to go. It was something inevitable for all physically fit singapore man.
When i reached the camp, I was singled out to cut my hair by the commander. I wondered how come he never single other people out because my hair was not that long afterall. There were many more whose hair were much longer and more colourful than mine. But, to think it positively, i consoled myself by saying that at least i was the example for the others to follow suit! I am proud to be the one of the first to cut my hair because after that, i saw an extremely long queue, hehe. The barber there was very efficient as there was not much style for preference. It was just a simple staightforward style- cut short. Luckily, she never cut my front. I paid 5 bucks for a less than a 30 seconds cut though. It was quite a profitable way to earn income, argh. i then reported back to the commander before entering my bunk. Somehow, i believed that my hair was still long but the commander had pretended not to see it.
In the bunk, i was pretty lost as there was nobody i knew at all. The worst part is everybody seemed to know each other, probably because they were previously from the same unit. I had to get out of my shy shell, orientate myself and make new friends! In the end, i realised some of them were very nice people to work with. I realised I was the youngest amongst all. Most of them were working already. Some even had tattoos on their back and really look fearsome. I thought they looked ugly; their tattoo destroyed their whole body. I clicked well with two future NIE teachers the most, Mathew and Quek. Mathew was going to be a Chinese teacher and he was always so particular about the broken Chinese words i have said. He corrected me so many times. Quek was going to be a mathematics teacher and he called himself the 'king of bridge'. They were my card game buddies together with Adrian. Adrian got the potential to become a magician. He showed us lots of his magic tricks. I told myself, i am not going to let this army camp training go to waste. I must learn at least 2 of his tricks when i stepped out after these 12 days. We had another big entertainer called Bala in our bunk. He was forever so jovial and had a very great sense of humour. He loved to disturb people even including the commanders! Several times, i burst out laughing. Such a bliss to have someone so entertaining as him in our bunk.
Something embarrassing happened. After finishing eating at the cookhouse, i just left my plates on the tables, forgetting that no way would there be a cleaner to come and clear them in an army camp. Hehe, I must have been too used to eating at NTU canteen whereby we can always dump our plates anyhow.
The first day of the training was pretty relaxed. The camp seemed like a chalet resort. We even had time for a pulsating soccer game at night. Omg i became so tired after that. And worst still, the next day would be ippt test le. I felt so energetic again afterwards.
Day2:
Ippt day- the time to access ur physical fitness has arrived. So many pp were complaining that they were not able to run fast and would thus fail the test because they had not run for a long time. i feel that is just another stupid excuse of showing they have weak mental strength. think they fail, not because they are unable to run fast, but because they are not motivated enough to run fast. hmmm, maybe this is a bias comment.. maybe because i have been doing a lot of sports and my stamina was there. but however, i really feel it's all in the mind to decide whether one can achieve something or not, as long as we have the self-belief to accomplish it. For the 2.4km run, i really ran like crazy, using my source of motivation to keep telling myself never to give up. Hmm although i pass the test, get the 100 bucks, I am still not satisfied with the result. i want to get at least a ippt silver. The 200 bucks incentive for silver is very tempting.
We had mortar training later in the afternoon. The lessons were very enriching but not easy to execute. Fortunately, i was not previously trained in that, so all i had to do was stare at the others doing the drills and let my thoughts wander.
Day3:We went for zeroing practice for our live shooting range. This was where i feel the dangerous life of a soldier truely began. We were briefed that for this time, the live range will be different from what we did in the past. This time, we had to do combat shooting whereby the section will shoot together in groups. When one person run forward, the other must cover fire. At any moment of carelessness, we can endanger our lives of the others and feel guilty for the rest of our lives. There was no room for carelessness. At any moment of negligence by others, our lives may be at stake. We may not be able to see our loved ones again. It is not about cowardice but about the value of life. I suddenly feel life become so important. There are so many things i want to do in life and i haven done. I dun wana die just like that unnecessarily. Suddenly, the helmets became so important to us. Quite surprising, we used to think last time that they were quite useless and used to throw them here and there when we came back from training. Perhaps, that's life. We take something for granted when it is in our presence. Only when we need it, then suddenly it become so precious.
Hehe, in the evening, we were brooding over the whole matter. Quek even say he did not buy enough insurance. hmm, i feel reservice pp should not go for such kind of combat live shooting since people have already been away from army life for so long and there is high risk involved for carelessness. Then, that forever so jovial Bala come and joke and tell us everybody can be marksman!!!
I slept early that night. Since we had no choice but to shoot, i wana do well for my shooting but never compromise safety. i also prayed that nothing would happen to me.
Day4:Shooting had begun. It was not as scary as we thought. Our worries were unnecessary but forgivable since it's the first time having such combat shooting. We have dry-runs and familarisation shots before the actual range. The distance apart from each other were quite far and safe. It must take a really bo-bo shooter to hurt someone or a deliberate shooter to kill someone. Our detail did pretty well. Though we top-score the mortar platoon, we did not get the marksmanship. I personally feel, to get the marksmanship is quite impossible as it will mean everybody in the group will need to get an average of 85%. Even if one person did well, he will still need to depend on the entire group. dunno how come that bala can think of marksmanship, hahah!!! hmmm, but bala was an extremely good shooter. however, i am quite satisfied with my own performance. i did comparatively well.
Night shooting was much riskier as visibility was so poor. Our morale became more low when the rain caused the soggy mud to hinder our movement. Our clothes were all wet and dirty, arghhhhh. guess wat, at the end of the whole shooting, we returned back to camp at 3am!!!
omg, okie, that's it for my story. too long already. n too lazy to write anymore le. to be continued..feeling:
matured
