two weeks stint

welcome back yongchuen! two weeks of pure aggressive training schedules and back to back events have finally passed. yes, it have taken it toll on me and the people obliged to say "we have to fight the front because we love our land" but it did not only have negative connotations all the way. this 2 weeks was a nice learning and memorable experience in my opinion, ever since i moved away from the depressive mindset about army life and getting used to it. fine, shall tell the story of this lil man in tekong..
3 days after booking in on sunday came fieldcamp.
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we did not know wad was going to hit us but we still slogged through the first wave of shit. 8click roadmarch with full battle order was no mean feat but i still managed to be the front few to finish! hah, its just mental perseverance anyways, and i think i have lotsa it, tat's all i have though. hmm, yup many fell out of the 8 click march but we still settled in our campsite early that morning. thanks to the sky, the rain fell heavily right when we were settling down for lunch and had to hide in our briefly constructed basha for cover. dinner in the basha too, how memorable. eating in a half-crounch position, flexing ur abs while trying to take the first bite from the never seen b4 combat ration packet. first 2 days passed superbly slowly just because of the heavy downpours that hit tekong all of a sudden and it was the first time in 6 batches our commanders had to take a fieldcamp with rain. what luck had we! those 2 nights were nights we slept in mud, ate mud, had boots covered with mud that made it so heavy it was almost impossible to lift the legs up. we even had a 3 hours break in a training shed nearby to air our feets just so tat we would not have foot rot and also partly that the basha were already in a cannot-accomodate-humans situation.
while the sky cleared for the 3rd day, we set off to the next pitstop be4 our next campsite. ulom, that's what they call it. many ghost stories have emanated from that exact spot that sispec formally used for training. we were told that no one should stay in that area for training after last light, and true enough, we had to move off right at 5pm that day. we did some fire and movement stuff around tat area with our platoon commander, as Sergeant Elias, our platoon sergeant had left for his platoon sergeant course. it was quite fun so far, as many of the stuff is really about fighting a real war as an infantry personel. after moving off from that place be4 sunset, we reached this quite beautiful palm plantation for us to pitch our basha for the night. it is in this place where the action really began.
night sleeps were still not much of a problem for me, maybe course really shagged or that im used to sleeping on the hard ground but the 3rd night was a really bad encounter. some bloody insect decided to feed on my hands and face and i was quite badly bitten. both hands swell up late at night with a really bad itch and i had to keep tossing and turning while trying to hug that stupid stick of mine. fine, they call it ur wife in the army but i would never hesitate to wrap it up and toss it away at night. well, if the night wasnt good, the morning was even worse. woke up to fine a tekan session awaiting so beautifully. we were told we din maintain the temporary shitting area properly, and had to fall in, made to do really xiong stuff: running around the camp with rifles overhead for 3 rounds, unpitching basha in 7 mins den fall in with fieldpack all ready, pushup (yawn), crounches, etc. used to it alr la, hah. the day was fire and movement again, learning all the tactical stuff army has to teach, befoure we adjourned to a disposed malay school nearby to have a technical break of 1 full day.
technical break was really slack, doing nothing the whole afternoon and night. though there was no water supply, i still managed to squeeze in a modified bath with soap and water from the water bottle. it quite maanged to cease the itch on the body from dirt and the bites from those pests. but as usual, the time passed quickly and it was time to sleep. sleep this time was extremely good. hah.
so 5th day came quickly. we marched back to the palm plantation again, for our tactical training, revision and stuff as well as to pitch the basha for the night we were going to spend. fine, if we were talking about welfare, i think this is the only day we got some of it. at night, there was a very specially arranged movie screening of BrotherHood. it was from a projector screen, with great sound system all plugged from a generator. we were then told we are the first company to ever do such a thing. hah, happiness makes people forget the ugliness of things. so we slept with such delight...
to be woken up in the morning to find ourselves in pushup positions. reason: not maintaining the shit area again. fine, tekan again. this time, instead of running round the campsite, we had to leopard crawl half a round, which was so freaking shag. but the thing that really pissed me off was that we had to crawl through the pee area, bloody hell, and it was quite a clean uniform! damn, i just wished i was a civilian at that time. that was seriously one of the biggest highlights of fieldcamp man. memorable like hell. hah, i must concede that while welfare may be good, it is ultimately such shit that i will remember for life and tell everyone with pride. that event really dampened everybody's spirit for the day which we had to overcome. again, tactical fighting formed the backdrop of the day, and we had our mini test/simulation of war. fun though. after noon, we set off for our last campsite, which is at the reclaimed land of tekong. the march was beyond shagness, as the sun beat down on us so ferociously, that just a 4km march saw many fall out due to heat exhaustion. well, strong me still kept going! hah. but it was enough to make me much blacker, sighs. anyways, we reached the place which was quite infested with centipedes... be4 we took out of stuff to start digging shellscrapes (individual level), machiam graves for the night for us to sleep in. it was really another shag event, but memorable because it was 14th feb. with the sunset so vividly in our faces, we had to see our silhouette against the diminishing sun rays swinging the entrenching tool, wishing ourselves happy valentines day. wad a fieldcamp!
last day was nothing much, march back to this place where we had to leopard crawl thru a simulated battlezone, nothing much though, be4 we left to reach our company line, the bunks we never would have expected to miss to much!
to end this 7 days of fun but shagness, our OC had to trick us that we had to pitch our basha for 1 more night be4 we cease fieldcamp in the area near our company line. my balls almost dropped!
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after coming back from fieldcamp, the next major event was live grenade throwing which was yesterday. it was quite a fun experience and another memorable one. cutting short the story, it was simply that the person throwing after me threw a blind and i had to wait in the bay with my platoon commander for 10 mins, talking cock face-2-face until the grenade was defused. of course, everyone stuck in the respective bays were cursing at the stupid fella who throw the blind, making everyone wait. it was quite cock, because my PC told me to remove my earplugs and chat, den we talked about quite abit of stuff, he shared his feelings about welfare around and stuff, and we were totally not prepared when the detonating explosive to defuse the live grenade exploded, courtesy of the brave explommo. the first thing my pc shouted was "cheebye!" right after we both jerked at the impact of explosion, though we were both behind the wall. i really felt this blast of wind surge past us the moment that explosion took place. haha, tat was a really unique experience, because only 3 blinds were thrown in our company, and i had the luck to meet with one!
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today morning was quite a morale depressing one, as we had to literally see each company book out be4 us and we were the last few companies to be stuck in tekong, doing 2 PT lessons in the morning. sighs, while we tot lunch would be provided, we were hit with another shock that the cookhouse had no food for us. we cursed and swear b4 we booked out at 1pm, so freaking late. though i really am used to this shit from the army alr!
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hah, anyways, welcome back yongchuen. been missing alot on the news recently and progress in singapore. heard kids below 17 are not allowed to roam after 11pm, so cool. haha, maybe a surname change would do the job? hmm, haha. liked Mr Brown's writing in the Today's newspaper, afterall tat's the only papers they supply to camp because its free, about this issue, quite interesting. the gunman shock was another thing that really struck me, think singapore's not tat safe afterall. maybe we need more tie ups with the interpol or maybe somemore media hype up about our links with interpol may rid us with those crimes. hah.
ok anyways, promised bunkmates i would bring the class photo the next book in, still trying to find for it at the moment, for now, enjoy life. next week's SIT test which is another 3 day camp out, so... hah have fun dudes!