POP loh~
For the benefit of those, POP stands for Passing Out Parade. Yeah it's grammatically incorrect to phrase it as POP loh, but it's singlish so WTF.
It's been exactly two months, or two days less since I blogged. The days just keep increasing.
But i'm blogging. Probably no one's gonna notice this entry, but who cares? My blog is still for myself to remind me of my past. In fact i will be removing the past irrelevant posts, which blogger didn't bother to take count of and my total posts remains at 79 after one year.
Am I about to blog about my BMT exeperience? Yes, partially. Anyway I don't quite remember the events inside. So I will just highlight the more prominent ones.
Firstly, field camp sucks. It's a total waste of time when I am already wasting time in NS. Seven days some more. It was made worse on the 5th/6th day when it rained. And it so happened that that fateful night we had no basha/shelter. Everyone got wet, everyone's field pack was wet and that was so irritating, and I was shivering like the handphone vibration, not sure about the others though. It totally sucked balls and all I could do was wrap myself up as much as possible with the ground sheet we slept on. This only made the collection of water around worse. And finally I remembered my trusty Gortex jacket. This is the only useful or rather powerful equipment SAF ever provides, not even a GPMG could overpower it. But when you are at fieldcamp, you get so dirty that you wish you didn't have to change. I didn't, for four days. That was the day everyone had to shower and change up. I wore one set of uniform, socks and underwear straight but unfortunately they had to spoil the fun. I dunno what is it with the rest but they complained so much. We are already in an environment where you are bound to get muddy and such. What's their problem anyway. I don't change yet I have lesser hygiene problems than them. We are already in the ARMY dudes. Oh yeah, don't you even think of your mother? How would she be able to take this mess? Unfortunately my barang barang got wet due to the rain so I had to wash those in the end. Others washed a doubled amount of mine. I also taught the platoon how to sing Ai Pia Jia Eh Yia and Rong Shu Xia cos I sang it during the march. It was rather difficult cos my platoon was multiracial. But they managed and I was happy cos they see my happy and serious face so they put in effort to learn. Yay. Other than that, field camp was lectures and practise of drills which were not that fun. We fired a hell lot of blanks though. That was probably the most enjoyable part. On the 5th night, we moved to a new camping location full of sharp grasses and were made to believe that our actual destination was taken by another company. It was 8+pm then and we were supposed to sleep. We expected something to happen, and there was a Turn Out. During a Turn Out, you will hear lots of explosions and firings and see white lights and smoke almost everywhere. It felt like a discotheque somehow. It simulates a sudden attack by the enemy and we were supposed to run away, wtf. Anyway I was half asleep and I carried on sleeping and refused to budge until a point when I realise everyone is starting to pack up and save their asses that this exercise was real. We got fucked quite badly due to our poor responses and one platoon had to run with SBO plus holding field pack above their heads like kacang putih sellers, and another did leopard crawl with FBO. It was a saddening sight for me to see my platoon mate getting punished. He left without his field pack and my platoon sergeant emptied everything inside and threw the items everywhere and gave him one minute to re pack, otherwise he would have to serve a confinement. We could just stand there and watch, imagine the helplessness of him and ourselves. On the last day we had to dig our shellscrape and a Section Fire Trench. It was also a stupid and pointless activity considering the modern technology of bulldozers and such. We wer esupposed to sleep in our own shellscrape, like that is any more fun or comfortable. It's actual purpose is used as a cover for firing purposes. Anyway i was the first in the company to finish, but I was lucky cos the soil was good. My Section was the first to complete the fire trench. I was rather impressed by the solid structure but thought it stupid we had to dig it ourselves. Will we have time for this during War? It wasn't a really memorable field camp, but I remembered.
The next best things were Live firing. Though the event took a whole day and we were tired, it was fun to fire live rounds. I scored 29/32, making me a basic marksman. Missed one day firing, and two night firing. 30 was the company highest. Then the more recent one was Live handgrenade throw. Although we couldnt see the actual explosion, it was fun to just feel the impact and hear the sound effect. The drill of preparing the grenade was rather fun as well. And the Officer kept talking cock to me.
Standard Obstacle Course was shiok, though very exhuasting. We had to run with rifle and SBO. And running with a helmet is never a good thing because it is stupid and it made us stupid. I completed the run in 8:31 mins. Better than the sergeants haha. In fact quite a number ran below 9mins. The fastest was 7:55. But after the chionging we all felt very good and accomplished. So we practised songs for out graduation. However, a platoon mate lost his bayonet during the course. In the army, not taking care of your weapon is a very serious offence, one that could lead to being Charged. Punishments ranging from anything to going inside the Detention Barracks, which is the army jail. Fortunately somebody else recovered it otherwise nobody knows what will happen to the poor fellow. The stupid thing is that since we have been made to swear upon the weapons and they are entrusted to us, why is the army sticking their nose into our asses? It's our weapon leh.
I started this post on the 7th. Today is the 9th. I forgot a large part of what I wanted to blog about. And I was clearing up unwanted posts in my archive, so the posts might seem strange now.
Now for IPPT. Which is the commoner's NAPFA except that the 2.4km standard is much higher. Training for this was plain mundanness. It is part of our training syllabus and is alternated everyday or so. Includes Strength Training (ST), Ability Group Running (AGR), and Intervals as I call it. For 9 weeks, 6 would consist of the three syllabus everyday. Each day will be a different training, whatever it is, they are boring. However, they have built up my willpower and that, I sincerely appreciate it. I have never ran 2.4km with such enthusiasm before. I kept a constant half sprint speed, and sprinted the last 100+m. Could have sprinted more, but didn't know the route. It felt good, and though my timing was 10:12, I was satisfied with my performance.
I would also comment on the route march. It think it is bloody pointless to carry so many things and walk such a long distance. I understand that the exercise is to bond the platoon by encouragement and motivation and such, but wth goes to war with such a heavy field pack, a rifle, a helmet and SBO? Take the Tunnel la
Overall the BMT experience was pleasurable if not enjoyable. Anyway Army is still a waste of time but if we were to have a positive mindset, we will pull through the 2 years without sweat. Already my batch of soldiers are leading a much better army life, there is no reason for us to complain. I am rather disappointed by the naiveness of some, and motivated by others. I missed the opportunity to become the platoon best, by votes and agreement among the commanders, but lost to the other nominees by scores. Scores are calculated through performances like IPPT, SIT test etc. My SIT test was 70+, lowest among the 3 other nominees, with an average of 80+. It was a good experience, we were gentlemen and congratulated the Pu Boh, no, Platoon Best, and consoled each other.
It's true what they say, You Reap What You Sow. I missed 3 or 4 chances to get Off Days. One was my IPPT. One day off for Gold. Missed that.
One was SOC. Below 8:30mins one day off. Missed by 2 seconds wtf.
Live range. Best shot gets one day off. I missed it by 2 points. Nevertheless i'm still a marksman.
Platoon Best. One day off as well. Missed it by that little bit of score.
And lastly, Drill Competition. My squad came in third and we were supposed to get a reward of longer weekend plus one day off. Dunno what happened to the day off.
Guess I shouldn't complain so much. I feel I am quite lucky. The commanders know me, the platoon like me. I was given many opportunities to perform. And I made many friends along the way. Nevermind that Army sucks, we can find our own entertainment. On the day of POP before I boarded the fastcraft, I felt a pang of unwillingness to leave. Besides, after BMT itll be hell.
It's been exactly two months, or two days less since I blogged. The days just keep increasing.
But i'm blogging. Probably no one's gonna notice this entry, but who cares? My blog is still for myself to remind me of my past. In fact i will be removing the past irrelevant posts, which blogger didn't bother to take count of and my total posts remains at 79 after one year.
Am I about to blog about my BMT exeperience? Yes, partially. Anyway I don't quite remember the events inside. So I will just highlight the more prominent ones.
Firstly, field camp sucks. It's a total waste of time when I am already wasting time in NS. Seven days some more. It was made worse on the 5th/6th day when it rained. And it so happened that that fateful night we had no basha/shelter. Everyone got wet, everyone's field pack was wet and that was so irritating, and I was shivering like the handphone vibration, not sure about the others though. It totally sucked balls and all I could do was wrap myself up as much as possible with the ground sheet we slept on. This only made the collection of water around worse. And finally I remembered my trusty Gortex jacket. This is the only useful or rather powerful equipment SAF ever provides, not even a GPMG could overpower it. But when you are at fieldcamp, you get so dirty that you wish you didn't have to change. I didn't, for four days. That was the day everyone had to shower and change up. I wore one set of uniform, socks and underwear straight but unfortunately they had to spoil the fun. I dunno what is it with the rest but they complained so much. We are already in an environment where you are bound to get muddy and such. What's their problem anyway. I don't change yet I have lesser hygiene problems than them. We are already in the ARMY dudes. Oh yeah, don't you even think of your mother? How would she be able to take this mess? Unfortunately my barang barang got wet due to the rain so I had to wash those in the end. Others washed a doubled amount of mine. I also taught the platoon how to sing Ai Pia Jia Eh Yia and Rong Shu Xia cos I sang it during the march. It was rather difficult cos my platoon was multiracial. But they managed and I was happy cos they see my happy and serious face so they put in effort to learn. Yay. Other than that, field camp was lectures and practise of drills which were not that fun. We fired a hell lot of blanks though. That was probably the most enjoyable part. On the 5th night, we moved to a new camping location full of sharp grasses and were made to believe that our actual destination was taken by another company. It was 8+pm then and we were supposed to sleep. We expected something to happen, and there was a Turn Out. During a Turn Out, you will hear lots of explosions and firings and see white lights and smoke almost everywhere. It felt like a discotheque somehow. It simulates a sudden attack by the enemy and we were supposed to run away, wtf. Anyway I was half asleep and I carried on sleeping and refused to budge until a point when I realise everyone is starting to pack up and save their asses that this exercise was real. We got fucked quite badly due to our poor responses and one platoon had to run with SBO plus holding field pack above their heads like kacang putih sellers, and another did leopard crawl with FBO. It was a saddening sight for me to see my platoon mate getting punished. He left without his field pack and my platoon sergeant emptied everything inside and threw the items everywhere and gave him one minute to re pack, otherwise he would have to serve a confinement. We could just stand there and watch, imagine the helplessness of him and ourselves. On the last day we had to dig our shellscrape and a Section Fire Trench. It was also a stupid and pointless activity considering the modern technology of bulldozers and such. We wer esupposed to sleep in our own shellscrape, like that is any more fun or comfortable. It's actual purpose is used as a cover for firing purposes. Anyway i was the first in the company to finish, but I was lucky cos the soil was good. My Section was the first to complete the fire trench. I was rather impressed by the solid structure but thought it stupid we had to dig it ourselves. Will we have time for this during War? It wasn't a really memorable field camp, but I remembered.
The next best things were Live firing. Though the event took a whole day and we were tired, it was fun to fire live rounds. I scored 29/32, making me a basic marksman. Missed one day firing, and two night firing. 30 was the company highest. Then the more recent one was Live handgrenade throw. Although we couldnt see the actual explosion, it was fun to just feel the impact and hear the sound effect. The drill of preparing the grenade was rather fun as well. And the Officer kept talking cock to me.
Standard Obstacle Course was shiok, though very exhuasting. We had to run with rifle and SBO. And running with a helmet is never a good thing because it is stupid and it made us stupid. I completed the run in 8:31 mins. Better than the sergeants haha. In fact quite a number ran below 9mins. The fastest was 7:55. But after the chionging we all felt very good and accomplished. So we practised songs for out graduation. However, a platoon mate lost his bayonet during the course. In the army, not taking care of your weapon is a very serious offence, one that could lead to being Charged. Punishments ranging from anything to going inside the Detention Barracks, which is the army jail. Fortunately somebody else recovered it otherwise nobody knows what will happen to the poor fellow. The stupid thing is that since we have been made to swear upon the weapons and they are entrusted to us, why is the army sticking their nose into our asses? It's our weapon leh.
I started this post on the 7th. Today is the 9th. I forgot a large part of what I wanted to blog about. And I was clearing up unwanted posts in my archive, so the posts might seem strange now.
Now for IPPT. Which is the commoner's NAPFA except that the 2.4km standard is much higher. Training for this was plain mundanness. It is part of our training syllabus and is alternated everyday or so. Includes Strength Training (ST), Ability Group Running (AGR), and Intervals as I call it. For 9 weeks, 6 would consist of the three syllabus everyday. Each day will be a different training, whatever it is, they are boring. However, they have built up my willpower and that, I sincerely appreciate it. I have never ran 2.4km with such enthusiasm before. I kept a constant half sprint speed, and sprinted the last 100+m. Could have sprinted more, but didn't know the route. It felt good, and though my timing was 10:12, I was satisfied with my performance.
I would also comment on the route march. It think it is bloody pointless to carry so many things and walk such a long distance. I understand that the exercise is to bond the platoon by encouragement and motivation and such, but wth goes to war with such a heavy field pack, a rifle, a helmet and SBO? Take the Tunnel la
Overall the BMT experience was pleasurable if not enjoyable. Anyway Army is still a waste of time but if we were to have a positive mindset, we will pull through the 2 years without sweat. Already my batch of soldiers are leading a much better army life, there is no reason for us to complain. I am rather disappointed by the naiveness of some, and motivated by others. I missed the opportunity to become the platoon best, by votes and agreement among the commanders, but lost to the other nominees by scores. Scores are calculated through performances like IPPT, SIT test etc. My SIT test was 70+, lowest among the 3 other nominees, with an average of 80+. It was a good experience, we were gentlemen and congratulated the Pu Boh, no, Platoon Best, and consoled each other.
It's true what they say, You Reap What You Sow. I missed 3 or 4 chances to get Off Days. One was my IPPT. One day off for Gold. Missed that.
One was SOC. Below 8:30mins one day off. Missed by 2 seconds wtf.
Live range. Best shot gets one day off. I missed it by 2 points. Nevertheless i'm still a marksman.
Platoon Best. One day off as well. Missed it by that little bit of score.
And lastly, Drill Competition. My squad came in third and we were supposed to get a reward of longer weekend plus one day off. Dunno what happened to the day off.
Guess I shouldn't complain so much. I feel I am quite lucky. The commanders know me, the platoon like me. I was given many opportunities to perform. And I made many friends along the way. Nevermind that Army sucks, we can find our own entertainment. On the day of POP before I boarded the fastcraft, I felt a pang of unwillingness to leave. Besides, after BMT itll be hell.
posted by I'm searching no more at 8:42 PM
