Friday, July 21, 2006

Just got back from one of my most eventful weeks in army, tired and very dreadful of outfields...

Monday: Outfield for MILAN missile live firing... Went there early in the morning with a clear sky which began pouring just before we were ready to fire... So walked down from the hill all wet and sticky, waiting for the sky to clear... The live firing after that was exciting, with one miss (usually pple dun miss, so the guy is quite screwed up)...

Tuesday: Went to the live firing area near Choa Chu Kang Cemetry for training... Half way dring the training lighting suddenly began flashing and thunder roaring, and we had to quickly pack up before it pours and we get wet... Plus, there was a bunch of signalers training there, with antennas as high as five stories, and make ideal lighting strike hazards... But as we all rushed out of the place, not a single drop of water fell, and we were so happy to get half day to rest...

Wednesday: Went to Lim Chu Kang again, this time deeper into the area, and trained on action from jeep and action on foot... For the mission on foot, we had to walk to near the Hindu cemetry to fire, and they became the targets of critisim of our ruthless sergeants, calling them "like dustbins"... No offense meant... For the action from jeep, we had to park our jeep at the foot of a very steep hill and run up there on foot (I really meant run) coz the instructor refused to let us drive, and this made my usually very garang section commander very du lan (unhappy)...

Thursday: Commencement of the Summary Exercise for the course... We still went to Lim Chu Kang, and clashed with a whole Regiment of tanks there having exercise... Nearly wanted to shoot the tanks up, only if we had live rounds... The mission was supposed to start at two, and so we drove out on jeeps to wait for orders at one, and end up feeding mosquitoes for 3 hours while we wait for instructions... Stupid... When it finally started, we realised that jeeps were of no use, and we have to mainly walk... So we went jungle bashing in our manpacks (with loads varying from 13.2 kg to 26.4 kg), and walked for about 2 km to our first objective... Along the way there was a path that ran near a plant nursery that was all wet and muddy, and every step we took was a chore... Then came a chicken farm, and you will never hate chickens so much in your live, for their smell is simply unbearable... Finally we reached the objective, and wait for our target tanks to appear... We waited, and waited, and waited, and the info that came was that the vehicles that were supposed to act as tanks broke down... At last they came, and we fired, and then went back to where we came from, passing by the nursery and chicken farm again... After we reached our link up point, the instructors wanted us to walk another 2 km, and my sergeants cannot stand it any more... They complained...
Sergeant: Sir (refering to our platoon commander), you ask them for jeep lah... You ask, things will happen...
Sir: Hey, just shut up and continue... This is a BLOODY mission...
Sergeant: ... (face says: what am I doing here?)
So we walked... And passed my the chicken farm again... Imagine that you are tired, and need huge gulps of fresh air, but all you get is stale air that smells nothing but chicken dung... When we reached the end point, we were all tired, thirsty and hungry (have not eaten for six hours)... But our jeeps were waiting, and we thought this is the end... We were wrong... We still have to be on alert, and man our weapons at all times... Finally until eleven were we able to get some rest, but not before we digged shell scrapes (in other words, holes for coffins, coz they really looked like holes for coffins).... When I got to sleep it was twelve thirty, and I still have to wake up later to do sentry duty...

Friday: After sleeping for about six hours, we wake up to another half-day of mission, this time entirely on foot... We walked, and stopped at a junction to watch a whole bunch of tanks passby... Then continue to walk to the next junction, where our officer and the commanding officer played a game of message sending, coz the other guy refuse to speak clearly, and in the end our officer had to tell him to speak clearly... Then an enemy "tank" suddenly appeared and killed our officer, leaving our sergeants stunned and rooted to the spot... Finally they reacted and took over, and led us to complete the mission... Then, back to civilisation!!!

Thank god it was over... But its not going to be the last one, unless i downgrade successfully...