| by comrade commissar | Thomas | @ Sunday, June 19, 2005, 8:18:00 PM | permalink |
Wanted to post last week, but didn't really have the time because I had to book in on Sunday morning when I only booked out on Saturday afternoon.. Short weekend.. yada yada.. -lame excuse-"Dunno where I'll be celebrating my birthday when I'm in army next year man"Answer: Sungei Gedong Armour Camp. I'll be there as a trainee under the School Of Armour (Specialist Training Wing), undergoing a Mortar Commander Course till somewhere in September. I was sitting in a lecture room listening to a welcoming speech when the realisation hit me from nowhere. Wahlew. Ah well. Anyways, to put it down formally, big thanks to everyone for your birthday wishes. I didn't mind grinning like an idiot when I read the SMS birthday greetings on my handphone, really. ;P Our Mortar Commander Course (MCC) has a total of 28 trainees, and everyone sleep in the same bunk. (Its spacious, don't worry.) Sungei Gedong was really a culture shock for me, a Tekong resident previously. The cardboards here offer almost ? of the storage space we had in BMT / SISPEC. The beds are less comfy as well (Most of us are unaffected, cept for the handful who get back problems from the thin styroform 'mattress' & the loose spring frame underneath) The buildings and fittings are alot older and worn down compared to Tekong. Ironically, the drinks vending machines here accept Cashcards. --- During a talkcock session, 1 of our guys highlighted something that I realised was disturbingly true: Assuming our average army in-camp training day = 24 hours - 7 hours of mandatory sleep = 17 hours, during- * BMT (recruit), we earned an average of 50? per hour, or a mug of soya bean drink. * SISPEC (private), we earned an average of 80?-$1, or a can of Qoo!. "So," he said, "my point is, look on the bright side lah. Now, as corporals we earn a can of $1.20 Aloe Vera per hour, not bad what." Oh yea, that totally helps to provide me that extra ommph of motivation. --- As Specialist trainees, we are told that high standards are expected from us, hence the passing mark being set at 80%. If the requirement doesn't motivate you enough to pass, the "Fail and you get confined for 1 of your weekend days" condition should do the trick. Sleep's not that important really, you'll be surprised how many people give up 1-2 hours of it to cram for tests next day. During the test itself, sometimes passing or failing depends not on memory or ability, but the good ol' Russian Roulette 50/50 close-your-eyes-cross-your-fingers-and-pick. We did that alot when we seated in the Computerised Test Room doing the Signals Test at our individual PC terminals. "Click. Phew. Click. Click. ... umm. hmm. erm... Click. Arh F*~"I passed quite ok though. --- For the 2nd week of MCC, we started on our Armoured Vehicle Driving, which in my case, is the M113 armoured vehicle. Long story short, its at once exciting, unnerving, exhilarating, tiring, satisfying, exasperating to drive a 13 ton vehicle. Maybe its a guy thing, or maybe its that state of mind in which you focus your concentration on the controls and the driving, but you are not so conscious of your surroundings inside the M113, and even the outside of the vehicle, when you get into the driver's compartment and start the engine to drive. At times you have a moment of trivality.. its all cool.. just another leisurely afternoon offroad drive. I compare this feeling of unaffectedness to riding bumper cars. Then you do your after-driving maintainences and you hold 1 of the 63 track sections in both of your hands. 1 piece alone weighs 4-5kgs. The whole machine is big, heavy, and potentially dangerous. Its good that I have these moments of severity, make me shake my head at peers who really put their pedal to the metal and hit the accelerator like they're doing Formula 1 racing. |
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