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Thursday, June 28, 2007
We received our heartsaver certificates (though I wouldn't trust the CPR of someone outside the Medical Corps, seriously) after taking our tests... So I'm sorta a qualified first aider, or at least for CPR for the next two years...
Kinda funny... I failed the test twice despite knowing CPR cos they asked me "is the timing one-thousand, two-thousand or one-a-thousand, two-a-thousand" which I didn't know cos I used them interchangeably (rightly or wrongly) when I was in St. John hahah... whoops...
Anyway Meng Seng was wondering out loud if in real life we'd really go render first aid... I know I would cos I've ALMOST been tried by fire twice (once the casualty recovered and the other, the "casualty" turned out to be playing a prank) and both times I was fully prepared to do so. Its just a matter of whether my CPR would be good or whether I'd break his ribs, lacerate his liver and give him grastric distention or not hahah...
But at least for the test all my compressions and ventilations were green except for maybe one or two... And I STILL can't figure out how come the green light for ventilations will come on when you compress the CPR mannequin's collarbones heheh...
Anyway the week so far was quite traumatic...
One hour before graduation route march, just as life seemed pretty good, I was called down to see one of the platoon commanders who told me my disruption was CANCELLED!! and that I was to be posted to Delta Wing i.e. going to infantry. I was totally shocked / disappointed / angry / irritated not so much that I was not disrupting, but cos I didn't know what would become of my 2007 registration!! What if I didn't get a place in 2009!! Then not only that but I was accused of "breaking the chain of command" by going to consult the person in charge of the medical scholarship at Nee Soon Camp. But I maintain that I was fully justified in that - if I had gone through my PC, then my Wing Comm, then SAFTI HQ, I guarantee I would have gotten too little information too late. Darn.
(In case people don't know, I rejected the SAF scholarship cos it would put me in high positions like division MO and stuff, and I DO was to continue treating people, not do planning and stuff)
Anyway it was one of the worst route marches I ever did... 23 km from 9 pm to 3 am the next day, with no sleep. Not so much cos no sleep but cos this was weighing on my mind.. Thanks Abel and Ming Zhou for trying to lift my spirits during the march, Kenny, Eric and Marvin as well in their own ways, but I was really depressed. Its like my future suddenly looked so uncertain (People are so falliable. When I panic it seems I suddenly don't remember that God is with me )
In fact I had been feeling better that the 16th klick, but then when I was walking past Delta some person yelled "Who's coming to Delta? Welcome to hell!" which instantly put me back into depression.
I think this is the reason why the whole march as well as senior bar presentation seems so hazy... Cos my mental state was really fouled up...
But upon returning to camp I was called to see my Wing 2IC who took my side of the story and went and did some clarification. The calls this time flew back and forth from our wing line and HQ MC faster I think...
The long and short of it was that, after a long day of sleep deprivation, running from my bunk to wing HQ or some officer's office, from Tango Wing to Delta Wing, the whole thing was revised JUST before I was to pack my stuff and shift over to Delta. Phew.
SAF expedited my disruption by getting me (and another poor guy who, like me, rejected the SAF scholarship and so was in a similar situation from Delta Wing) to head down to CMPB today to sign my disruption letter.
So alls well that ends well as the cliche goes... These few days I will have to travel back and forth from my home, SAFTI MI, and CMPB quite a bit, but the extra bus fares, I guess, will be worth the trouble? Anyway I owe a lot to my platoon mates for keeping me sane, especially my section (oh heck, everyone really...) plus Kanan who was in the Wing HQ when I was making my calls , my parents for helping me find out stuff, Alvin the wing clerk for helping liase with Delta as well as SAFTI HQ and my various instructors =)
So yesterday was probably (unless there's another admin foul up) my last day in army for 6 years.... Hmmhmm... I'll believe it when I get my pink IC back... Until then, its time to start getting back to the mugging mood and brace for uni!
Kinda funny... I failed the test twice despite knowing CPR cos they asked me "is the timing one-thousand, two-thousand or one-a-thousand, two-a-thousand" which I didn't know cos I used them interchangeably (rightly or wrongly) when I was in St. John hahah... whoops...
Anyway Meng Seng was wondering out loud if in real life we'd really go render first aid... I know I would cos I've ALMOST been tried by fire twice (once the casualty recovered and the other, the "casualty" turned out to be playing a prank) and both times I was fully prepared to do so. Its just a matter of whether my CPR would be good or whether I'd break his ribs, lacerate his liver and give him grastric distention or not hahah...
But at least for the test all my compressions and ventilations were green except for maybe one or two... And I STILL can't figure out how come the green light for ventilations will come on when you compress the CPR mannequin's collarbones heheh...
Anyway the week so far was quite traumatic...
One hour before graduation route march, just as life seemed pretty good, I was called down to see one of the platoon commanders who told me my disruption was CANCELLED!! and that I was to be posted to Delta Wing i.e. going to infantry. I was totally shocked / disappointed / angry / irritated not so much that I was not disrupting, but cos I didn't know what would become of my 2007 registration!! What if I didn't get a place in 2009!! Then not only that but I was accused of "breaking the chain of command" by going to consult the person in charge of the medical scholarship at Nee Soon Camp. But I maintain that I was fully justified in that - if I had gone through my PC, then my Wing Comm, then SAFTI HQ, I guarantee I would have gotten too little information too late. Darn.
(In case people don't know, I rejected the SAF scholarship cos it would put me in high positions like division MO and stuff, and I DO was to continue treating people, not do planning and stuff)
Anyway it was one of the worst route marches I ever did... 23 km from 9 pm to 3 am the next day, with no sleep. Not so much cos no sleep but cos this was weighing on my mind.. Thanks Abel and Ming Zhou for trying to lift my spirits during the march, Kenny, Eric and Marvin as well in their own ways, but I was really depressed. Its like my future suddenly looked so uncertain (People are so falliable. When I panic it seems I suddenly don't remember that God is with me )
In fact I had been feeling better that the 16th klick, but then when I was walking past Delta some person yelled "Who's coming to Delta? Welcome to hell!" which instantly put me back into depression.
I think this is the reason why the whole march as well as senior bar presentation seems so hazy... Cos my mental state was really fouled up...
But upon returning to camp I was called to see my Wing 2IC who took my side of the story and went and did some clarification. The calls this time flew back and forth from our wing line and HQ MC faster I think...
The long and short of it was that, after a long day of sleep deprivation, running from my bunk to wing HQ or some officer's office, from Tango Wing to Delta Wing, the whole thing was revised JUST before I was to pack my stuff and shift over to Delta. Phew.
SAF expedited my disruption by getting me (and another poor guy who, like me, rejected the SAF scholarship and so was in a similar situation from Delta Wing) to head down to CMPB today to sign my disruption letter.
So alls well that ends well as the cliche goes... These few days I will have to travel back and forth from my home, SAFTI MI, and CMPB quite a bit, but the extra bus fares, I guess, will be worth the trouble? Anyway I owe a lot to my platoon mates for keeping me sane, especially my section (oh heck, everyone really...) plus Kanan who was in the Wing HQ when I was making my calls , my parents for helping me find out stuff, Alvin the wing clerk for helping liase with Delta as well as SAFTI HQ and my various instructors =)
So yesterday was probably (unless there's another admin foul up) my last day in army for 6 years.... Hmmhmm... I'll believe it when I get my pink IC back... Until then, its time to start getting back to the mugging mood and brace for uni!
~JcZw~ at 4:16 pm
Monday, June 25, 2007
As predicted it was a very slack week. Even slacker cos of the sheer contrast between it and platoon field camp haha... And also cos the Mid Day route march on friday was called off..
On the other hand it was quite painful from all the Close Combat Training (CCT) lessons.. But really interesting also! I think being a CCT instructor is the coolest vocation in the army by far, even more so than being in OCS! Too bad our batch has no intake..
Anyway we also got to play soccer on friday... Too bad goalkeeping doesn't leave time for practising my break-falls learnt in CCT =D But I must say our platoon took a very long time to warm up... When I see attackers waltzing through a gap in our defences large enough to fly an F16 through, my life flashes before my eyes... Still, didn't perform too badly, though I still can't do goal kicks for nuts... When I kick the ball it is capable of flying anywhere in the 180 deg arc in front of me. That's why I prefer sticking to using my hands hoho....
Live firing was also interesing... A number of people know what happened already but dunno if I can spill it so openly on the net in case of getting charged (refer to ChuaH's blog regarding security). Suffice to say, illumination rounds should be fired into the air, not into the ground. Haha, but my breaching group with Eric and Meng Seng worked pretty well together. I will always remember how we had to run up and down the stupid hill (me carrying the cumbersome bangalore torpedo!), wheezing "Gap gap gap!" and stuff like that...
Anyway, all my best guy friends from St. John all seem to be going to SISPEC! Wei Lun, Wei Quan, Xuan Ming and all... Only Xuan Cheng went to the Navy, lucky feller! Like Wei Lun said yesterday, we really miss St. John, and all of us agree that St John life was worst than the army haha (Of course, we never had to stay in camp for almost the whole week!). Sometimes in joke we still call each other by our team numbers and etc... I wonder when we're ever going to let go of St. John...
Speaking of which, reading my juniors' blogs took my mind off my stress for a while as I read through their thoughts, feelings and memories about their handover... And I recalled some of the things my batch went through with them... Some of them are as follows: like when we were in the corner classroom watching them introduce themselves for the first time... then Vanessa calling me at night asking if I could go along to help buy uniform parts n stuff with them... Having to collect Y. Liting and Clarice from the MRT, when both parties couldn't even recognize each other... House programme... How many of them continued talking to me online even through the Os, as I tried to keep my depression of leaving SJ aside..
Now they're also seniors, not unlike myself a very short while ago... Haha Sec. sch seems so fast when you consider it in St. John terms. I empathize with what they must be going through... To me it was a feeling of suddenly there's nothing to be living for... Probably that's what its like to experience a break up heh...
Anyway congratulations Squad 4 '07! For going through SJ, leaving your mark, creating that new bit of history for the division, for conducting yourselves well throughout your 4 years!
Oh well... Anyway its two days to the end of service term and the third bar! After that, its either off to Brunei on Sunday, or deferment, if it comes on 1st July... Cheerio all!
On the other hand it was quite painful from all the Close Combat Training (CCT) lessons.. But really interesting also! I think being a CCT instructor is the coolest vocation in the army by far, even more so than being in OCS! Too bad our batch has no intake..
Anyway we also got to play soccer on friday... Too bad goalkeeping doesn't leave time for practising my break-falls learnt in CCT =D But I must say our platoon took a very long time to warm up... When I see attackers waltzing through a gap in our defences large enough to fly an F16 through, my life flashes before my eyes... Still, didn't perform too badly, though I still can't do goal kicks for nuts... When I kick the ball it is capable of flying anywhere in the 180 deg arc in front of me. That's why I prefer sticking to using my hands hoho....
Live firing was also interesing... A number of people know what happened already but dunno if I can spill it so openly on the net in case of getting charged (refer to ChuaH's blog regarding security). Suffice to say, illumination rounds should be fired into the air, not into the ground. Haha, but my breaching group with Eric and Meng Seng worked pretty well together. I will always remember how we had to run up and down the stupid hill (me carrying the cumbersome bangalore torpedo!), wheezing "Gap gap gap!" and stuff like that...
Anyway, all my best guy friends from St. John all seem to be going to SISPEC! Wei Lun, Wei Quan, Xuan Ming and all... Only Xuan Cheng went to the Navy, lucky feller! Like Wei Lun said yesterday, we really miss St. John, and all of us agree that St John life was worst than the army haha (Of course, we never had to stay in camp for almost the whole week!). Sometimes in joke we still call each other by our team numbers and etc... I wonder when we're ever going to let go of St. John...
Speaking of which, reading my juniors' blogs took my mind off my stress for a while as I read through their thoughts, feelings and memories about their handover... And I recalled some of the things my batch went through with them... Some of them are as follows: like when we were in the corner classroom watching them introduce themselves for the first time... then Vanessa calling me at night asking if I could go along to help buy uniform parts n stuff with them... Having to collect Y. Liting and Clarice from the MRT, when both parties couldn't even recognize each other... House programme... How many of them continued talking to me online even through the Os, as I tried to keep my depression of leaving SJ aside..
Now they're also seniors, not unlike myself a very short while ago... Haha Sec. sch seems so fast when you consider it in St. John terms. I empathize with what they must be going through... To me it was a feeling of suddenly there's nothing to be living for... Probably that's what its like to experience a break up heh...
Anyway congratulations Squad 4 '07! For going through SJ, leaving your mark, creating that new bit of history for the division, for conducting yourselves well throughout your 4 years!
Oh well... Anyway its two days to the end of service term and the third bar! After that, its either off to Brunei on Sunday, or deferment, if it comes on 1st July... Cheerio all!
~JcZw~ at 4:19 pm
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Battalion on alert
So pack it up and go
Oh, what a way to start the day ahead
Heya!
Well, as a matter of fact, Delta, Foxtrot, Sierra and Tango do form an augmented battalion heh... Am 20 minutes away from the penultimate book-in for service term. Though the official bookin time is like 12 pm, but the earlier the more time I have to re-pack all my stuff heh.... Hmmm not that living in Kembangan helps either...
This week SHOULD be pretty relaxed. Only two things in the timetable scare me mildly. Route march on friday and Platoon live fire on saturday (which is yet another saturday burnt). The rest of the week I know there's wing admin (which probably is an euphamism for area cleaning), OCCT (another hand-to-hand combat course), and heartsaver, which I kinda know like the back of my epee (I don't really recognize the back of my hand so well after the barbed wire last week).
Anyway as a random fact, Black Hawk Down should be a good case study in leadership for us also. Am reading the book (and I read the book before I watched the DVD two days ago) which provides a lot of the reasons not mentioned in the show why the thing was such a foul up... Now I know why the SAF keeps harping on contingency plans haha... But I can understand how things may slacken after so many missions and / or false alarms. After all, in Patrol Field Camp, by the fourth mission we wouldn't have needed an ops order to know what was going on...
Still, it also shows all the ugly side of war, like how one moment you talk to your friend and the next moment he gets reduced to his constituent atoms by an RPG. Sigh
Am STILL indecisive about whether to take the scholarship. 60% of me wants to, but 40% has very legitimate concerns.
For:
1. It's an exotic job ("what are you?" "I'm an army doctor")
2. It's an opportunity for overseas postings (Arizona, Thailand, Australia, who knows, anywhere where SAF is)
3. Wider range of skills learnt than in civilian life (One learns admin skills besides doctoring skills, since as a battalion / brigade / division MO one will have to do planning too
4. The scholarship is darn attractive haha...
5. Still get to do hospital work 2 days per week.
Against:
1. Its unknown. I dunno what people mean by "you have to like army life" cos all I've seen of the army is from a trainee POV. Do MOs also have to serve extras n etc? o_0
2. Progress slower than civilian doctor. Will retire from SAF a registra while my counterparts are probably consultants already
3. How will social life be affected? I hardly want to "sign my life away to the army", yet it seems possible cos the army doctors I know are happily married n all haha...
I don't know, I really don't know...
Heh anyway talking to Sihui bout the ulu-ness of NTU reminded me of how during M203 live fire the instructors were warning us that "If you manage to shoot [your HEDP round] over the hill and hit NTU, there'll be hell to pay"
But anyway I have to go book in now... Cheerio!
So pack it up and go
Oh, what a way to start the day ahead
Heya!
Well, as a matter of fact, Delta, Foxtrot, Sierra and Tango do form an augmented battalion heh... Am 20 minutes away from the penultimate book-in for service term. Though the official bookin time is like 12 pm, but the earlier the more time I have to re-pack all my stuff heh.... Hmmm not that living in Kembangan helps either...
This week SHOULD be pretty relaxed. Only two things in the timetable scare me mildly. Route march on friday and Platoon live fire on saturday (which is yet another saturday burnt). The rest of the week I know there's wing admin (which probably is an euphamism for area cleaning), OCCT (another hand-to-hand combat course), and heartsaver, which I kinda know like the back of my epee (I don't really recognize the back of my hand so well after the barbed wire last week).
Anyway as a random fact, Black Hawk Down should be a good case study in leadership for us also. Am reading the book (and I read the book before I watched the DVD two days ago) which provides a lot of the reasons not mentioned in the show why the thing was such a foul up... Now I know why the SAF keeps harping on contingency plans haha... But I can understand how things may slacken after so many missions and / or false alarms. After all, in Patrol Field Camp, by the fourth mission we wouldn't have needed an ops order to know what was going on...
Still, it also shows all the ugly side of war, like how one moment you talk to your friend and the next moment he gets reduced to his constituent atoms by an RPG. Sigh
Am STILL indecisive about whether to take the scholarship. 60% of me wants to, but 40% has very legitimate concerns.
For:
1. It's an exotic job ("what are you?" "I'm an army doctor")
2. It's an opportunity for overseas postings (Arizona, Thailand, Australia, who knows, anywhere where SAF is)
3. Wider range of skills learnt than in civilian life (One learns admin skills besides doctoring skills, since as a battalion / brigade / division MO one will have to do planning too
4. The scholarship is darn attractive haha...
5. Still get to do hospital work 2 days per week.
Against:
1. Its unknown. I dunno what people mean by "you have to like army life" cos all I've seen of the army is from a trainee POV. Do MOs also have to serve extras n etc? o_0
2. Progress slower than civilian doctor. Will retire from SAF a registra while my counterparts are probably consultants already
3. How will social life be affected? I hardly want to "sign my life away to the army", yet it seems possible cos the army doctors I know are happily married n all haha...
I don't know, I really don't know...
Heh anyway talking to Sihui bout the ulu-ness of NTU reminded me of how during M203 live fire the instructors were warning us that "If you manage to shoot [your HEDP round] over the hill and hit NTU, there'll be hell to pay"
But anyway I have to go book in now... Cheerio!
~JcZw~ at 9:07 am
Sunday, June 17, 2007
One more thing just happened whoohoo... God had really brought the blessings and the downs alternately haha...
Many people know that there's a Local Medicine Scholarship under the SAF, whereby you get paid a whole lot of money, like $9000 a year! to study, excluding tuition fees, book allowances and all... You do have to sign on, howwever, but will rise up the ranks faster than the average officer... Like start as a captain, rise to major within 5 years that kinda thing... You get paid more than the average civilian doctor too (though not by much, but its still something)
Of course, as mentioned, you have to sign on for AT LEAST 6 years (its probably longer)
Many people attended the session when they briefed us doctor-wannabes at SAFTI (the criteria was to get into NUS Medicine as well as be in OCS). Many of us also heard that the intake was extremely small.
6 people per cohort. How could a guy who had no S-papers and a B3 for GP hope to compete with all the people in Delta Wing haha...
Less people know that I applied
Even less know that I received the call to go for an interview only at 1 am on a Monday not too long ago. That was after Section Live Fire. The interview itself was at 8 am on the same day. The same few people know that I had only about 4 hours of sleep before somehow getting to Nee Soon Camp and talking my way, as sincerly as possible, through the interview.
Only about 20 people know that one month later, I just received a letter saying that I was one of those 6 people who was offered the scholarship o_0
So now I'm in a quandry. The offer is really really REALLY very good! Thing is, do I want to sign away the younger days of my life to the army? Do I want to get deployed to disaster zones and to Iraq (a very real possibility). Am I sure I want to dedicate myself to this unbreakable bond, even if it may cost me relationships n all next time? Will I be able to have my own social life (get married n all haha... IF I ever get attached)?
Well, I'll just pray about it I guess... I mean, I'm really honoured n privileged to get this chance cos the chances of getting in was like super low, but I don't know if its what I want
(I don't, by the way, consider myself very pro or whatever. I just signed the paper, went there and talked what was in my heart and whao)
So, to the people who still read this, any advice?
Many people know that there's a Local Medicine Scholarship under the SAF, whereby you get paid a whole lot of money, like $9000 a year! to study, excluding tuition fees, book allowances and all... You do have to sign on, howwever, but will rise up the ranks faster than the average officer... Like start as a captain, rise to major within 5 years that kinda thing... You get paid more than the average civilian doctor too (though not by much, but its still something)
Of course, as mentioned, you have to sign on for AT LEAST 6 years (its probably longer)
Many people attended the session when they briefed us doctor-wannabes at SAFTI (the criteria was to get into NUS Medicine as well as be in OCS). Many of us also heard that the intake was extremely small.
6 people per cohort. How could a guy who had no S-papers and a B3 for GP hope to compete with all the people in Delta Wing haha...
Less people know that I applied
Even less know that I received the call to go for an interview only at 1 am on a Monday not too long ago. That was after Section Live Fire. The interview itself was at 8 am on the same day. The same few people know that I had only about 4 hours of sleep before somehow getting to Nee Soon Camp and talking my way, as sincerly as possible, through the interview.
Only about 20 people know that one month later, I just received a letter saying that I was one of those 6 people who was offered the scholarship o_0
So now I'm in a quandry. The offer is really really REALLY very good! Thing is, do I want to sign away the younger days of my life to the army? Do I want to get deployed to disaster zones and to Iraq (a very real possibility). Am I sure I want to dedicate myself to this unbreakable bond, even if it may cost me relationships n all next time? Will I be able to have my own social life (get married n all haha... IF I ever get attached)?
Well, I'll just pray about it I guess... I mean, I'm really honoured n privileged to get this chance cos the chances of getting in was like super low, but I don't know if its what I want
(I don't, by the way, consider myself very pro or whatever. I just signed the paper, went there and talked what was in my heart and whao)
So, to the people who still read this, any advice?
~JcZw~ at 5:28 pm
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Am back having survived a rather hellish week.
Platoon field camp is The Field Camp of Field Camps haha... at least, until Brunei... But given that our platoon was not at the top of our game, and it contrived to rain on us until our "good digging site", so called good because the ground was open and loose, became absolutely water-logged. For a person of my size and weight, it was impossible to climb carrying my LAW unless i grabbed branches and stuff along the way cos the darn hill was so slippery.
The mud was really everywhere. When we dug, we had to scrape the stuff off our blades with every blow we made into the ground. Our uniforms were so muddy that the camouflage pattern just disappeared - They were brown, our LBVs were brown, my helmet was brown, my SAR-21 and my LAW were both brown... We weren't so much people as walking piles of mud haha...
And of course, there was the... ahem... human factors which kept pushing us to dig faster, otherwise we'd have to cover up n go dig AGAIN somewhere else... Which pushed us to dig faster, which caused some people to start ignoring safety precautions, which caused us to get scolded, which caused us to be delayed, which caused us to be demoralised
Therein, you have the vicious cycle which made most of the field camp, as I mentioned, rather hellish...
Still, we did get our laughs, like when I slipped and fell into Eric's trench while collecting equipment...
Like when I got hit in the face by a lashing piece of barbed wire... Thank God I deflected most of the force with my hand, though now I have marks on my hand to show for it -_-"'
Well, I guess at the end of the day our platoon was not wanting in terms of effort... Just teamwork... I believe everyone did what they thought they had to do... Pushing ourselves through the expected sleep deprivation, the cold and the wet, the abrasions, cuts, scrapes (some of which also got infected)... Sigh, if a field camp's like this, war must really be a nasty business...
Well, nevertheless, it was an HONOUR to share the experience with Platoon 2 haha... Thanks especially to Kenny who was digging my trench with me, and who helped maintain our trench n equipment while I was running up and down doing other stuff...
Long weekend as expected =) Till tuesday 1200 hours yayness... Have been spending a lot of time sleeping and will never take a bath for granted again haha...
Today was the first time I returned to youth group also in a whole month... Been missing a lot for things like GPMG live fire n stuff =/ But today was a really good session on 1 Samuel 8! As mentioned, I wish I had read the passage 1 year ago while preparing for A-Division...
My own takeaway was that God was the ultimate leader in everything we did... Especially reassuring since I had often agonized (even until now), that VJ fencing never seemed to have a localized leader, like a teacher or something, who took an interest in our proceedings, unlike other schools, even the other sports groups in VJ, even the newer ones... That most of the bonding, motivation and esprit de corps fell to the captain, which for better or worst, was myself... Thing is that, worrying bout bus timetables, attendance of supporters and stuff is never something one would have wanted to do just before crucial competitions. Espcially not the captain who's job was to keep everyone, and his own, mind on the impending comp.
Yet, I realised that subconsicously, God had been my teacher-in-charge, motivator and coach all rolled into one that day. Probably it was the messages which some of my classmates sent me before the comp reminding me to focus on God. My last conscious thought during semi-final, before I went into my fencing-bout mental state was "Dear God I'm darn tired from fencing Daniel please keep me in one piece and do my best"
Of course, given one thing or another, everyone knows how the comp panned out... Well, now its a reminder that I shall try to remember whenever I go back n watch VJ's fencing in the future haha....
Anyway shall stop here for now... Probably update again soon =) Cheers n regards
Platoon field camp is The Field Camp of Field Camps haha... at least, until Brunei... But given that our platoon was not at the top of our game, and it contrived to rain on us until our "good digging site", so called good because the ground was open and loose, became absolutely water-logged. For a person of my size and weight, it was impossible to climb carrying my LAW unless i grabbed branches and stuff along the way cos the darn hill was so slippery.
The mud was really everywhere. When we dug, we had to scrape the stuff off our blades with every blow we made into the ground. Our uniforms were so muddy that the camouflage pattern just disappeared - They were brown, our LBVs were brown, my helmet was brown, my SAR-21 and my LAW were both brown... We weren't so much people as walking piles of mud haha...
And of course, there was the... ahem... human factors which kept pushing us to dig faster, otherwise we'd have to cover up n go dig AGAIN somewhere else... Which pushed us to dig faster, which caused some people to start ignoring safety precautions, which caused us to get scolded, which caused us to be delayed, which caused us to be demoralised
Therein, you have the vicious cycle which made most of the field camp, as I mentioned, rather hellish...
Still, we did get our laughs, like when I slipped and fell into Eric's trench while collecting equipment...
Like when I got hit in the face by a lashing piece of barbed wire... Thank God I deflected most of the force with my hand, though now I have marks on my hand to show for it -_-"'
Well, I guess at the end of the day our platoon was not wanting in terms of effort... Just teamwork... I believe everyone did what they thought they had to do... Pushing ourselves through the expected sleep deprivation, the cold and the wet, the abrasions, cuts, scrapes (some of which also got infected)... Sigh, if a field camp's like this, war must really be a nasty business...
Well, nevertheless, it was an HONOUR to share the experience with Platoon 2 haha... Thanks especially to Kenny who was digging my trench with me, and who helped maintain our trench n equipment while I was running up and down doing other stuff...
Long weekend as expected =) Till tuesday 1200 hours yayness... Have been spending a lot of time sleeping and will never take a bath for granted again haha...
Today was the first time I returned to youth group also in a whole month... Been missing a lot for things like GPMG live fire n stuff =/ But today was a really good session on 1 Samuel 8! As mentioned, I wish I had read the passage 1 year ago while preparing for A-Division...
My own takeaway was that God was the ultimate leader in everything we did... Especially reassuring since I had often agonized (even until now), that VJ fencing never seemed to have a localized leader, like a teacher or something, who took an interest in our proceedings, unlike other schools, even the other sports groups in VJ, even the newer ones... That most of the bonding, motivation and esprit de corps fell to the captain, which for better or worst, was myself... Thing is that, worrying bout bus timetables, attendance of supporters and stuff is never something one would have wanted to do just before crucial competitions. Espcially not the captain who's job was to keep everyone, and his own, mind on the impending comp.
Yet, I realised that subconsicously, God had been my teacher-in-charge, motivator and coach all rolled into one that day. Probably it was the messages which some of my classmates sent me before the comp reminding me to focus on God. My last conscious thought during semi-final, before I went into my fencing-bout mental state was "Dear God I'm darn tired from fencing Daniel please keep me in one piece and do my best"
Of course, given one thing or another, everyone knows how the comp panned out... Well, now its a reminder that I shall try to remember whenever I go back n watch VJ's fencing in the future haha....
Anyway shall stop here for now... Probably update again soon =) Cheers n regards
~JcZw~ at 9:47 pm
Sunday, June 10, 2007
The book outs are really getting shorter and shorter and even shorter. Had a grand total of 18 hours out of camp -_-"'... I don't know why the heck we had to stay back so late doing duty even when we're having field camp tomorrow.
BUT long weekend next week IF nothing goes wrong... Nothing has yet though haha... so I hope the trend doesn't continue.
Anyway just watched our VJ farewell assembly video for the first time since december. Sigh I really miss the craziness and general culture of VJ, and I didn't realize until when I was on the way home from camp, listening to my MP3 player, and when I heard "Whiney whiney" my limbs kinda twitched involuntarily heh... Don't think I can remember my mass dances very well, unlike at the start of year 1, but my hands and feet still tend to go in a general direction which I can't really remember where.
Sigh... I don't know why I set such great store on qualities such as honour, chivalry, loyalty, to a certain amount, social etiquette and all these seemingly-ancient, belonging-to-another-era values. I mean, no one else that I know of really seem to adhere to these things, and it enables them to seem more lively and less cold-blooded. But I don't know, the world seems much less orderly without these things...
Usually I get two reactions to this.... One would be respect from the person, but nothing which would make the person want to become like that either. The other is amusement, bemusement, the "Wah lau what the heck" attitude.
Yet, it is still something which provides immunity to the use of strong language, clubbing, and other stuff which so many people find attractive. So I guess it can't be all that bad...
Ah nuts, anyway I have to book in already.... Please pray that it doesn't rain for one week, or at least, on tuesday to thursday, otherwise I'll be digging myself a bathtub.
BUT long weekend next week IF nothing goes wrong... Nothing has yet though haha... so I hope the trend doesn't continue.
Anyway just watched our VJ farewell assembly video for the first time since december. Sigh I really miss the craziness and general culture of VJ, and I didn't realize until when I was on the way home from camp, listening to my MP3 player, and when I heard "Whiney whiney" my limbs kinda twitched involuntarily heh... Don't think I can remember my mass dances very well, unlike at the start of year 1, but my hands and feet still tend to go in a general direction which I can't really remember where.
Sigh... I don't know why I set such great store on qualities such as honour, chivalry, loyalty, to a certain amount, social etiquette and all these seemingly-ancient, belonging-to-another-era values. I mean, no one else that I know of really seem to adhere to these things, and it enables them to seem more lively and less cold-blooded. But I don't know, the world seems much less orderly without these things...
Usually I get two reactions to this.... One would be respect from the person, but nothing which would make the person want to become like that either. The other is amusement, bemusement, the "Wah lau what the heck" attitude.
Yet, it is still something which provides immunity to the use of strong language, clubbing, and other stuff which so many people find attractive. So I guess it can't be all that bad...
Ah nuts, anyway I have to book in already.... Please pray that it doesn't rain for one week, or at least, on tuesday to thursday, otherwise I'll be digging myself a bathtub.
~JcZw~ at 4:35 pm
Monday, June 04, 2007
Went back to VJ today to collect my certificate.
Turns out its not a certificate at all but a really really cool report-book-like-thingy haha... Dunno how many trees were killed for it, but ah well its really nice!
Just to consider... Bio S was in fact a waste of time in terms of results... But then again, I knew from the start that it would probably be a suicide run... Just being able to get A for Bio already seemed like a fairy tale, let alone an S-paper... Still, it was quite informational, not to mention getting to work with my three fellow Bio S-ers also (sad to say that I probably did the least work cos I always had to rush to this or that =/)
I don't know... VJ seemed like it always had when I went back, though I know things are different now... Hockey guys were still practising on the astro turf, and there were some figures in yellow at the far end of the field, but whether they were track, cross, soccer or whatever I could not tell.
Choir was practising in the concourse, a few dedicated muggers were studying for JCTs... People in House shirts were still running about laughing excitedly to themselves..
Met Mr Ho Wei Kang again.... He couldn't recognize me cos of my hair (or lack thereof), initially haha... But when he did, all the familiar topics came flooding back... Fencing, my results, OCS and the rest of it... He was annoyed (or more probably, pretended to be annoyed haha) to know that I had gone into my medical interview cold, but then again he said that "the result mattered more, so congratulations haha..."
Was hoping to run into more people I knew, but it being holiday period meant that there was no one else. So pushed off to Parkway to buy another book. This time, got the original Black Hawk Down book on which the film is based, but haven't gotten round to reading it yet haha...
So for a very brief morning I got to relieve some good old JC memories haha...
Well anyway I have to pack up and prepare for departure back to SAFTI tomorrow morning... The next week, we're told, will be mentally trying, culminating in watching our seniors commission, then I'm going to have this whole wave of conflicting emotions as to whether its a better deal to disrupt or to finish OCS. Well, I'll see where God leads me.
Not very sure what I'm typing now, cos my brain's shutting down, so good night all!
Turns out its not a certificate at all but a really really cool report-book-like-thingy haha... Dunno how many trees were killed for it, but ah well its really nice!
Just to consider... Bio S was in fact a waste of time in terms of results... But then again, I knew from the start that it would probably be a suicide run... Just being able to get A for Bio already seemed like a fairy tale, let alone an S-paper... Still, it was quite informational, not to mention getting to work with my three fellow Bio S-ers also (sad to say that I probably did the least work cos I always had to rush to this or that =/)
I don't know... VJ seemed like it always had when I went back, though I know things are different now... Hockey guys were still practising on the astro turf, and there were some figures in yellow at the far end of the field, but whether they were track, cross, soccer or whatever I could not tell.
Choir was practising in the concourse, a few dedicated muggers were studying for JCTs... People in House shirts were still running about laughing excitedly to themselves..
Met Mr Ho Wei Kang again.... He couldn't recognize me cos of my hair (or lack thereof), initially haha... But when he did, all the familiar topics came flooding back... Fencing, my results, OCS and the rest of it... He was annoyed (or more probably, pretended to be annoyed haha) to know that I had gone into my medical interview cold, but then again he said that "the result mattered more, so congratulations haha..."
Was hoping to run into more people I knew, but it being holiday period meant that there was no one else. So pushed off to Parkway to buy another book. This time, got the original Black Hawk Down book on which the film is based, but haven't gotten round to reading it yet haha...
So for a very brief morning I got to relieve some good old JC memories haha...
Well anyway I have to pack up and prepare for departure back to SAFTI tomorrow morning... The next week, we're told, will be mentally trying, culminating in watching our seniors commission, then I'm going to have this whole wave of conflicting emotions as to whether its a better deal to disrupt or to finish OCS. Well, I'll see where God leads me.
Not very sure what I'm typing now, cos my brain's shutting down, so good night all!
~JcZw~ at 10:26 pm
Sunday, June 03, 2007
=D
For the first time since St. John training in sec. 4, I again felt the fantastic feeling of working as part of a team of people who knew exactly what to do at the right time and how to do it.
(No offence to fencing, but being a relatively individual sport, it usually comes down to one's own planning and skill, except for the 2-on-2 practices haha).
Anyway we had our MG live fire yesterday. Was paired with Zhenrong and Daniel, with the former as designated assistant, the latter as gunner, and myself as commander, though of course, we changed about during the actual thing. Very very cool, but the 7.62 mm bullet's still such a terrible weapon. Just feeling the power at your trigger finger is rather unnerving... Especially when one watches the targets, which can take dunno how many hits of 5.56 mm being cut down one by one by the MG.
Night firing was also very pretty. I could sit there forever watching the tracer rounds without getting bored haha (I'm so weird) but then I would probably go deaf also lar...
But anyway the three of us could work quite well no matter what role haha... Even managed to play by ear when the cyllum stick illuminating our target went out... So we earned ourselves a "Well done" which left us feeling quite satisfied haha...
Oh yea, also got to fire this parachute flare thingy cos of a good score for technical handling.... Very very very pretty.... Just like in the movies haha... Simply and literally put, it looked like 150,000 candles hanging in midair like some super close star haha... But the recoil and the sudden blast of heat on the hand when the thing's fired is also a little shocking hoho.
Anyway, Demolitions live-firing was also quite fun on friday... Life in OCS is usually fun if we're not getting tekan-ed haha.... Helped to build some charges, although I only got to blow up a little detonator.... But it was very very cool to watch the charges being blown up, especially the incendiary charges.... We could feel the heat from dunno how many hundred of meters away.... Hopefully we never go to war, these are really scary weapons to use on other people...
Oh yea, did I mention that the place where we did our firing was the exact same place that we saw on the video clip when we visited OCS in year 1? It was quite funny getting this sense of deja vu in quite literally the middle of nowhere =D
Well, anyway am off till tuesday morning, but am considering going back tomorrow night cos I live on the wrong side of the island from SAFTI MI. Oh n got to watch Amazing Grace today with a bunch of church friends... VERY inspiring show! except that I was (or am) quite sleepy cos of coming back late from live firing... But yea its very nice haha...
By the way, trailers for Harry Potter 5 are out on Youtube...
For the first time since St. John training in sec. 4, I again felt the fantastic feeling of working as part of a team of people who knew exactly what to do at the right time and how to do it.
(No offence to fencing, but being a relatively individual sport, it usually comes down to one's own planning and skill, except for the 2-on-2 practices haha).
Anyway we had our MG live fire yesterday. Was paired with Zhenrong and Daniel, with the former as designated assistant, the latter as gunner, and myself as commander, though of course, we changed about during the actual thing. Very very cool, but the 7.62 mm bullet's still such a terrible weapon. Just feeling the power at your trigger finger is rather unnerving... Especially when one watches the targets, which can take dunno how many hits of 5.56 mm being cut down one by one by the MG.
Night firing was also very pretty. I could sit there forever watching the tracer rounds without getting bored haha (I'm so weird) but then I would probably go deaf also lar...
But anyway the three of us could work quite well no matter what role haha... Even managed to play by ear when the cyllum stick illuminating our target went out... So we earned ourselves a "Well done" which left us feeling quite satisfied haha...
Oh yea, also got to fire this parachute flare thingy cos of a good score for technical handling.... Very very very pretty.... Just like in the movies haha... Simply and literally put, it looked like 150,000 candles hanging in midair like some super close star haha... But the recoil and the sudden blast of heat on the hand when the thing's fired is also a little shocking hoho.
Anyway, Demolitions live-firing was also quite fun on friday... Life in OCS is usually fun if we're not getting tekan-ed haha.... Helped to build some charges, although I only got to blow up a little detonator.... But it was very very cool to watch the charges being blown up, especially the incendiary charges.... We could feel the heat from dunno how many hundred of meters away.... Hopefully we never go to war, these are really scary weapons to use on other people...
Oh yea, did I mention that the place where we did our firing was the exact same place that we saw on the video clip when we visited OCS in year 1? It was quite funny getting this sense of deja vu in quite literally the middle of nowhere =D
Well, anyway am off till tuesday morning, but am considering going back tomorrow night cos I live on the wrong side of the island from SAFTI MI. Oh n got to watch Amazing Grace today with a bunch of church friends... VERY inspiring show! except that I was (or am) quite sleepy cos of coming back late from live firing... But yea its very nice haha...
By the way, trailers for Harry Potter 5 are out on Youtube...
~JcZw~ at 6:23 pm