Saturday, June 25, 2005
It's only the first week but I'm already dying because of the fucking sadistic sergeants in my 3 months course in Changi Air Base(CAB). 3 years older than me because they're in the poly batch and they're treating us like dogs and slaves. Let's get this right, I'm not a rp but a member of the Field Defence Squadron(FDS) in RSAF. So more or less I'm no longer a part of the army but in the air force. We train like infantry soldiers throughout this course and I've to learn how to use the Section Automatic Weapon(SAW), General Purpose Machine Gun(GPMG), Light Anti-Tank Weapon(LAW) and the M203. Towards the end of the course, there's platoon and section live firing. I've already touched the LAW and it's freaking heavy. I can't imagine crawling and running with it. Most of the weapons aren't made for left handers like me and that's why I'm glad they only gave M16s to RSAF. The reason is simple, they gave SAR 21s to combat vocationd that need them the most and we get the castaways. To me, that's good news. The M16s in here are quite new, only made in 1991 and they're all damn black and not rusty as compared to the ones in bmtc(all around 30 to 40 years old already).
It's a very depressing place to be in for my course because of the coy's sergeants who are all bloody fuckers. Before I start telling you guys what's happening, I wanna thank God for my 2 platoon sergeants who are really nice guys. I'm not saying that because they're from my platoon but because they don't punish you for nothing. In fact, sometimes they get bullied because they're too nice and they can't really do anything when other sergeants tekan us.
All of us first day only already get pumped, scolded and insulted etc by them. Everything also knock it down and we have to like echo and repeat whatever they say at least 2 times and more. Felt as if we're like slaves and dogs. We do and say things because they want us to, no choice really. Like when they ask you whether life in here is good during mid week, there was a silence before everyone said "Yes Platoon Sergeant". One of my friend took the rap for his platoon because if he doesn't, everyone in his platoon will kena.
I especially hate 2 sergeants. Let's call them Drug Addict and Oakley. Let's start off with Drug Addict first. First and foremost, everyone in here speaks hokkien and chinese like there's no tomorrow for the instructors and above. Drug Addict like many of the sergeants shout and scold us for the sake of acting big and to scare us. Here's one line from him, "I can be inhuman if I want to be and I can become a bastard. I don't care what you all think about me". He will walk around scolding "lanjiao, fucking cheebye and knn" like some gangster and looking down on the floor. Wei Chiang brought up a good point, when he scolds us, he doesn't dare to look us in the eye. He insults jc people for the sake of insulting and probably to make us feel bad that jc counts for nothing in CAB.
Oakley pumps because he wants to act big and shows who's boss. Here's some lines from him, "I can bloody fuck you all if I want to because I'm your instructor" and "I'm your superior while you're the MAN". It doesn't help that he's the best PT in his coy in SISPEC and he gets pissed off because there are many zero fighers in his platoon. He can do 53 chin ups and yesterday he did 100 push ups with both legs on higher ground. We're expected to greet every superior we see, even 3rd sergeants. My platoon ic got 20 for calling him sergeant instead of platoon sergeant. The thing in CAB is, there are only 2 sergeants for every platoon so we call them platoon sergeants even though they're only 3rd sergeants. I already did 120 push ups on Thursday because of people like him. So overall, we do around 70 to 120 daily so figure how many I already did this week.
He says he's not tekaning us because he does push ups with his platoon but how many times does he join in when he ask all of us to knock it down. Take for example yesterday night. We were the first platoon to fall out after ro until he came to disturb us. Some of my platoon mates got pumped because he gave repeated commands to trick us. Like saying "sadia" for 2 times to make us move. If you don't call that tekan, what do you call that? In the end, we were the last platoon to fall out. We have to say echo everything he says 2 times or more and more if it's not loud enough. When he ask questions, we can only say "Yes" and nothing else.
The sergeant major is another big time fucker. Guess what, he's only a first sergeant and he's already a sergeant major. Only 27 years old but he can only do 7 chins ups in front of us yesterday. We were like damn shocked that a regular like him is so damn unfit. Like many of the sergeants, he can't talk properly in English and will switch to hokkien or chinese halfway. Since we're in air force, he will sometimes wear his no.3 uniform to show off.
Things got so bad that everyone is trying to ooc and 1 guy even tried to jump down. No joke about it. Their attitude got slightly slightly slightly better because of that and many people got injured because they always give so little to move from place to place. Incidents like falling down and injuring their ankles and legs. There's so many safety hazards in CAB, so many construction works going on and most of the drains aint covered. Chin ups bars are like dropping off while there's no medic to cover us, only the driver etc.
My platoon isn't that bad as compared to the other platoons. There's like mono intake people transferred from combat engineers, 1 married guy with a child and ite people around. I think I can understand how homan feels. There's 2 ite people in my bunk and I haven't figured a way to talk to them. There's no common topic.
My sergeants are really damn nice people. Very nice people with those studious kind of faces. One was from jjc until he left to go poly. Both are going to nus and ntu respectively to take business so they must be in the top 5% in their cohor. It's damn difficult to get into a local university when you're in poly, let alone business. That says alot. When I get scolded and pumped 40 by my other fiercer sergeant because of my mistakes in stripping the SAW, the nice one came over and explained to me slowly my mistakes. When they booked out, other sergeants came and tekan us. JunYi said he felt like hugging them when he saw them the next morning. I respect them because they treated us like soldiers and with respect. I can't same the same for the others.
Sometimes I wonder life will better in a unit for me. Since this is only a 3 months course and life will be damn slack and easy after the course and for even for my reservist, the sergeants are taking the only chance they have to tekan us like fuck. My friends in other units are tortured so badly and when you get to know them well enough, you can start calling them by their names. I don't see that happening in CAB.
It sucks being a man in here because we are treated like slaves and dogs. My sergeants and sergeant major think they are damn big. My pcs don't do anything because they're commissioned officers. They let the sergeants get away with everything. Imagine the warrant officers taking charge in here, they will be screwed. I probably screwed up my SIT Test and Reasoning Test back in CMPB and that explains why I didn't get a chance to go SISPEC. Trust me, I won't become a fucker like those in CAB. I won't torture my man because I was tortured ones. It ain't right. Sad to say, I never had the chance and I never will become one.
CAB is Changi Prison in disguise, even worse actually. From the canteen and behind the fence, we can see people playing golf and civilisation. We booked out and walked out like we are released from prison. My bunk is 2km or more from the main entrance but luckily we are taking the side gate the next time we booked in and out. It's much nearer.
My friends are keeping me alive and feeling too depressed cause we are going through this shit together. Whether we can stay together after the course, I thank my lucky stars they are here. I prefer to leave CAB and get posted to Sembawang.
