Sunday, July 03, 2005
Guess I'm settling down into life at cab after having spend 2 weeks there already. Sergeants there continue to torture us but I'm kinda used to it. My platoon mate got tekan by my sergeant and another sergeant not from our course and you could see he's damn pissed about it. Had to ask him to cool down and one of my bunk mate actually told him that being privates, we can't afford to play around. Just need to tolerate for 2 years and it's over. After the 2 years, we will see who will be more successful in life.
Had range for 3 days in nee soon camp this week. First day was mostly imt stuff and getting the basics back. Range in bmt was easy compared to range in unit life. You have to do extra stuff like running to the 50m spot and adopt standing shoulder position after having to shoot 2 targets within 8 seconds. No more easy lone targets and if your gun ia, there will be no reshoot. If you miss, you miss. Simple as that for day shoot. Shooting in the night was all right but there's alot more blinking targets than in bmt.
A few people in my coy already got their weekends burnt after misfiring at range and one of them was from my platoon. I was so damn scared of misfiring that I don't really care about whether I get my $200 and marksman badge. My weekends cost more than that. Just get the freaking pass.
Rest of the week was spent learning how to use the gpmg and m16 fitted with the m203. M203 kinda cool but as usual, I had to learn how to fire these weapons with my right hand and eye. Really not used to it.
Range finished rather early for us, around 11pm and we're done for the day. It helped that only about 116 fired as compared to the 200 people who fired during bmt days. For the actual test on the third day, we finished the day shoot early and we were given permission to sleep from 3.30pm to 6pm. I couldn't felt more refreshed after the power nap.
Transportation to and from the camp is by air con buses, it was a smooth ride all the way but we were all hoping that the ride would be longer so we could get more sleep. I looked out of the window and I see empty roads. It felt abit weird that I'm having range on mainland and we don't bother taking tonners back to camp. Instead of seeing just forested areas in front of me, I see roads with just a few cars, petrol stations and closed shops. I think I miss bmt alot. People like me and rong can will always fight to get onboard the tonner first so we could get to enjoy the cold wind that blows into the tonner. We enjoy stuff like having air con blown into our faces after the driver slams his door.
I need to hold on to this tough phase for the next 3 months. The RSAF beret is waiting for me.
