Sunday, July 24, 2005
This has been a tiring week and with more tiring weeks to come before I pass out from this course. Like I mentioned before in my previous entry, this was the start of my chiongsua days and it begined with section fire and movement drills. These are stuff that I've learnt before in my bmt days but to be honest, I didn't put my heart into learning those drills seriously and I just wanted to get it over and done with then. The fact is that whatever you've learnt in bmt is really the basics, here in fds, they teach you the advance stuff and at the same time help me to recall the drills I've forgotten.
We had lots of firing with blanks before the actual live firing at Pasir Laba camp on Friday. I was supposed to be the m203 gunner for section 1 but because of the shortage of guys in my platoon, I was chosen to take over section 1 as their section commander. My first thought was like "shit", I could only recall certain commands of some of the drills and here I was being chosen to lead a group of 7 guys. However after the first day of chiongsua, I've more or less gotten the hang of it and learnt even more stuff. The reason I've wanted to go sispec in the first place after my bmt is because I wanted to have the chance to lead people and believe me, this is the closest I can get to leading people. I may carry the lightest weapon but the responsiblity is huge. A wrong decision can get your men into trouble and I definitely got alot of scoldings from my sergeant on the first day of practice.
Things got on well as the days progressed thanks to the help and cooperation from my section mates. We suffered and survived the 1km arty drills together and let's not forget the numerous ant bites and pricks from the mimosa. Tougher days are ahead and I've got a 2 days stay at some Fibua area in Lim Chu Kang this coming Monday.
Some things to note while I was having my section living firing at Pasir Laba camp. Directly opposite the camp area I could the ntu library and some of the compound. I tell myself I will be there in the library studying in 2 years time. The funny thing is, everything I take a peek out of the window, I will be reminded of my army days. Pasir Laba is one big area and I had to do a mini route march just to get into the live firing area which was on top of a hill. A natural forest with mosquitoes more deadly than Tekong ones.
Good luck to those entering university soon. It will be fun.
Tough Times Don't Last, Tough Men Do
