Sunday, August 28, 2005
Excercise Earthworm was indeed the most tiring field camp that I've ever been through in army. This excercise was more of a defensive operation aimed at defending the airbase should anything happen. It was to give us a feel of what it's like to dig your shellscrape and fire trench from morning and throughout the night. Throughout this 4 days and 3 nights, I've gotten less than 3 hours of sleep. I get my energy from power naps and sleeping when I'm not supposed to. My platoon sergeant assigned me 2 digging partners but it was just the begining of a nightmare. William and Sum ain't exactly the people I would want to dig with and both aren't the favourites on my list.
I've been keeping my cool about them until the last day when I couldn't take it anymore. William can take the whole day to dig his shellscrape and it doesn't even give him enough protection because his sbo can be seen. He doesn't dig, he scraps the surface of the soil with his changkol. I asked him straight in the fact on one of the nights whether he feels guilty about not helping us with the fire trench. He replied with a firm "No". I pitied his buddy in bmt. More information about William. He's someone who can't do 1 standard push up. I need not say anything more. He blames his Dad for not paying the government to get him out of army. I was like wtf?! His dad toils hard everyday driving a taxi so that his family can have a better life and he drives William home everytime we book out. To be honest, I really pity his dad. He deserves a better son.
Sum, my other partner who ain't exactly the partner you want either because he was on attend c status during the field camp. I was just happy that he can complete his shellscrape. I don't ask for much but his way of digging is also similar to that of William. No using of strength at all. I ain't trying to claim any credit here when I'm saying I've dug 3/4 of the fire trench myself. I see it more as a challenge to myself, that I can do it if I want to. I was fucking pissed off on the last day of the excercise when we were supposed to cover up the stuff we dug. Sum chose to go help cover up the command post rather than help me with the fire trench and his own shellscrape. I was stuck there with William who couldn't do anything. I was like covering up everything on my own until some of my platoon mates came over to help me. To them, I really appreciate the extra help.
Sometimes in army you don't depend on others to help you, you help yourself and do what you're supposed to do and complete it. Don't give your superiors a chance to fuck you. For his digging exercise, I had a point to prove to myself and my bmt sergeants like Mosy and Faizan that I can dig. Bmt digging at the reclaim land was just a fluke. I was in an area together with the section four people where digging is almost impossible. Nichloas and Guo Sheng had areas filled with vegetation, bricks and concrete etc. I was hitting concrete with almost every hit of my changkol back then.
We were supposed to take rotated rest because as a infantry force trained to defend and not attacking, we had to look out for potential infiltration by our sergeants, csm and oc. During stand 1 and stand down (a time period between the first light and last light), I can just doze off while pronning or just lying down on my field pack. I was that tired. During sentry duty at 149 with Xuan Kai, I fell asleep for about 45 mins before the changing of shifts.
I was digging in an area most people would dream of. 100m away was just the Changi Airport runway. In the afternoon, planes take off and land every 2 mins. At night, it was around 5 mins. Just go to show how busy Changi Airport is. Now and then, I would lift my head to take a look at what airline is landing or taking off from the runway. Only people working in cab will have such a chance. I take consolation that this exercise will end soon and never gave up on myself. When the body get so freaking tired, I had to depend on my mental strength to take over the digging.
Left with just law and m203 live firing tomorrow. Another long trip to pasir laba camp and having to wake up at 4am again. One more thing I've forgotten to mention, there were more than 20 turnouts a day (both day and night) that we're so sick of it. No more of being scared of anything.
Now that the major events are over, it's just 2 more weeks to pop.
