my bmt

i was enlisted on 19 mar 1985.

i reported early to cmpb. at that time cmpb was located at dempsey road. if i could recall correctly, i reported for my conscription at the central manpower base (cmpb) alone. my mum made me my usual morning coffee in the morning and i left the marine parade flat soon after. it was a glum morning for me as i was entering a new phase of my life. and through the bus journey, the thought that i would be away for the next month or so away from my family made me felt uneasy. i felt lonely. then again, i reminded myself that khoon seng had been through bmt since dec 1984. and having seen him survived through it and coming out leaner, stronger and more confident, i told myself, i would too. he was my role model and in a large sense, my inspiration.

the whole process in cmpb was a blur. once i arrived, i reported at the counter and soon enough, i was told to proceed from room to room. i vaguely remembered being made to say the pledge, sign some documents, and soon enough, a whole lot of newly enlisted conscripts including me were all asked to gather and assemble at the parade square. the three-tonners came and we all boarded it. by that time, the parents, friends and relatives had gathered at the parade square. tears flowed. people waved. thinking back, it felt like a funeral. and we were the ones being sent off. once off cmpb, we were driven to sembawang/ woodlands area to collect our uniform, mess tins, etc etc etc... at gsmb before heading to pulau tekong where the infantry training depot - itd - was located.

i was posted to lion company platoon 41. i was placed in section 3. my bunk was located on the 6th floor of itd camp 3 and i was in bed 5. i was knwn as rec w s sim.

i supposed my stay in itd was fun. it was fun not becos i was a sadist and enjoy being punished or being subjected to tough training. rather, i found it fun becos there was a certain familiarity in what i was put through given my national cadet corps background and there were new things i could learn daily. some of the most memorable things that i experienced include:

- watching my peers learn how to wear boots, wear the camouflage uniforms, etc. and with my ncc background, i had the upper hand.

- being gathered and marched to the camp barber. one by one, we waited for our turn. slowly but surely, our hair dropped. to a certain extend, it was a mixed feeling of fun and horror to see the reflections of my half near-bald head and half haired-head in the mirror. and i recalled the immediate weird cold yet numb feeling to see my botak head after the whole process.

- my buddy was this chap called ho hon yuen. he was from the same college as me. brilliant chap and a mathematics person. a typical mummy's son. first time out of the comforts of his home. very pampered. once, his button dropped off and i had to sew it on back for him.

- by the end of first week, we were all so weak from the daily chin ups, runs, push ups... we were literally aching all over and our chin up count per person dropped from anywhere between 5 - 12 to zero per person. our chin up counts started picking up again after week 4... 1, 2, 3...

- sitting at the brightly litted basketball court and eating night snacks while my platoon sergeant barked away - the company routine orders, the instructions for the next day, and so on.

- night snacks comprised anything from burnt rice and green bean soup, bread with strawberry jam, bread with thick butter, mushy maggi mee and so on. and of cos - the all so familiar green mug that is marked with our names.

- waking up at 5.45am, whole body aching like crazy, rushing to wash ourselves (altho at times, it was just rushing off to the parade square straight from bed) and for breakfast. and breakfast menu looking exactly like night snack's menu.

- area-cleaning of the bunk and areas around camp that never seemed to get cleaned enough to satisfy my corporal. so naturally, it led to push ups and "see the tree there? go touch it!"

- parent visit day where my mum visited me. she came along with her ginseng and meat double boiled. i proudly showed her around my bunk, my camp, introduced her to my corporal, my platoon commander and so on. and she commented that i had slimmed down, looked more tone and sun-burnt.

- the highly looked forward to canteen breaks where we would rush to buy soft drinks and eat canteen snacks. not too good but in the mouth of highly deprived recruits, they tasted like heaven!

- the highly dreaded bayonet fighting, and my corporal that kept barking and barking - hyahh! hyahh! hyahh! (just a couple of months before my enlistment, i heard khoon seng shared so much about it but couldn't fully appreciate what he meant!)

- and of cos the long list of physical training (pt) - log pt, combat pt, rifle pt, standard obstacle course, la la la... never did i know my rifle could feel so bloody heavy! and for log pt, i enjoyed the thought of myself being relatively shorter than most of my platoon mates! :-)

- getting to wear the 1-kg heavy metal helmet that had our initials stenciled in front. and of cos, the frequent blur kings that, for reasons spanning from rushing for time, sleepy, to whatever, wore the helmet backside front ala fireman style! ha ha!

- individual fieldcraft training was fun cos we got to learn about what is c.b. leaves (accordingly, the shape of the leaf reminds one of the vagina! and c.b. is the acronym for the hokkien term for chee bye aka vagina), and see how some of us went into the bush and come out looking like some aborigine drag queen, complete with lallang sticking straight out of our helmets!

- fire movement training and being made to shout "one thousand two thousand three thousand, four thousand down!" dashing from tree to tree, sand mount to sand mount and so on.

- drawing range card on the side of a hill and learning how we should point our rifle, define our arc of fire, identify far objects, near objects la la la.

- throwing a live grenade and hearing some of our platoon mate go "nek nek"!

- watermanship training and learning how to make improvised floatations from anything from coconuts to our fieldpacks to our camouflage uniform! and of cos, the building of the infantry assault bridge, running across it like those combatants we see in the show combat! really, the fun part about watermanship training was playing with water! and in a warped sense, the feeling of cold water seeping into the body through our uniform onto our balls! come on... other than that occasion, how often do we, as sane adults, get to walk into a river or sea fully clothed!

- trench digging (yes, in my time, recruits do dig full trenches)! and eating bread and drinking coffee in the dark, not knowing that the breaed had been dirtied by mud and clay!

- and of cos, the situational test. thought it was fun. solving some tricky questions and situational problems. one of the stations, we were supposed to think of how to move our group from one bank to another (elevated platform) over an imaginary river (made of mattresses) without falling into the river that was infested with crocodiles. i remembered that cos in the end, i fell and was eventually eaten by crocodiles. ha ha...

- my platoon commander was 2lt wang khoon huang (he called himself chris) and he was one that practised strong favouritism. one particular guy he liked - this platoonmate of mine - mak. showered him with so much attention that it was so obvious to the rest of us. anyway, i found out later that mak (and possibly wang) was gay! well, wang went on the sell ice-cream, became an air steward with sia, and so on after his fulltime national service.

- during the company nite, the song `i like chopin' by gazebo was played. this was to become one of the most memorable song for me for that era.

- before long, bmt came to an end and my company was tasked to perform the bayonet fighting during our passing out parade. this led to more bayonet fighting training. huge sighs...

- last few days before passing out parade, the platoon started to get sentimental. we would sit up beside our bed, and talk and chatted... and 3 days before passing out, yap (one of my platoon mate) shared about his nightly ghostly experience with the supernatural at his bedside (section 1). that night, none of us woke up to go to the toilet for our middle of the night pee. we all slept with empty plastic bags in our hands and blanket draped over our heads. the next day, one by one, we went to the toilet to throw away plastic bags of urine! ha ha ha!

passing out parade came. if i recalled correctly, it was held at the bedok stadium. i graduated from my basic military training. i emerged one of the top recruit of my company. and i was posted to officer cadet school.

that was jun 1985.