ocs was a nice homely place compared to itd. that was my first impression. but as soon as we arrived and debussed, all homeliness feel disappeared. we were hurried to our bunks, and told to fall in immediately for lunch. we promptly assembled at the chin-up bar and quickly, sgt arthur appointed a cadet platoon commander (platoon under-officer) - i recall the guy who was appointed - he was from my section and was a stout chap. (he eventually got out of course)... anyway, it was hard luck for us cos this first appointment holder was a kancheong spider. he was so kancheong that he fumbled in everything he did. and it didn't help for the fact that he murmur and salivate when he talked.... eeewww...
anyway, that was the start of my junior term. i couldn't recall much of my junior term except that we had a really horrible experience with our junior term initiation by the alpha/ charlie senior cadets followed a ceremony at the audit where we were made to recite our cadet pledge before we were given our junior term bars. after that, we were considered to be 'formally' accepted as part of the cadet family. the first week comprised lots of dirty gdman work for the senior passing out cadets. we had to do lots of area cleaning for them as they go through their dining in and passing out parades. for us new birds, seeing them in their fine ceremonial and mess kits really motivated us to want to give our best for our 9 months stay.
my platoon commander was this pti-trained officer called ho hc. he was a lieutenant and boy was he a bastard! he was a guardsman and was everything an officer shouldn't be. he was openly against my officer commanding (oc) and the politics was played out so clearly in front of us cadets. and often, many of us got caught in between the two of them. on one hand, we were drilled in values like complete integrity, daring initiative, undaunted will-power, etc... but from him, we saw insubordination, lack of teamwork, etc. and he nicely disguise insubordination as daring initiative, and undaunted will-power! sad, but well, we were lowly critters and could only watch quietly.
i had 4 mentors (they used the term mentor to refer to section instructors and each section comprise 10 persons). the first one was called yang ps. he was a heavy smoker. smoked so much we could smell him from a distance away. he was no different from a walking cigarette. anyway, to me, he was the cutest (best of the worst). and of cos, he was my section mentor and i adored him most. the second one was called colin. a skinny fellow who was also very fair. in fact, he was so fair that when he walked around the field at night, he looked like some wondering spirit lost in space. he was also the most ang mo kantang of the 4. couldn't recall much of the third one. if i remember correctly, it was a chap called chim cm. another sadistic chap. he was the most hokkien peng amongst the 4. the fourth one was the most classic. couldn't recall his name (tan something) but vividly remembered his face and of cos, his height. he was a super short chap. in fact, the story went that after he passed out, he was selected to be a mentor. then ocs had a change of commander and a new policy was passed that no one with his height should ever become a mentor. if i recall correctly, he was about 1.5m tall. anyway, we called him parrot. this was becos he always echo what the other mentors said. he echoed almost everything including the swear words... well...
as for my platoon sergeant, he was called arthur. sergeant arthur to be accurate. an indian, his complexion was so dark you couldn't see him once it got dark. but he had really nice set of beautiful white teeth. so you can imagine the contrast when he smiles during field exercises at night. anyway, he was a nice fellow. being the only non-commissioned officer (nco) amongst all the officers (we call them occifers), he was naturally more empathetic to our states of life. but mostly, he kept to himself. there was another one person who stayed on our barrack-line. he was a pti. nice quiet chap. young and probably a little older than us. didn't get to interact with him much but many many years down the line in the early 2000s, i found out he is also gay... but that would be another story.
training-wise, for junior term, we had a few topo exercises, blindmap, greensleeves, and what have yous... i remembered this incident where i went out for topo exercise in the mosquito ring area. it was in the middle of the night and it was pitch dark. there was a lot of bashing through the ferns. once, i lost my balance and fell onto a thick clump of bushes. it so happened that the bush was those plants that had lots of thin spikey thorns. i ended with a few of the spike piercing through my boots and lodging into my legs. i also had a thorn pierced and lodged inside my elbow. after getting back to companyline, my bruneian buddy took a while to slowly remove the thorn one by one. a couple of days passed but the wound on my elbow refused to heal. it swelled further and it got inflamed. i reported to my cwo(company warrant officer) and told him i wanted to report sick. but instead, i got a scolding from him and accusing me of wanting to malinger. a couple of days later, the wound burst, and together with the pus, a thorn dropped out. hmmm...
and of cos we also had section level packages in pulau tekong where we were tekaned left-right-center everyday. you see, we had section missions daily. and the program was so predictable after the first two days... we would be made to do section patrols... we would be required to navigate from the start point, bash through some secondary forest and do an assault on an objective. and then someone (usually a fat one) would be declared casualty and we would be required to evacuate him back to basecamp... and we would be so exhausted many of us literally fell onto the ground on all fours and some would be crying... yet the instructors knew no compassion, they threatened to declare more casualties (which they did)... and we would end up having one person evacuate another for a couple of kilometers...
anyway, junior term flashed by very very quickly.
1985 - 2/85 iocc (1)
1985 - 2/85 iocc (2)
1985 - 2/85 iocc (3)
1985 - 2/85 iocc (4)
1986 - 2/85 iocc (5)
anyway, that was the start of my junior term. i couldn't recall much of my junior term except that we had a really horrible experience with our junior term initiation by the alpha/ charlie senior cadets followed a ceremony at the audit where we were made to recite our cadet pledge before we were given our junior term bars. after that, we were considered to be 'formally' accepted as part of the cadet family. the first week comprised lots of dirty gdman work for the senior passing out cadets. we had to do lots of area cleaning for them as they go through their dining in and passing out parades. for us new birds, seeing them in their fine ceremonial and mess kits really motivated us to want to give our best for our 9 months stay.
my platoon commander was this pti-trained officer called ho hc. he was a lieutenant and boy was he a bastard! he was a guardsman and was everything an officer shouldn't be. he was openly against my officer commanding (oc) and the politics was played out so clearly in front of us cadets. and often, many of us got caught in between the two of them. on one hand, we were drilled in values like complete integrity, daring initiative, undaunted will-power, etc... but from him, we saw insubordination, lack of teamwork, etc. and he nicely disguise insubordination as daring initiative, and undaunted will-power! sad, but well, we were lowly critters and could only watch quietly.
i had 4 mentors (they used the term mentor to refer to section instructors and each section comprise 10 persons). the first one was called yang ps. he was a heavy smoker. smoked so much we could smell him from a distance away. he was no different from a walking cigarette. anyway, to me, he was the cutest (best of the worst). and of cos, he was my section mentor and i adored him most. the second one was called colin. a skinny fellow who was also very fair. in fact, he was so fair that when he walked around the field at night, he looked like some wondering spirit lost in space. he was also the most ang mo kantang of the 4. couldn't recall much of the third one. if i remember correctly, it was a chap called chim cm. another sadistic chap. he was the most hokkien peng amongst the 4. the fourth one was the most classic. couldn't recall his name (tan something) but vividly remembered his face and of cos, his height. he was a super short chap. in fact, the story went that after he passed out, he was selected to be a mentor. then ocs had a change of commander and a new policy was passed that no one with his height should ever become a mentor. if i recall correctly, he was about 1.5m tall. anyway, we called him parrot. this was becos he always echo what the other mentors said. he echoed almost everything including the swear words... well...
as for my platoon sergeant, he was called arthur. sergeant arthur to be accurate. an indian, his complexion was so dark you couldn't see him once it got dark. but he had really nice set of beautiful white teeth. so you can imagine the contrast when he smiles during field exercises at night. anyway, he was a nice fellow. being the only non-commissioned officer (nco) amongst all the officers (we call them occifers), he was naturally more empathetic to our states of life. but mostly, he kept to himself. there was another one person who stayed on our barrack-line. he was a pti. nice quiet chap. young and probably a little older than us. didn't get to interact with him much but many many years down the line in the early 2000s, i found out he is also gay... but that would be another story.
training-wise, for junior term, we had a few topo exercises, blindmap, greensleeves, and what have yous... i remembered this incident where i went out for topo exercise in the mosquito ring area. it was in the middle of the night and it was pitch dark. there was a lot of bashing through the ferns. once, i lost my balance and fell onto a thick clump of bushes. it so happened that the bush was those plants that had lots of thin spikey thorns. i ended with a few of the spike piercing through my boots and lodging into my legs. i also had a thorn pierced and lodged inside my elbow. after getting back to companyline, my bruneian buddy took a while to slowly remove the thorn one by one. a couple of days passed but the wound on my elbow refused to heal. it swelled further and it got inflamed. i reported to my cwo(company warrant officer) and told him i wanted to report sick. but instead, i got a scolding from him and accusing me of wanting to malinger. a couple of days later, the wound burst, and together with the pus, a thorn dropped out. hmmm...
and of cos we also had section level packages in pulau tekong where we were tekaned left-right-center everyday. you see, we had section missions daily. and the program was so predictable after the first two days... we would be made to do section patrols... we would be required to navigate from the start point, bash through some secondary forest and do an assault on an objective. and then someone (usually a fat one) would be declared casualty and we would be required to evacuate him back to basecamp... and we would be so exhausted many of us literally fell onto the ground on all fours and some would be crying... yet the instructors knew no compassion, they threatened to declare more casualties (which they did)... and we would end up having one person evacuate another for a couple of kilometers...
anyway, junior term flashed by very very quickly.
1 comment:
chanced upon your blog when I googled IOCC 2/85. I did not even know of the batch no, let alone remember it, till I chatted with another parent in a kids soccer class. We were all Singaporeans working aboard. I was in the same platoon with his cousin. What are the chances ? Same batch, same platoon with his cousin, away from home, kids in the same soccer class.
Anyway, amazing how much you can remember, and thanks to your writings, I get the chance to relive those days, more than 20 year later, and now with bitter and fond memories. Been 20 over years now, and below are some of the happenings, as far as I can recall, but am certain I would have gotten the facts mixed, or even wrong.
Very intensive few months and it came and went just like that. But a life time of memories.
I did not make past junior term as I hated it. It was months later when I bumped onto my platoon mates, now with the chocolate bars on their shoulders that I regretted, and realized that it will be something I can never undo.
Encik Oh Cheng Kah was the man in the parade square. Do you remember this man ?
One of our mentor Lta Helmie, from CJC, was told he was a model, and when we attended a party, I think it was the junior term party, some girls from CJC was there too, and they were so excited to see him. Lta Helmie was a good officer. This chap I heard topped SAFINCO, and topped the his entire OCS batch.
Captain Sim, I think he was the OC, and Cpt Armajit who was feared by many. I got something like 15-17 defaulter's parade from Encik Oh, by 2nd month I got so dam good at it, he would call me out to stand by the side, while the others continue to march at 10 times the pace.
Sometimes I can still hear the ring of kiri kanan, kiri kanan !! in my head.
I remember having a few scholars in my platoon, one of them in my section who had such a difficult time with the instructors. He tried very hard but just could not cut it in the eyes of the instructors. He got slapped by one of the instructors right in front of many of us during one of the field training as he went missing. We later found out that he fell asleep, unknowingly when the company halted for a few seconds during an exercise .
During one of the attack and withdrawal exercise, he was made to fireman lift me, he was like 2/3 my size, and I was afraid he would drop me. I decided to switch and was shouted so badly at when caught.
I was sent to OCS was two other of my platoon mates from BMT, one of them, his brother was a national hockey player and such he kind of was under his brothers shadow.
The other was a President Scout scholar. Only the President Scout scholar made it, was sent to take up an appointment were he did not get to wear his rank on his shoulders. I went through a lot with this buddy from BMT, we were in the same section, did the trench digging and were the only two/few who did not "twang". He was encouraging when I held some appointments during the term.
I found out later that he went overseas and was a industrial designer. He had some family issues and decided to live his life away.
memories...
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