similar to country d, country l is another country that is of high strategic importance to singapore.
the difference between country d and country l is that we have a permanent base in this country and saf sends troops to train in this country regularly. the training grounds are located in the western region of this country and over the 20 years in the armed forces, i saw with my very own eyes how the exercise areas mature from a sleepy dry arid and dusty country-side dotted with small villages to that of a semi-developed urban township. what this meant was that the exercise areas got increasingly crowded and interactions with locals increased. it came to the point where unfortunate incidents such as cows wondering into the impact areas of our live firing and getting killed. and when such things happened, the incident management and comms people would get really busy. anyway, country l (or at least the areas we trained in) this is a hot and arid place. our exercises areas spanned some 40-50km. whenever we train in this country, we always look forward to the canteen breaks where we can enjoy cheap local food and locally homemade ice creams. yums... beside the food, there were a few incidents and experiences that i would like to share here.
firstly, this is where i get to experience how explosives were used to destroy mines, or as part of the process of building bunkers and for that matter launching of pipe charges. i also got to experience how it felt to launch bridges across wet gaps. it was terribly tedious back in those days where we didn't have mechanically launched bridges and where troops had to do it manually - one two three boom! one two three boom! - i can still recall how the troopers had to call out to co-ordinate their booming of the bridge!
the second incident i would like to share happened during one of the exercise where we had to walk pass some padi fields en route to capture an enemy-held position. it was about 1-2am and my unit commander had decided to take a tactical halt. and as it was a halt, we position ourselves in an en-guarde posture - where our rifles were pointed outwards. naturally, things quietened down and the sound of our footsteps quickly gave way to sound of night critters around us. and suddenly, we heard a couple of loud gunshots. bang bang... bang bang, it boomed through. we were caught by surprise and wondered if this was an “attack” staged by the controllers to see how we would respond. but when we saw our controllers behaving just as shocked, we concluded that something was going on. in no time, the controllers were running around and a couple of them ran towards the direction of where the gunshot came from to investigate what happened. they came back a couple of minutes later with this information - villages are out in the middle of the night to catch padi field rats. apparently, padi field rats are considered delicacy and they would hunt for them in the middle of the night when the field rats were most active. interesting right? we managed to ask them to hold their fire and to allow us safe passage before resuming their hunt.
the last and the most interesting incident happened when i was a company commander and my troops were tasked to protect a camp. we were tasked to be the enemy of a unit that was tasked to capture the camp. as the commander, i visited my troops on patrols regularly and during one of those visits that i did in the night, i had a close encounter with the supernatural. you see, i walked to a location near a guard post and asked the patrol leader to provide me with an update of his sector. halfway through the brief back, i smelt a very strong sweet smell and asked if people around me could also smell it. one of my platoon sergeant who was accompanying me told me not to worry and just quickly complete the brief back. within a minute of two, the smell got so strong that it became a little too much for me. again, i asked if people around could smell it. this time round, my platoon sergeant suggested i should return to my command center. i did. and once we reached the command center, my sergeant told me - sir, the first time you smell the sweet smell, there was a lady in white a couple of meters away from you. she's a spirit and she was looking at us. the second time when you asked again, this lady was standing just beside you... i was like - huh? wtf? well, apparently my platoon sergeant was able to see such things. the next day, my platoon sergeant and i decided to take a look at the place and we noted a local soldier standing guard nearby. we approached him and asked if that place was haunted and his reply? - oh, there's a lady spirit that lives here. her spirit house is just beside there - and he pointed to us the location where a little shrine stood.
the second incident i would like to share happened during one of the exercise where we had to walk pass some padi fields en route to capture an enemy-held position. it was about 1-2am and my unit commander had decided to take a tactical halt. and as it was a halt, we position ourselves in an en-guarde posture - where our rifles were pointed outwards. naturally, things quietened down and the sound of our footsteps quickly gave way to sound of night critters around us. and suddenly, we heard a couple of loud gunshots. bang bang... bang bang, it boomed through. we were caught by surprise and wondered if this was an “attack” staged by the controllers to see how we would respond. but when we saw our controllers behaving just as shocked, we concluded that something was going on. in no time, the controllers were running around and a couple of them ran towards the direction of where the gunshot came from to investigate what happened. they came back a couple of minutes later with this information - villages are out in the middle of the night to catch padi field rats. apparently, padi field rats are considered delicacy and they would hunt for them in the middle of the night when the field rats were most active. interesting right? we managed to ask them to hold their fire and to allow us safe passage before resuming their hunt.
the last and the most interesting incident happened when i was a company commander and my troops were tasked to protect a camp. we were tasked to be the enemy of a unit that was tasked to capture the camp. as the commander, i visited my troops on patrols regularly and during one of those visits that i did in the night, i had a close encounter with the supernatural. you see, i walked to a location near a guard post and asked the patrol leader to provide me with an update of his sector. halfway through the brief back, i smelt a very strong sweet smell and asked if people around me could also smell it. one of my platoon sergeant who was accompanying me told me not to worry and just quickly complete the brief back. within a minute of two, the smell got so strong that it became a little too much for me. again, i asked if people around could smell it. this time round, my platoon sergeant suggested i should return to my command center. i did. and once we reached the command center, my sergeant told me - sir, the first time you smell the sweet smell, there was a lady in white a couple of meters away from you. she's a spirit and she was looking at us. the second time when you asked again, this lady was standing just beside you... i was like - huh? wtf? well, apparently my platoon sergeant was able to see such things. the next day, my platoon sergeant and i decided to take a look at the place and we noted a local soldier standing guard nearby. we approached him and asked if that place was haunted and his reply? - oh, there's a lady spirit that lives here. her spirit house is just beside there - and he pointed to us the location where a little shrine stood.
it was then that i realised i have the ability to smell such spirits. from then on, whenever i smell anything similar, i will just walk away from it.
No comments:
Post a Comment