Grateful - 9 Feb: Mixed Emotions

It’s so nice to be able to meet up with my old army mates. Friendships formed when we were younger were so much purer, and despite the different directions our lives have taken, we are still able to see one another for who we truly are - not based on factors such as wealth or social status. That is what makes our annual meet-ups so much fun. This was the highlight of the day that I am most thankful for. So here’s today’s list:

• Old army mates. Met up with my army mates for our annual CNY reunion dinner. It was a great catch-up, and it was good to see everyone again after all this time. There were five of us, but we drank seven jugs of beer over dinner - I’m feeling so bloated now! Most importantly, I met up with a close friend who has been by my side through 40 years of friendship. He has been based in the US since the mid-90s and returns home yearly with his wife. I have never failed to meet him whenever he is back. We met an hour earlier to catch up before the dinner proper. So nice.

• Zoom recording. I spent the whole morning preparing and submitting my post-training documents, but I had a rude shock when I realised that I had made an error the day before and failed to take attendance for my learners’ assessment. There was nothing much I could do except inform the company about my mistake. Looking on the positive side, I was glad I discovered the error and was able to provide an update - all because I took the time to review the Zoom recording. The error was discovered by chance, but I’m thankful it came to light, thanks to the video recording.

• Meditation. I managed to meditate again this morning after missing it for two days. It felt good to return to the practice. I skipped it over the past two days because I wanted to head out for my walk before sunrise, when the air was cooler.

I thought it would be a simple day, but it turned out otherwise. By the end of it, I had experienced fun, anxiety, and calm - very contrasting indeed!

Beard & Moustache

I shall write about my facial hair in this post. 

• I tend to suffer razor burns when I visit cold and dry countries and decided to give myself a shaving break during my recent UK trip (in end-Jul). As a result, my moustache and goatee grew. The unkempt look during the initial days didn't bother me. I was on holiday and was in the midst of strangers. After my holidays, I continued keeping it as it has grown quite nicely. 

• The last time I had a moustache was during my undergrad days. It lasted no more than a few weeks. I couldn't accept the untidy look. Most Chinese tend to be smooth naturally and need more time for our facial hair to grow. Most also have goatees and not a full beard like what you see in people of European, and Northern Indian origins.

• Why keep a moustache during my undergrad days? I wanted to do what I wouldn't/ couldn't do after I graduate. As a contract soldier on a training award, I had to return to the forces during my vacation and immediately after my final year examinations end. So I kept a little pony tail, grew a moustache, etc as a student.

• Why did I not keep a goatee back then? I supposed it was due to my military "up-bringing". In my basic military training days, we were not allowed to keep a beard unless it is for religious reasons (e.g. Sikhs). As a general rule-of-thumb to keeping neat and tidy - hair above the lips is "personal property", whereas those below is "government property".

• My hair has greyed much. I now have a head of black and grey hair (“salt & pepper”). Interestingly, there are more grey hair in my moustache and goatee. As a comparison, there are about 30-40% grey hair on my head whereas for my moustache and goatee, it 60-70%. And looking at my late-parents, I doubt I will end up with a full head of grey hair.

Ok, so much about my facial hair. People around me have seen my new look and and a couple of my gay friends have even suggested that my "market value" has increased. Well, "market value" was not on my mind when I started it. Nevertheless, I must say I do notice a couple more people (both women and men) giving me second looks. I hope it was not because I look out of place. Chinese men with goatee are a rare sight here. Then again, I was probably just a wee bit more self-conscious with this new look. 

:-P

my ns - overview

i was enlisted into the army and was posted to infantry training depot (itd) for my basic military training (bmt). that was in tekong. mar 1985. i was posted to lion company, platoon 41 section 3 bed 5. 

 after my bmt, i landed in officer cadet school (ocs). i was in the 2/85 iocc batch and served my 9 months as a cadet in echo company, platoon 15. section 1. bed 9 (i was the only one to retain this room from junior to senior term). ocs was hell. i wouldn't go through it again if i had a choice. but it certainly holds a lot of good memories for me. how we were tekan-ed. how we were stripped of all our dignity from the start, go through 9 months of hell and emerged as young officers. 

following my ocs, i was posted to infantry training depot (itd) as a platoon commander (pc). itd trains recruits and i was the pc for platoon 26, gryphon company - the siao on company. took two batches of recruits before assuming the concurrent appointment of company 2nd-in-charge (2ic). after my company tactics and basic intelligence course, i was posted back to itd as a project officer in the headquarters until i went for my uni studies in jul 87. 

well, the following links elaborates the details of each stage of my nsf days...

• 1985 - my bmt 
• 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)
• 1985 - 1986 - my ocs songs
• 1986 - 1987 - completing my ns

training/ stints overseas - country n

training in this country is perhaps one of the most memorable one. this was because of the lush tropical jungle that we had to operate in. through my more than 2-decade career in the forces, i must have visited this country some 5-6 times. some of the more interesting incidents include:

• my first experience in the jungles was when i was an officer cadet. to make our way there, we had to take barges that sailed through the winding rivers of the tropical jungle - not unlike a trip along the rivers of the amazon. we were exposed to the elements as the barges were not sheltered and it was not uncommon to have people suffer from heat exhaustion during the journey. if i recalled correctly, the journey lasted between 6-8 hours. the base camp we were housed in looked like long houses. they were made of wood and critters from the jungle, particularly cicadas, was able to fly through the rooms as there was a huge gap between the walls of the bunk and the roof. and so to ensure we get our needful sleep, we were all given mosquito nets to hang over our bed. but our stay in teh bunk was short lived. within a day of settling in to the bunk, we had to pack up and head into the jungle for our exercises - first navigation, and then missions after missions. if i recall correctly, the whole duration of staying in the jungle was 4-5 weeks. it was interesting that by the time we emerged from the jungles, we continued to whisper to one another (as we had to do so when we were in the jungle on mission).

• getting lost in the jungle during our navigation exercises. drinking, bathing, shitting, etc everything in the jungles and it was particularly nice to be able to take a dip in the mountain streams. we were given maloprim tablets to drop into stream water to rid the water of any harmful organisms, but we couldn't be bothered. we were often so exhausted that we would just drown ourselves with the chilled water from the streams.

• during one mission, we were all so tired that after we complete capturing the enemy position, our controllers told us that the enemy managed to withdrawal to another location 3km to the rear and that we had to bash our way through thick lallang patches to take the position. the time in the lallang felt forever. the lallang was taller than us and we could not see anything in front. we could only rely on our compass to guide us through and it was super demoralising, made worst by the fact that we were all already do exhausted. to make things worst, we had to carry our carl gustav, machine guns, grenade launchers etc. and when we eventually reach the defended location, we had to do our fire movement up a very steep slope. by the time the controllers declared the position taken and the exercise cut, we literally collapse onto the floor and cried.

• taking the helicopter from basecamp to recce the exercise grounds. the nap-of-the-earth flying (i.e. flying along the contours of the mountain) during the exercise was really interesting. we were literally holding on to our seat belts tightly as the helicopter doors were open to allow us to check out enemy held positions.

• during one particular exercise when i was the company second-in-charge, my company commander got possessed and our unit commander decided to send him back home. apparently, my company commander would get into a trance at 7pm daily and he would howl and scream and he would talk to us in a voice that sounded like a woman and a language that we couldn't understand. the locals called in a bomoh and he concluded that my company commander was possessed by a jungle spirit during one the exercises. to manage my company commander, he was strapped onto the bed to prevent him from hurting himself or hurting people around him every evening when the spirit awakes. this incident shook my whole company badly. in the end, my unit commander decided to send him back home, based on the advise of the bomoh - for the bomoh said that the only way to rid him of the spirit is to fly through water - where the spirits cannot. weird as it might sound, my company commander recovered once he reached singapore.

• the night in the jungle was something i cannot not forget. it was so pitch dark i couldn't see my own palm when i place it in front of my eyes. and during one exercise, we had to harbour on a mountain ridgeline for the night and in the middle of the night, my company heard something dropped from above and then suddenly one of my soldier screamed. next thing i knew, something rolled off the ridge line and landed with a "thud" sounds. everyone was shock and many of my company started firing their weapons. it was a reflex action. it was pitch dark and i could see nothing. i was the company commander and i decided that exercise or not, i call the shots and i took out my torchlight and gingerly walk towards the direction of my soldier who screamed. apparently, some animal flew down from the canopy and grabbed him. and in his struggle, the animal and his helmet rolled off the ridge. it was not a pleasant thing to happen in the middle of the night, and especially after what happened to my company commander earlier on.

• to prepare the training areas before the exercise proper, i had to recce the training grounds. some areas were only accessible via helicopter and, for some others, by assault boats. there was this particular drill that i had to go through that was very interesting - crocodile deterrence preparation. you see, the rivers and marsh land that we operate in was known to be home to some local species of crocodiles. and to prevent any crocodiles from attacking our troops, we had to sail along the river within a specific distance upstream and downstream of the exercise area to scare crocodiles off. and this was how it was done - we armed ourselves with rifles, brought along a lot of thunder flashes and sailed to the spot where crocodiles are known to appear. we then fix the thunder flashes onto the tip of our rifle, light the flash and shoot it into the water. we were told that the explosion caused by the thunder flash would scare the crocodiles away. i'm sure there are some wisdom in this for we did not have any untoward incidents through the years we operate there. but as an additional safeguard, we position personnel with live rounds around the exercise areas and allowed them to shoot to kill if any crocodile appears.

i have a lot more to share about training in this country although i didn't visit this country as many times as compared to some others. but i'm sure the above give an insight into how exciting training in this country was like. up and above all these, i felt most at home living in the jungle, eating my maggi noodles and canned food freshly cooked and sleeping in my tent or by hammock. still miss this place.

:-)

training/ stints overseas - overview

i realised i have not written too much about my first and longest career, especially about my experiences overseas. my overseas travels were largely for training except for a couple where i was involved in bilateral exchanges programs or as a liaison person. here's a list of country - which i use alphabets to refer to (in case i get accused of divulging secrets... lol) - that i will write about:

• country d - i visited this country several times, first in the capacity as exercise troop, and in the latter parts of my career, as a visiting instructor
• country l - this is a hot and arid place and i had interesting experiences here - including some supernatural ones
• country n - i will share about my experiences in the jungles
• country r - i had visited this country as an instructor and had the beautiful opportunity to visit some really sacred sites
• country s - this was where i was based for half a year as a senior liaison person
• country t - i had visited this country as an planner, and a controller but never as an exercise troop.
• "country" w - i had travelled to this country over 30 times over the span of my career 
• country z - i trained in this country a couple of times and this was the place where i first experience cold winds from the south

these are some of the countries that i think is ok to write about. it would capture most of the overseas exposures during my time with the military. i do believe you can second guess the names of the respective countries if you have been through similar experiences too. and if so, you should be able to see the patterns of the letters i used.

lol... go figure.