Sunday, January 29, 2006
bAck

Phew~

Feeling dam freakin tired after another confinement...field camp really takes a lot outta a person...

Now I have got 5 days of holidays! What could be better immediately after field camp?! I feel its a well deserved rest...

So lets see, range and field camp is over. Now only left SIT test, IPPT and SOC...no problem la! Haha...it'll be over v quickly.

Worst things about field camp:

- You'll be sleeping outfield i.e. no comfortable beds. Just soil, trees and grass all around.

- The 'toilets' are most...'accomodating'...

- Mosquitoes will suck you dry~! Especially in reclaimed land. Better bring ur insect repellants! I'm serious!


- You're almost totally blind at night, and you still have to find a way to pack all ur stuff for the coming activities. It's v difficult, trust me...O_O

- You cant bathe with water!!! (except for 4th day) Only with powder...lots and lots of it! In other words, you'll be dam dirty! Yux.

- There's always a danger of snakes or centipedes. A person actually got bitten by a snake during my field camp. Luckily it was only a small snake, and wasnt serious.

- Finally, digging trenches suck. Dig until backache!

- Its 7 days being cut off from civilisation. SEVEN! Heck, what am i complaining about?? I completed mine alrdy... =P

- The instructors will seem to hate you even more...

Best things about field camp:

- Some of the activities you'll be doing is quite fun. (Fire and movement, I.A etc.)

- You'll get to really work together as a group.

- They give u lots of food. I mean really a LOT. You can keep on eating and there'll still be more...

- Its a new experience. Any single person should at least experience this sort of things once in our lives.

Anyone who wants more details on the camp, feel free to look for me. I'll be happy to share my experience...haha. I sound like an old man =X

Hmm...range was quite interesting as well. Shooting live ammunitions! The downside is that the gunpowder smoke will get into ur nose and eyes immediately after u fire, and furthermore firing will make the rifle v v dirty...

I was told that our results for range was that all of us passed. A large majority of us got around 20+/32. That's not that good now is it? Haha...I doubt i did well at all either. My stupid lane the target does not go down some of the times when I score a hit...den i'll be like readjusting my shots all the time...its v demoralising when I keep seeing myself 'miss'! Counting the times that the target went down, it'll be like 15/32 only! Its a failure man! Luckily that's not true =)

Another thing. Whether for better or for worse, I was appointed the platoon I/C for 3 days during these 2 weeks. Wah I tell you, sometimes it just gets v stressful man! Must always make sure everyone falls in on time. Whatever orders must be conveyed to the platoon ASAP. Most importantly, strength must always be accounted for accurately and quickly! Somemore sometimes some ppl in the platoon will not cooperate with u fully...

Anyway I managed to get thru being platoon I/C almost without much incident. I nearly got 1 extra guard duty during my appoinment because I found out I reported the wrong strength to the sgt in charge. Though in truth I reported correctly, which I found out shortly after, and I put everything right...haha. Lucky lucky!

Being the I/C has taught me many things. Responsibility and commitment to name a few. Another thing, pls respect the ppl who are addressing you. At least give them ur attention. Its irritating when you're trying to address ppl when they're not listening...haha. Does that sound familiar? Im sure some of ur teachers have said that b4.

During field camp, I made a foolish mistake of not slinging my rifle to my body while eating. The result? I got to do sentry that night...here's wad happened. My rifle was right beside me, less than 5cm away. I turned to talk to my fren for a few secs, den turn back, gone liao. Apparently this shit platoon 2 guy stole my rifle in exchange for his from his sgt when his got stunned from him. Like how selfish can someone get? So the sgt was hinting me to get another rifle, but I didnt really want to saboh another person ma, so i didnt. See I'm so good man! Haha...actually another thing was because I didn really dare to steal one la. =P

Sentry wasnt so bad. 2 hrs of prowling around the camp site only. Walking around half asleep only...haha. There was an upside to it though. Guard duty personnel will be excused from activities until noon the next day. In my case, it meant that I skipped the 3-4 click route march to the new camp site the following day. A vehicle brought us there. So nice la!

Aiya I tired of typing alrdy la. Any other extra stuff I'll update another time...=P