Sunday, September 30, 2007
Now I'm one more step closer to my Black Beret. When I was in BMT I was excited to attain the Beret. Now it that I know got my Posting, I feel no honour in the beret anymore. What makes the difference between Armour Infantry of SAR and Infantry from SIR? Actually they are the same. Infantry training. Difference? A.I Hide in the tank and charge out upon reaching destination. We get Black Beret instead of Green just becoz we tompang on a APC tank. WTF man? What pride is there in A.I? Fuck A.I. man!
Monday 24th Sept I booked in at 8am in the morning to know my Posting. I already knew I didnt get Tankee although I fought hard to get it. But still I have to accept that I just aint fit enough... Hahax Well Its ok as long as I dont get A.I. (Armour Infantry). I told all 5 of my Sect. Comm, all my 3SG, PS, and PC that I die also dont wanna be in A.I. But still Platoon 9 took me to be one of their A.I. Trooper... My appointment is SharpShooter and Matatdor Gunner (Man-portable Anti-Tank, Anti-DOoR). Or we call it the LAW (Light Anti-tank Weapon). Didnt get into Tankee nevermind lah. Freaking hell made me an Anti Tank! Besides that my new Platoon cant match my old platoon man. I was from the best platoon and now got into some boring platoon... First day we were introduced to our new weapon. I was introduced to my new SharpShooter weapon, which is a SAR-21 with a scope of 4X Zoom. My objective in missions, Identify and Remove officers in command. Pretty much similar to who Sniper Kills but way different from how Snipers work.
Tuesday we were introduced to the Matador. Firing technique, aiming with it and its features. Quite a cool weapon but its damn heavy. 10kg at least. Its a disposable weapon. In war we fire and throw. But training we use the one which we can reload which we call it the Sub-Calibre. Very simple weapon. No need to strip no need to maintain. No need to pull Feather-Lite through the barrel all. Hahax Fire and Forget.
Wednesday we were tested on what we learn on the day before. Firing technique and Aiming of the tank. Its scope has indication of aiming a tank from 100m to 500m and moving tanks of 20km/h and 40km/h. So I asked my Sergeant... "For tanks like M1 Abrams which can move at speed of 60km/hr. How do we aim?" He replied me "Run a way". Hahax Even if you hit a M1 Abram with one shot, it wouldnt do much damage. The Tank is protected by RHA and Chobham Armour. RHA, Rolled Homogeneous Armour which is a common armour used for military vehicle. As for Chobham Armour... Its what makes the M1 Abram Resistant to cetain anti-tank rounds. Although the construction details of the Chobham Common Armour remain a secret, it has been described as being composed of ceramic tiles encased within a metal matrix and bonded to a backing plate and several elastic layers. Due to the extreme hardness of the ceramics used, they offer superior resistance against shaped charges such as high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds and they shatter kinetic energy penetrators. As for the Matador I use, the anti-tank mode is in HEAT. So as mention above the M1 Abram is highly resistance to HEAR rounds. So it totall makes sense to run when you see a M1 Abrams approaching. Hahax
Thursday was one hell of a slack day. Morning suppose to have physical training. Due to the rain it was cancelled. Had only one lecture on Matador and thats all. Admin whole day so we Matador Gunners sleep the whole day. Hahax
Friday Bookout day!! No lesson today also. Only live run of 3km in the morning. We get to book out at around 7 plus at night. But the poor tankees book out later since their training end late.
Finally I get the Saturaday all to myself! Went for my bike lesson and passed my Pract 1. Easy shit. Then I met Ganesh and Yazeer for dinner at Newton food court. Had long talks of Army life. Hahax Went to Esplanade after dinner to meet Ganesh's friends. Sit down and disturb Ganesh the whole night. Hahax when we were there we ran into Musique Workz's Finalist Sounds of Saviour's Lead singer. No idea whats his name. Bloody hell he havent used the Greendoors voucher yet!! They better use it man or they are screwed!! Aint easy to attain that sponsor man!!
Friday, September 21, 2007
Damn one week passed really fast! After my Passing Out Parade we were giving a week of break. Block Leave they call it. Spent most of them outside instead of at home sleeping which I usually do best. Hahax Monday I fasted. So that I can feel more kick when I buka puasa with my friends at Simpan Bedok. Damn the food is good there! Go check it out if you havent!
Tuesday I had dinner with my Platoon Buddies at Swiss Hotel Merchant Court. Its at Clarke Quay if you are wondering where is it. Foods good there, quite a few variety of food but then it isnt Halal... Had quite some fun there though since my Platoon Sergeant came. The final 10 tankees have been confirmed and it seems like I aint one of them... Haiz Guess I aint elite enough... Hahax
Wednesday I didnt go out much. Went out only after dinner for a little walk at night. Hahax Thursday went to lepak with Shamir. Poor Cole got school so too bad... Hahax Today went for first bike lesson. Fun yeah but was really hot the weather.
So fast its already friday. Monday back to camp. Will know my Vocation on monday. 3 Possibilities... M113 Tank Driver/Gunner - Dont mind taking that. Cleaning up will be one hell of a headache. Combat Medic - Requested for this vocation since I did not get Tankee. Heard its tough... Armour Infantry - HECK Dont ever give me this shitty vocation! I will be a regular at the MO if they give me this vocation!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Finally Basic Military Training is over!! No more a Recruit! No more botak head! Hahax Had quite a busy week before we passed out this morning. On September 10 Monday morining was mainly free time. But our free time kept one being distrubted due to packing and checking of field pack and Military Police coming over for a Check. At night after dinner. We head out to East Coast park for our 24km Route March. It started at 10pm and ended next morning 5:45am. The whole walk wasnt tiring. But everyone was sleepy and some was almost like sleep walking... Hahax After that we went back to camp to have a rest. We all sleep for a few hours before going for lunch. The only activity we had for the day was BCCT, Basic Close Combat Training.
From Wednesday onwards we started rehearsing on out passing out parade. But in the morning we had training. Wedesday Moring I had my SOC Evaluation. I failed my timing but managed to clear the obsticles. 600M to 700M rundown is a killer man... But the SOC Evaluation on thursday I managed to pass it! Hahax Friday there was suppose to be IPPT Retest for those who fail and those who wanna get a better grade. But those who are nominated to be tankees went for the Psychomotor test. The test was held at Sungei Gedong Camp where 42SAR 46SAR and Armour HQ is. Its really big. The Psychomotor test actually test you on how well you turn the turret of the tank, the rounding off of the tank rounds HE and FS and setting of range. Which stands for High Explosive and Fin Stablizer. The turning of turret test consist of Hydrolics and Manual. The Manual one is the tricky one since it both hands must move in different directions at the same time. The turning of turret I did it fast. But the setting of range I couldnt see the number so I took a long time. Overall over 17 people who took part I was number ten. But all in all everyone passed. After the test we went to the Canteen to have our first SAF canteen break! Hahax Damn the food taste good. If cookhouse food were that good! Back to camp we do rehersals again. But I skip most of them coz I had interview with the Platoon Commander. Hahax so I only did one final rehearsal.
And TODAY is the day. We Pass Out! We wake up early in the morning at 5am just to get ready and all. By the time its almost 7am, parents already start coming already. The Parade started at 7:45am. Everything went well and everyone had fun. Never before we felt so happy and excited in army. Hahax The Parade ended at around 10. After we all have some fun, settle down, toss our platoon segeant and all, we leave the camp at 11plus. And dammit it was raining.
Went home, had a good rest, then I went out in the evening to enjoy! Hahax Went to Lepak with Aizat, Izhar and their cousin Eddy. Along with 3 other of their friends. Meet Ami Ganesh and Yazeer too. All of us Passed Out already and now we are Privates! No more recruits! Hahax
Saturday, September 08, 2007
This week is filled with fun and crazyness. Hahax There isnt much training or excercise this week. Monday 3rd Sept there was AGR. After that we did Drill Practices for the competition on tuesday. There was suppose to be SOC but due to the rain it was cancelled. In the end those who didnt complete the 16km Route March have to go for Remedial Training. For that our platoon was left with around only 17 or less people left to practice the Drill. One of the most waste time thing we did was the visit to Science Centre. Go there for 2 plus hours. Haiz could have used the time to practice. Tuesday There wasnt 5bx in the morning so that we can perform our best for the competition. But before that we had SOC in Full Battle Order in the morning. We practiced it with a 300 metre rundown. Shack man... After that in the afternoon was where we had our Drill Competition. 24 of us took part. March our best, with a few of cock ups, and the only platoon to have a timer. And all in all we won 2nd in the whole battalion among two companies. The winner is from another company. Best part is both winners are from tankee platoon. Hahax Best Platoon Sergeant award was taken by my platoon sergeant. We got ourselves a medal each presented by the Commanding Officer, in short the CO. The highest ranking guy around. Wednesday again there was no 5bx. Hahax Cause there was our final IPPT test. Took my IPPT and passed it. Dammit I was left with 2 more pull ups and I would have gotten Silver... Haiz... Thursday There was SOC with the full rundown of 700m and 600m with Full Battle Order. Damn shack I tell you. By the time you reach the low wall, you would have been drained. After that we went to GYM for 2 hours of OTOT on the equipments. In the evening was the time where we get to choose our vocation between Reccee Scout, Armour Infantry (AI) and Tankees. There was around 26 people who wants to be a Scout and around 18 people with 3 other who are not around which makes around 21 of us who wanna be Tankees the rest either wanna post out, go for other vocation or be AI. The CSM look at us "Tankee Wannabes" and wanted to test us. I think he dont like Tankees. He made us spread Grease on ourself, all 18 of us who are there. Do excercise where we did 25 push ups and 25 crunches 4 times and run round the Tank Shed 2 rounds which aprox makes 2km plus. After that go wash up. Dammit we wasted one set of No.4 for that. Grease cant be washed away. We literally massed up the whole Mini Parade Square and the toilet. Even my Platoon Sergeant and Sergeants think that what we did was out of point. Well order is order. Hahax Yesterday Friday Sept 7 Was CO Night. It was the only time we really enjoyed the most during our Army life. Hahax We have performance prepared for the night itself. But before that we had a little game prepared for us. Its called the Victory Challenge. There it consist of 3 games. Combat Frisby where we play frisby in Long 4. Another one is Full Battle Order Run where 20 people will run 500m in LBV Rifle and Field pack. Route March attire. And Finally the last one Emergency Evact. Where 20 people will carry a stretcher with 4 full Jerry Cans on top and run. I forgot what was the distance. Of the three games we lost the Frisby one but we beat the other company in the other two big time. My CSM designed those two games for us to win. Cause our company is physically Fitter. Hahax Before CO night it was raining, So we held the event at the Cook House. The CO came with his family. Everyone in 40SAR was there for the event. We had buffet then there was the performance. The other Company did their performance first which was a skit and a song. After that was ours. We made an opening to our performance by playing an instrumentle of Savage Garden's Truly Madly Deeply with two guitars and a Flute. One of the guitarist was me of cause... Hahax Then after that one other guy from my platoon joined in and we performed the song "when you said notting at all" By Ronan Keating. After we are done, 7 person from 3 different platoon made a skit. They call themselves the Ninjas and the made such a hilarious performance that the CO himself took a picture with them after everything. After the skit by the Ninjas, my platoon made a Bunk inspection skit which also made everyone end up in laughter. We end of everything with a song. And this time with a group of people behind us singing with candles. We performed My Love by Westlife. There wasnt time for me to learn so I play the song looking at the chords. Was such a cockup cause it was dark and we cant see well. Hahax All in all it was a great night. Today it was raining and there was suppose to be SOC test and it was cancelled. So basically we did notting today. Hahax
One more week man ONE MORE WEEK!!! 15 September will be my Passing Out Parade!! Then I will have my one week Bloc Leave. Oh yeah I Cant wait!! Gonna get back my mohawk man!
Saturday, September 01, 2007
This week in camp relax sia. Hahax The only time that was tough was on monday where I had my 16km route march. My Sir all lead a fast march. So fast that the other company is slower then us by about 700m. By the time everything was over we had cramps and blisters everywhere. Other then that the other days was full of free time. Sleep in bunk for hours and all. Hahax Tuesday it rained the whole day. So from morning first after first parade rest all the way till eveing we had a little physical training. Other traing cancelled. Hahax Relax sia. Also for the first time we finish RO at 8pm then free time all the way till lights out. Friday I did my guard duty for the first time. Did sentry duty so I skipped all training. Sentry duty may seem quite boring but I kinda like it. Hahax Stand at one small spot for 2 hours, rest for 4 hours then do duty again. 24 hours of Guard duty. Not bad ah. Worth it for skipping SOC training. Hahax But in exchange I missed the visit to the army open house which I heard it was fun... Haiz. My BOS good sia. Never give us turn out all.
Today was book out day. Book out quite early at 1 plus. Hope next week also same. Hahax Went to Comex with Aizat and Izhar, the two Ahmad Brothers along with Adi my Senior's Senior. Lepak with them at Simei all. Aizat and Izhar is by far the most interesting brother I've ever met. Hahax Now thats what I call brothers!
Clemence Chang
