My Army Detachment No. 4 in the Battery
Left to Right : Goh Gek Piau (Loader),Loh Swee Chuah (Driver),
Me(Commander),Tan Beng Chong (No.4 Man),Yeo Ah Seng (Layer)
This is some history of my past days when I was doing my National Service. In thoses days, young teenage youth of 18 years of age are enlisted for 2 and 1/2 years and sent for Basic Military Training in Terror Camp (name is there for a reason) after which we are sent either to army units or further training to be a commissioned or non-commisisoned officer (NCO).Most of the enlistees at that time, were a mix bag of school dropouts, poorly educated, secondary school, or pre university college students like myself and my friends. It was a tremendous eye-opener for me to share the same sleeping quarters as men who mianly spoke Hokkien or had a very basic command of English.
I was selected to be undergo the Commissioned Officer training but I ultimately chose to be a Non-Commissioned Officer, and underwent training as a section leader at Pasir Laba Camp in Jurong, I underwent further very rigorous training at the Artillary Command Center at Kangaw Camp (12 weeks). The going was very tough, as we were trained by hardened regular sergeants and other corporals who were themselves trained by Army rangers. To say the training was tough was an understatement, we had an entire week of field exercise whereby we had only 2 hours sleep per night for 5 nights. We had some trainees who suffered injuries and dropped out before the end of the 12 week training course. Only about 2/3rd completed the tough course. On our commissioning parade, we proudly put on our '2nd stripe'or corporal (and later sargeant ) as all of us earned it through (literally) blood, much sweat and (some) tears.
I was posted to the 46 SAR Armoured Regiment and served in the 120mm self-propelled mortar battery of 6 APCs (Armoured Personnel Carrier) in the ranging mortar unit (selected as the best and fastest team).My team of soldiers were all 'Hokkien Ping' or Hokkien speakingsoldiers. Although we had some teething problems first, with them adjusting to my hard style (I was a very tough trainer, my men can attest to that), we ultimately bonded well as a unit and were awared the 'Best Detachment' (out of 6) and even put up a show of our coordination for the entire armoured company to see.
Those days of rigorous training taught me to be mentally tough and take whatever difficulties physically or mentally that come along the way as challenges and try to surmount them in the best way I can. National Service is a fine way for our youth to grow into responsible men.
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