2.5 Years of Inactivity

Good Day All!

I just remembered I had this blog of mine that I have not been maintaining since I enlisted. Anyway it has been 2 and a half years, which means, ORD LO!

Earlier today, I was reading on my previous posts and I guess I will try and update as much as to what has happened in the past 2.5 years. And I’ll finish up what I remember of my NS life so if you’re reading this prior to enlistment or prior to your postings, I hope this gives you some light on the duty/vocation.

Continuing from the previous post, okay BMT wasn’t exactly smooth sailing for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to say I have bad section mates. But being put in a section full of people of different goals, definitely you can feel the difference. Back in BMT, as you could’ve imagined, I was this loser who didn’t want to undertake any responsibility or achieve much.

Loosely speaking, I was the typical can siam then siam kind of chaogeng warrior. I won’t make myself fall sick just to skip something strenuous, but I wasn’t the kind to give my 100% all, especially with that huge resentment towards the military back in BMT. I really hated MINDEF for taking 2 years of my time, and I definitely could not imagine myself leading a restricted life like this.

Tbh, I couldn’t really remember much about my BMT, other than field camp which passed pretty fast for me. And in field camp was when the politics started to come in, that was when I got extremely done with this life. Especially that very time I was accused and all I want to do was to get over with the 9 weeks cuz I couldn’t even find the energy to fight back. Being put in a leadership batch with the majority from JCs, I presumed people are smarter and that they would look at things beyond the surface, at the bigger picture. Yet, it was so disappointing to see how self entitled and shallow these people are. And all of these people ended up in command school, sure. That’s when I know the military has so many leaders incapable of leading, and they are just so biased or even superficial to select leaders based on the criteria of education, how shallow.

Alright enough of my BMT salt for now, so after a few high keys, and myself missing 24km HAHAH with my fellow peers, Yijie and Kenzo, it was time for POP.

POP was memorable, knowing that you’re actually out of that stupid island, and also separation from the toxic people in that environment. POP was great, despite the drills being lame and I wasn’t any of the highlights. I was just one of many hidden in the sea of soldiers, silently rejoicing. To those who have attended my POP, thank you so much for being there. It was really nice embracing that memory with all of you.

After POP came block leave and then my posting, ST CBT (8 SIR). I vividly remember my look when I saw my vocation. I felt Hmm… I guess I wasn’t exactly worried as everyone knows of this vocation as a sien one, but with a 2 in 2 out schedule. I remember going on Google to read up about this vocation, and I read that a minority of these security troopers will be posted to air and naval bases, while the rest would be serving the green, army camps and undergo an infantry transition package 2 months before their ORD, which means to say you’ll be converted to becoming an Infantry trooper before you get your pink IC. Feels Bad.

Fortunately for me, I was selected as a Base Operative Force (BOF) and posted to an air base. Sounds cool right air force. Thinking that you’ll wear blue and welfare is on your way. Get that out of your head LOL. Ok more to be elaborated later.

So ST CBT training was not exactly shiong, it was just very regimental. Discipline and regimentation were the top priorities of our training and it was pretty observable that the cohort wasn’t very motivated. It felt as though we were just this dumpster of soldiers that just got lucky to have a chiller vocation than the others. Personally, I enjoyed my training. Despite the stay in and strict regimentation, I actually met people who I can actually click better with. There was more laughter and optimism. Food was also better. Again to highlight, best thing about training was talking nonsense with my peers, you all know who you are, Darrell, Isaac, Zheng Yi, Jonathan, Jan Min, TY, Ken, Jireh, Ming Ren, Chao Yu. And also Yi Jie who has been with me since, sec 3? Bunk 05–53.

Then came this turn ops parade. We were then recognised as operational security troopers. It was also another milestone of my NS life, however this wasn’t as memorable as compared to my POP. The number of guests who could attend were very restricted, but I was so glad to have my loved ones come see me turn into a useful security guard. Again, I was happy and thankful to have you people behind the scene supporting the frontline aka myself. It wasn’t exactly a tough journey for me, but it’s because I have people like yall to make it easier for me to tread on.

Then came our GPMG training package before we get posted to our respective units. This is the worst weapon of all time. I’m not exactly a fan of firearms and thus I don’t get any satisfaction from firing that stupid machine gun. Instead, I find it more of a chore to clean that thing up.

Oh and by the way, posting of security troopers will be based on your residential location, so mine as you could’ve guessed, Tengah Air Base. Ok to be exact, Tengah Air Base, 605 Squadron. The next phase of my NS life.

Like all curious creatures, I went to google on some information of this unit. Back in Clementi Camp, we had no idea on what this BOF job is about. There was no information on the working hours, environment. All we knew back then was, if you’re posted into Tengah Air Base, you’re just damn suay. Welcome to the red zone. Oh anyway, I couldn’t find anything useful on google about my unit.

On our 1st day, we were briefed that we had to undergo a 2-week unit induction programme. It was a welfare one, with plenty of nights out and the training schedule was flexible, kudos to the training branch. However it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing, I remember how we were tekaned during fire drills and turn outs. Having to pour water from our water bottles on ourselves just because “You guys are on fire, what should yall do?”. It was clearly a funny tekan session to the PCs back then, Steve and Matt.

Food sucks definitely. This reminds me of the training specs in charge of me, Benjamin and Justin, who would never stop complaining.

That induction programme ended with us receiving our air force berets and ILBV unit patch that we were required to wear on duty. And also the ordering of a set of blue air force uniform for parade purposes. Back then, we knew nothing about the superiors of this squadron. They marched with us on our meaningless 4km route march, and we realised they were nice superiors. Nice CO, RSM, just not the OC hahah.(Never did I expect myself to be in the same office as them) *More to be elaborated later

Then we had to start our guard dog/ gate keeper duties while being attached to a senior. Blame it on my luck, I got attached to the seniors who clearly don’t give shits about this job LOL. So I had to learn the right things myself while they taught me the by left ones. Not only that, I got posted to the shift that tries to enforce the hierarchy culture, in layman terms xinjiao laojiao culture. Basically, if you’re laojiao aka the senior, your life would be easier at the expense of the xinjiaos doing more work. That being said, the xinjiaos were deprived of rights such as booking out in civilian clothing and ordering in of outside food. We had to eat the worst ration meals while watching the seniors order their favourite Mac Burgers.

Next suay thing was the selection of response force. The response force is responsible for handling threats in the base and are supposed to respond within the stipulated time. As the unit required manpower to form the new batch of response team, my batch was the chosen one. Turnouts suck, and I hated every tryout I got into. Suay me got into two and I had to wake up in the middle of the night for tekaning drills. It was extremely arduous but now thinking back, it was a nice bonding session with my suay chosen peers. In the end, I begged them to not pick me in, so I stayed with my guard dog role for the months to come, until I got to know of this office, Security Admin Office.

(TBC)

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