And so it came to pass, it was time for us to say goodbye to the Singapore Armed Forces and head off to the SPF. Of course, the SAF wasn't one to say goodbye in a warm cuddly manner, no hugs and kisses, no pat on the back and plaque, and certainly, no one told the Nee Soon people that we had to de-kit! So all of us rocket scientists left some of our army kit at home which was a dumb as dog shit thing to do, but oh well, that's all in hindsight.
After rushing like a mad man to go home to recover the last vestiges of my SAF kit, I stormed back to Nee Soon Camp in civilian and turned in all of my kit, helmet, SBO and all, but I had to pay money for the socks and swimming trunks I forgot all about. Well you'd think these items would be regarded as disposable, but not in the army!!
Of course, the other great revelation of the day was the 2 female soldiers working at the store were actually male! We swore for the longest time that they were female, and of course I'm sure Aziz was checking the Indian one during BMT. [A totally untrue remark I might add] The other great memory was Terence in a tank top and ripped jeans sauntering across the parade square which earned prompted to reflect on his bravery or lack of intelligence!
It was then that we met the Tekong people who looked alot less flustered than us, well it seems the message to de-kit got through to them. We also saw a couple of NS Inspectors who started shouting at us, we all though they'd be our PCs, but in truth, they were just a bunch of lowlifes from PNSD who just wanted to get off the bottom of the food chain by shouting at some lower ranked people.
Finally, we met the man, FI Hassan who for the next 9 months would be our instructor, mentor and tormentor at various junctures. He seemed a calm enough individual compared to those wankers from PNSD who faded away when Hassan took charge, and our Deputy Company Commander, Zakaria, a Staff Sergeant to boot! I remember thinking what type of warped organisation was this?!?
Then we boarded the big blue bus driven by our Deputy Company Commander (!) and it was off to the Police Academy at Thomson Road and out of Nee Soon Camp and soon the SAF was behind us.
I suppose it would be self-indulgent to reflect on my BMT experience, but damn it, I created this blog so I will do it anyway. I will say that I never enjoyed BMT in the least, but 10 years on, I still maintain it was an experience that I had to have. It taught me resilience and how to push myself past my self-imposed limits, it taught me never to take for granted the things that I have and it also gave me a smattering of self-confidence which I didn't really have up to that point. Of course it also taught me alot about other people and what they were like under pressure. Without this experience, I don't think I would be able to do many of the things that I have done and certainly all that training and discipline would come to good use in the days of training at the Police Academy, but that is for the next post.
29th Batch Officer Cadets. This blog is a means for a particular clique of these former Police Inspectors in the Singapore Police Force to record their impressions of the events that occurred then & subsequently in their journey through life.
WHO WE ARE
We're just a bunch of guys who served our NS in the Police Force as NS Inspectors from 1998 to 2000.
2 comments:
I finally got my own google email account. How sweet is that? Ahem, anyway, let's get down to some serious blogging business. Can I have law & order please? This is the chairman of OCT 3&4 speaking. Well folks, this pretty much sums up my experience as the squad chairman. It was nothing less than a debacle, I have to say. After being elected (aka sabo-ed) as the honorable chairman, I was ready to take on my new role with pride on honor. Oh boy, did my pride and honor last. NOT!
It was chaos trying to manage 42 future leaders of the SPF who had raging hormones tipping the scales. Maybe the word chaos is too subtle. But I have to thank my lucky stars that FI Hassan (you guys mentioned him yet?) had the squad under complete control. At this juncture, I have to stress on the word ‘complete’ because for all his ninja and wayang antics, he did an excellent job of managing 42 bright and promising but recalcitrant individuals. Well, some had their own agenda for their nine months tenure. But I couldn’t care less. By the way, did I also mention that this FI of ours was one helluva master of camo. He could just blend into the greens that our good ol PA had to offer and make his appearance when we were least expecting it. No wonder he was notoriously known as the Ninja among the cadets. (btw, FI Hassan doesn’t know that we had a nickname for him)
Initial stage was quite a terrifying experience. When I meant terrifying, I was actually referring to the food. In the army, even though ‘tekan’ sessions took place every other minute, there was something to look forward to. The food! All hail the Singapore Food Industry for cooking up great meals day after day. When the first meal was served in PA, we were thinking to ourselves that we were better off with the SAF despite the frequent jumping jacks and thousands of push ups that accompanied every meal. The all time “Favorite” in PA was the fish delight. (I could swear that the gills of the fish moved at one point while it was lying on my mesh tray)
I was wondering to myself, food sucks, can my fellow cadets be any better? How wrong I was! On the contrary, these are same bunch of guys who I managed to clique with for the next nine months of our stay in police academy. In case I have not, in alphabetical order, let me introduce you to the famous five. Asri, Daryl, Mark, Terence (or is it Nunis) and finally yours truly, the chairman of the board. Aziz is the name.
For all the screw ups and subsequent push ups that we were subjected to, we had our fair share of fun and camaraderie. I have to say that it was one good memorable experience. I couldn’t believe my arse luck when I was not selected for OCS ten years ago. But now, in retrospect I am still thanking my lucky stars that I was selected to be and officer cadet with the SPF. Because not only it taught me criminal law, but it also taught me the law of friendship. To eat, sleep and shit with the same bunch of guys for nine months is no easy feat. I guess all of us passed that test with flying colors. We deserve a pat on our backs and some hot coffee. Pervert seats, anyone?
this post is far too good to just remain hidden as a comment! I will take the liberty of re-posting this as Musings of the Chairman. How?? Actually then again, I'm presenting this as a fait accompli....
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