For us at Tekong it was not much different. I received a call from my Sgt saying I will be posted to the Police Force and to report in civvie and bring all my barang-barang to dekit. The ignorant me, never heard of OCT before, and so I asked my Sgt what we'd be doing the there? Either he said the following due to jealousy or just plain last ditch psychological torture before I escape from his grasp, he said, "You will join the VC squad and carry pump gun and jaga the station as sentry." And maybe just to add some truth into it,"But you will get to wear white shirt, more special than everyone else."
I had ambitions to go OCS, as much as it scared me, so this piece of news did not make me happy one bit. So I dragged my demoralised self to Nee Soon and when I saw my other platoon mates in Army full-u, I was still clueless of my fate till some mates threw friendly curses (you know what I mean), "Eh c*bye.. you lucky bugger! Power man!". That kind of friendly curses. And some gave me the evil eye, and some just said I was one lucky fellow. I joined the rest of the civvy clad mates and only then I found out the good news! I dekitted with a big smile even though I had to empty my wallet to replace the socks I lost, the towel I forgot to bring and some other stuff.
We were told to come back a few days later to go to PA (Police Academy). So thats how I got into OCT.
Reliving back, I enjoyed Army life. As hard as the training was, the conflicts, the arguments, the punishing exercises, somehow I looked forward to each book-in day. I really enjoyed the camaraderie!
Showing posts with label Posting Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Posting Day. Show all posts
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Posting Day - Part I
Well, I can't claim to speak for the Tekong people [I will leave that for Asri] because most of us on the blog at the moment were from BMTC 2 at Nee Soon Camp, come to think of it, most of us were in fact from Gryphon Company, BMTC 2.
I was absolutely scared stiff on posting day, whatever the Singapore Armed Forces had in store for me, I wasn't looking forward to it. I had seen the barracks at SAFTI MI and I was convinced the better it looked the less you were going to use it. In preparation for the inevitable let down by the supply chain, I had packed 5 toilet rolls in anticipation of a long and painful confinement period at OCS.
But, somehow or other at the back of my mind, I had a feeling that it was going to be my lucky day. After all, it was 5 Oct 1998, it was my 22nd birthday.
So as Gryphon Company gathered reluctantly to find out the fates that awaited us, 2nd Lieutenant Tay, my less than sane Platoon Commander went "Wah Lau! Daryl Tan and Mark Tan half left hit it!" I started to think this really could be my day, was it really the mythical NSPI posting that I had heard much about but knew very little off.
Numerous push ups and crunches later, it was confirmed, Mark and I were going to the SPF and of course, we were overjoyed and we let our platoon 2 mates who were going to SISPEC know all about it as well. I looked around the motley collection of individuals from Gryphon who were going to the SPF as well, there was Mark who I didn't know particularly well except he was the talkative one from Section 3 who got the whole company into pumping position during range as he was hassling the resident gay boy in my platoon. Looking further up the line, there 2 guys who stood out as they were clearly less than enamored at the posting which was rather strange to me. One was the psychopathic looking Indian guy who had a moustache and looked like he was in his 30s and looked ready to kill. There was also the skinny Eurasian dude who had hassled me on guard duty a few weeks before.
From this less than promising beginning, Mark, Aziz, Terence and I would become the best of friends during National Service!
As they say, this was just the beginning!
I was absolutely scared stiff on posting day, whatever the Singapore Armed Forces had in store for me, I wasn't looking forward to it. I had seen the barracks at SAFTI MI and I was convinced the better it looked the less you were going to use it. In preparation for the inevitable let down by the supply chain, I had packed 5 toilet rolls in anticipation of a long and painful confinement period at OCS.
But, somehow or other at the back of my mind, I had a feeling that it was going to be my lucky day. After all, it was 5 Oct 1998, it was my 22nd birthday.
So as Gryphon Company gathered reluctantly to find out the fates that awaited us, 2nd Lieutenant Tay, my less than sane Platoon Commander went "Wah Lau! Daryl Tan and Mark Tan half left hit it!" I started to think this really could be my day, was it really the mythical NSPI posting that I had heard much about but knew very little off.
Numerous push ups and crunches later, it was confirmed, Mark and I were going to the SPF and of course, we were overjoyed and we let our platoon 2 mates who were going to SISPEC know all about it as well. I looked around the motley collection of individuals from Gryphon who were going to the SPF as well, there was Mark who I didn't know particularly well except he was the talkative one from Section 3 who got the whole company into pumping position during range as he was hassling the resident gay boy in my platoon. Looking further up the line, there 2 guys who stood out as they were clearly less than enamored at the posting which was rather strange to me. One was the psychopathic looking Indian guy who had a moustache and looked like he was in his 30s and looked ready to kill. There was also the skinny Eurasian dude who had hassled me on guard duty a few weeks before.
From this less than promising beginning, Mark, Aziz, Terence and I would become the best of friends during National Service!
As they say, this was just the beginning!
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