Sunday, February 26, 2006 - freeeeedommmm....into another priiisooon.... : 9 more days to the end of BMT.

And possibly a few months into SISPEC or OCS.

Of which either one will be worst than BMT.

(T_T).

What is SISPEC? its a place where they train you to be a sergeant. SISPEC is the abbreviation of..

S u f f e r
I n
S i l e n c e
P l u s
E x t r a
C o n f i n e m e n t

and many say the recruits in BMT are the lowest lifeforms in the army. actually its OFFICER CADETS who take the mantle. that's OCS for you. (Officer Cadet School)

ah well. i will enjoy my block leave of 10 days before i bother myself with any of these things.

tomorrow will be an exciting/dangerous/boring/oh-my-goodness day because its....you guessed it wrong! its LIVE GRENADE EXERCISE.

yes. it's when you actually take a REAL grenade that has every capability to go BOOOOOM and is bad-tempered enough that if it chooses NOT to explode 6 secs after the mechanism is released, you'll really need a C4 plastic explosive to persuade it to blow up.

what's a C4? its a military class plastic explosive that's so powerful, you can feel the shockwave 300-400 metres away. i have first-hand experience of that when i was at the live firing range.

in any case, i would expect the platoon commanders to be extra nice to the whole company. after all, its us CHAO recruits whose got the grenade in our hands. :]

apparently, there was a case of a recruit activating the grenade and hugging his platoon commander who was with him in the foxhole instead of throwing it out. as for the aftermath, i'm sure all those videos of HappyTreeFriends should give you an idea of how the contents of the foxhole looked like.

after which, its my airforce medical review on tues for me eyes. i really do hope i pass the med check-up. and then the interview. so if i should ever go OCS, ill just spend a grand total of TWO WEEKS in the infantry arm and be whisked away to the airforce school and spend the rest of my 2 years laughing my way into the centrifuge and blacking out when it hits 9 G.

and to add icing to the cake, its the A level results this wednesday. and oddly enough, i don't feel too nervous about it. maybe its because i gave all that i could give and did the best i could i imagine. ultimately, it's God's will be done and His will alone.

ah well. results. pfffft. what are thay but a bunch of alphabets and a piece of paper not even worthy for a trip to the latrine...

BMT has passed by pretty quickly so far. but ill say this - BMT is really a place you become a man...

all those times in outfield, when you just get so jaded about insects you play with them when you get bored. those field rations that taste practically the same... the uniform that is perpetually wet with perspiration.. that blasted rifle that gets you into soooo much trouble...

the terrifying bangs that sound so much like an artillery strike, the flashes of light and cries of shock and shouts for cover when we had our first simulated enemy ambush at 4 am in the morning.

and the very first time you squeeze the trigger of the weapon you have come to love and hate. that ephemeral moment that seemed almost like an eternity, when your mind goes into overdrive at the fact that in your hands now is a weapon of murder, armed with a real bullet.

ill never forget that moment, when the supervising officer gave the command to fire at will. what followed was a moment of horrified silence, before the slaughter of adolescence ensued in a flurry of bangs.

in that moment, we drove a stake through boyhood. everyone left that place knowing that from that time on, none of us were boys any longer.

that interminable 12km march to the campsite, the times that we manipulated one another during the situational test, that poker face we showed to one another when we said we didn't care if we get into OCS.

and to add to these memories that has been seared into my mind, is tomorrow's grenade exercise. do i regret that i am now in the army? hardly. perhaps one day, girls will get that chance to experience for themselves what you get to take away while in the army.

despite all that complaining, i can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that all men who has gone through NS hold dear to them those times when they had a glimpse at the face of War.

C.K blogged at 12:49 AM