Army Days - The Lows
This entry follows the format of the previous entry.
No 3 - Sunday nights.
Absolutely detest Sunday nights. The weekend had ended and we had to book in. Luckily either my brother or my father would drive me to camp or else I had to leave my house at around 1915 in order to reach my camp by 2215. The sense of dread was evidently in the air by Sunday mid afternoon. We had to go back and face reality. To continue facing the people we don't like and doing the servicing we hated but forced to complete. Worse if there's outfield excercise the following week. I envied my other NSF friends who could go back only on Monday morning. Just imagine the number of things we can do on Sunday nights. I understand that if we needed to move out early it made sense for us to come back the night before. But it's bullshit for us to book in on Sunday night just to wake up at 10 next morning.
No 2 - SOL
I misfired during ATP. My OC decided that I would be charged and the punishment would be SOL 21 days. I can't describe the feeling I was feeling at the moment when the verdict was being read out. Disbelief, helplessness and how-am-i-going-to survive thoughts all went through my mind at the same time. To rub salt in the wound, the week which I started my confinement in camp was the first week my unit implemented the 5-day work week. Arggh... simply cannot take it. Well since it was me who misfired I had to answer for it. But the manner I misfired sickened me. It was during night shoot and while shooting at the targets I realised that my weapon was jammed. So after the firing ceased I cocked my rifle and one unexpanded round dropped out. So I assumed that there wasn't any round inside anymore. My assistant came up and shined his torch light into the chamber and shouted clear. I squeezed the trigger and a loud bang was heard plus a tracer round flew in my one o'clock direction. That's it. In the end the assistant also got the same punishment as me. I spent the whole month of September 04 in Sungei Gedong. I wouldn't say that it was easy but it wasn't as hard as imagined. I just don't like to report every hour to the ops room.
No 1 - OZZ
For me this was gross miscarriage of injustice. From what I understood OZZ was made a scapegoat for the incident. Someone had to be responsible and his head was put on the chopping board. I wouldn't go into the details of what exactly happened (coz I'm not sure if I can) but I suspected there's foul play involved and the guilty parties actually got away with it. Despite OZZ being my section 2ic I wouldn't say that we were exactly very close. We would argue over minor stuff or kaopeh each other. However I had always respected him for being responsible and someone who stands by his beliefs. He never want the responsibilities Almo assigned him but he would still carry out the tasks without much fuss and just got on with his life. He is always frank and has never hold back any of his feelings or words for anyone who crosses his path. Although the incident didn't affect me directly, I feel a deep sense of injustice for him. Anyone including me could have been made the scapegoat under different circumstances. Imagine wasting one week of your life for something that you are not responsible. This got to be the lowest of all the lows.
Up next: The Baddies. (aren't you guys excited?)
No 3 - Sunday nights.
Absolutely detest Sunday nights. The weekend had ended and we had to book in. Luckily either my brother or my father would drive me to camp or else I had to leave my house at around 1915 in order to reach my camp by 2215. The sense of dread was evidently in the air by Sunday mid afternoon. We had to go back and face reality. To continue facing the people we don't like and doing the servicing we hated but forced to complete. Worse if there's outfield excercise the following week. I envied my other NSF friends who could go back only on Monday morning. Just imagine the number of things we can do on Sunday nights. I understand that if we needed to move out early it made sense for us to come back the night before. But it's bullshit for us to book in on Sunday night just to wake up at 10 next morning.
No 2 - SOL
I misfired during ATP. My OC decided that I would be charged and the punishment would be SOL 21 days. I can't describe the feeling I was feeling at the moment when the verdict was being read out. Disbelief, helplessness and how-am-i-going-to survive thoughts all went through my mind at the same time. To rub salt in the wound, the week which I started my confinement in camp was the first week my unit implemented the 5-day work week. Arggh... simply cannot take it. Well since it was me who misfired I had to answer for it. But the manner I misfired sickened me. It was during night shoot and while shooting at the targets I realised that my weapon was jammed. So after the firing ceased I cocked my rifle and one unexpanded round dropped out. So I assumed that there wasn't any round inside anymore. My assistant came up and shined his torch light into the chamber and shouted clear. I squeezed the trigger and a loud bang was heard plus a tracer round flew in my one o'clock direction. That's it. In the end the assistant also got the same punishment as me. I spent the whole month of September 04 in Sungei Gedong. I wouldn't say that it was easy but it wasn't as hard as imagined. I just don't like to report every hour to the ops room.
No 1 - OZZ
For me this was gross miscarriage of injustice. From what I understood OZZ was made a scapegoat for the incident. Someone had to be responsible and his head was put on the chopping board. I wouldn't go into the details of what exactly happened (coz I'm not sure if I can) but I suspected there's foul play involved and the guilty parties actually got away with it. Despite OZZ being my section 2ic I wouldn't say that we were exactly very close. We would argue over minor stuff or kaopeh each other. However I had always respected him for being responsible and someone who stands by his beliefs. He never want the responsibilities Almo assigned him but he would still carry out the tasks without much fuss and just got on with his life. He is always frank and has never hold back any of his feelings or words for anyone who crosses his path. Although the incident didn't affect me directly, I feel a deep sense of injustice for him. Anyone including me could have been made the scapegoat under different circumstances. Imagine wasting one week of your life for something that you are not responsible. This got to be the lowest of all the lows.
Up next: The Baddies. (aren't you guys excited?)
posted by shyh jie at 2:47 PM
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