Yahoo! : Swimming for Singapore is already doing "National Service" [Link]
With all due respect madam, compulsory conscription to do military training is very different from other forms of "National Service" that some people may have in mind.
i was very happy for Joseph when the news broke that MINDEF has granted him deferment from Full-Time NS till possibly after 2016 so that he can completely devote his time and energy to train competitively in his sport.
i know of parents' at my son's school who are completely dedicated to see their child excel in competitive swimming. The dad is always present with the lad, for two hours, daily, five times a week, going through the paces, regardless of semester exams or school vocations, they will be there, training. Such sacrifice and dedication, and just for the DSA (Direct School Admission), the lad has "only" been training for the pass four years... what more Joseph Schooling !
The form of National Service that most of us go through, i.e. Compulsory conscription to do military training, for some tragically, demand the ultimate sacrifice from the parents of the national servicemen. They have to "let go" of their son at the time of enlistment and pray for their safe return ...
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| in memory of a trainee and a fellow NCO (specialist) 1973 - Autumn 1992 |
The news came in through the company line, a tank has overturned! i remembered vaguely was it a Wednesday morning (?) At first we did not know the extend of the accident, whether was there any injuries or worse, fatalities. It was a lull period for our company but the other company (combat team) happened to be out field training...
i remembered the few of us fellow NCOs were at the canteen, received the news about someone was injured and the name of the Tank commander whom we knew, it was patchy at first. He was injured, how seriously?
We were trying to recall the days when he was a recruit, mono-intake (i.e., the conscript enlist directly into an operational battalion as oppose to the usual "boot camp" route via Pulau Tekong). He was our recruit trainee for his BMT (Basic Military training). Later he went on to Infantry NCO school (Sispec) and from there, on to further training in Armour school (SOA) to be trained as an AMX-13 SM1 light Tank commander. He returned to the unit and joined one of the combat team as a tank commander, a fellow NCO.
As "A" - Vehicle commanders, be it SM1 tank or the M113 APCs, the responsibilities placed on the shoulders of a nineteen year old is not for the faint of heart. Especially on the matter of safety, be it personnel or property.
i was a M113 APC section/detachment commander. I learnt how to drive a "tank" before i knew how to drive a car! We learn to operate the APC, we learn about its engine and transmissions and the mechanics and we memorised its performance characteristics. Prior to the advent of all things I.T. like today, the Armour School (SOA) at the time already has a class room equipped with personal computers, it was named the Computer-Aided-Instruction (CAI) room, the best part was it's air-conditioned, a rarity in those days. We would go there for our theory lessons on all about the characteristics, performance, operation and safety of the M113. At the end of certain modules we were required to take a MCQ test. You can try the test as many times as you can, the object was not to fail the trainee but rather to equip the latter with info on the M113 at their fingertips through sheer repetitive testing. Some of us would go to the only air-con facility made avail to us during lunch break, supposedly to take the test. Looking back, i thought the training pedagogy we received at SOA was quite advance for its time. But i digress.
Practical sessions on the M113 was carried out on an armoured vehicle circuit, of various undulating terrain features and fording, just some distance outside from the camp gate. We spent days and nights driving and qualifying on the M113 drivers' test. We went on floatation "swim" (i.e., we prep the M113 for river crossing... keep your fingers cross one, bilge pump working and all plugs fastened) We practised ground guiding the vehicle. We practised guiding the APC onto and down from low-loader's truck. How many nineteen year old high school graduates get to drive and guide an eleven ton Armoured Fighting Vehicle onto trucks we only see utilized in the construction industry operated by hard hat construction work men ?
Whatever we do, wherever we go at SOA, safety was drilled into us. Safety, safety, safety! We got shouted at, we got punished, we got knocks on our CVC helmets by the instructor's vehicle guiding stick until it became quite second nature, they have a way to make us stay focus whenever we were operating the armoured vehicle! Vehicle overturning drill was a big deal with SOA, as there were pass incidents involving fatalities. i remember there was an impressive mock up of a chassis of the M113, suspended on a pair of giant circular wheel structure. The chassis was made to swing like a see-saw simulating the vehicle was about to overturn. We got to train inside this giant see-saw. Of pertinent to this exercise was the vehicle commander's position at the cupola. The vehicle commander invariably always kena pinned down during such tragic event. So the school make we future armoured vehicle commanders practice squeezing under the VC cupola under trying conditions, with the section trainees shouting "vehicle overturn !" until it became quite second nature when we hear someone shout "vehicle overturn !" The task is made awkward with the commander having his bulky webbing (skeletal battle order) on and trying to squeeze into the cupola with the whole chassis starting to tilt while one is fighting momentum and gravity.
We could not believe the news! We just cannot accept it ! Then it began to sink in. A fellow NCO was his immediate section trainer during BMT, he was affected.
From our platoon, all of us NCOs volunteered to attend the wake together with a few of his recruit mates who stayed on with the company post BMT.
Armoured vehicle commanders have myriad of things to look out for whenever we are on the move. It doesn't help matter when the visibility immediately in front and behind one is obscured by heavy dust cloud kicked up by your platoon convoy, the fear of knocking into the front vehicle, damaging both and the impending punishment to come from the CSM! We also need to keep a constant look out for the immediate rear vehicle during a convoy, make sure they are following up and not lost en route, all the while breathing through our make shift face mask fashioned from our towers, all that dust, turn our mucus brown in colour. There are a myriad of tools and kar chang mounted onto the vehicle top, back and the sides, which must be tightly fasten. But invariably some of the fasteners came loose from sheer vibrating force from an eleven ton aluminium match box on the move riding on rough terrain thus one run the chance of missing stores if not careful, another grounds for punishment. The long whip antenna we secured with a fastener rather than letting it swayed freely like what we see on the head dress of some Chinese opera costume. Like that also some people can get lost. Punishment, punishment, punishment !
The diesel exhaust stack is just right in front to the two o' clock position of the VC's cupola. One get used to the smell of the diesel fumes after a while. We find ways to cope and adapt. For example, part of our immediate drill was to erect camouflage net within a set time frame, we became quite adapt after countless drills. Those damn nettings always get entangled from the stuff sticking out from the vehicle top like the exhaust stack and tools and even the fore sight tip of the mounted weapon conspire to trip me! So what i did was to make used of the signalling flags (we have quite a collection lug along but hardly practice using), spread them across to temporarily cover those damn irritating protrusion and other stuff like that... Even while keeping the camouflage net we have to be careful, there was once i witness when the net got caught and entangled the sprocket wheel of some unlucky M113 while on the move! Of course we were not allowed to cut the netting but painstakingly disentangle the frustrating mess. Try damaging SAF property! I was fortunate to have a capable and responsible M113 driver in my section, so needn't worry too much on the operational state of our APC, of which this is, if not, the most important aspect of a VC responsibility i.e. the functionality of your combat vehicle. The vehicular signal sets we have to draw out from the signal stores. While mounting the heavy signal set and trying to manoeuvre within the crammed confine of the M113, macham like going for a sauna. Don't know why they keep giving us dodgy signal equipment. Like the CVC helmet so prone to intermittent comms. Vehicle commanders are rue to lost communications, its not like in the infantry you can whisper to the next section to get their attention. i had developed a habit of constantly keeping a look out for the connecting socket between the CVC helmet and the "intestine" cable coming from the junction box, which i clipped onto my combat fatigue, for added insurance, i had the vehicular set "Push-To-Talk" handset pulled up onto the VC cupola, the PTT handset kiap in between the cupola mount and the periscope guard. We try ways and means to beat Murphy. Talk about kiasu and kiasi sinkie !
Mount Vernon columbarium was hauntingly serene that night. After getting permission from the CSM to indent for a three-tonner, we made our way to Lavender street. Apparently someone at the company office told us the wake was at the Singapore casket. Imagine the look on the face of the receptionist when an army three ton truck pulled up in front of the building, along the busy Lavender road and unloaded almost a platoon of soldiers! Wrong lah, a few phone calls later confirmed and we made our way to Mount Vernon, we got rid of damned Murphy!
We paid our respect, fellow NCOs and friends and buddies. The mortician did good. He was tanned and lean, just like the rest of us. We went through the same NCO and armour school. Losing our baby fats, civilian fats and whatever fats along the way. 日晒雨淋 - We went out field for training as infantry in our combat fatigue, it rained in Mandai, we were drenched, and the noon day sun baked dry our combat fatigue, no sooner it was drenched again but this time by our sweat. And when we were not out field we were running, in PT kit, in vest and slack or in skeletal battle order, clearing SOC. And while we were doing all these, invariably always kena punishment of the physical sort coming our way, simply because this is the military. We were conscripted.
i couldn't recall all the good reverend said during the service. The battalion RSM prepared his company buddies for the ceremonial service. The pall bearers, three volleys of shot in his honour immaculately attended to by his company mates. There was a short, solemn procession to the crematorium, casket resting on a gun carriage. i remember his younger brother bearing his portrait ...
Till today i have no details of the accident. Here, i can only imagine base on the experiences of having done the armoured VC course and served time in an operational unit...
Armoured Vehicle Commanders do the darndest to make sure nothing untoward happen to our combat vehicle. This "sense of responsibility" borne out in no small part from fear of punishment. Sheer fatigue, constantly sticky and sweaty and smelt like chao sng (ammonia pungent), it's the humidity of the tropics. Bearing those barang barang weighing down on our bodies while trying to reach the objective in the dead of the night in some god forsaken ulu trail in Singapore that we never knew existed till then. We were more afraid of being punished for failing mission objective and got no time to be afraid about the row of tombstones we just passed by. This mentality stays post command school.
i imagined he never ever expected the SM1 to overturn. It's just not like that. Even till the very last moment when the inevitability sunk in. Even till the very last moment he was trying his best to salvage the "situation". Safety, safety, safety fails, punishment, punishment, punishment follows, we are like that. We are conditioned. Cannot let the tank overturn! Is the driver inside his hatch already? The gunner? Driver pull left! Driver pull right driver ... !!!
i don't know.
The day you are conscripted, you don't belong to yourself, you belong to the Army. You have no say and no control over your time, your routine, your rest and even your body. It is almost akin to servitude, almost. It is this maladjustment more than all the physical discomfort you endure that inevitably gets you. And this is the "National Service" the rest of us have to submit.
Accident happen and he tried his very best to remedy, to salvage and paid the ultimate price. He is a good commander. A good buddy, a good brother, a good son to this country and a beloved of his parents. No Olympic medal can bring their son back. It has been twenty-one years, but sadly there had been some more tragedies involving our NS boys and men. Detractors can say that these boys never really gone to war or fought a single battle and so they are not real soldiers. Tell that to their parents. They paid with their lives so that we don't need to go to war? Because potential adversary think twice before bullying us in this world of Realpolitik? We don't want young Singaporean men to die needlessly. We don't need that and we don't want that. I know, because the wife and i have two young boys. While they are still with us, we hug them, we kiss and smell their hair every night we tuck them to bed. Soon they will grow up and we have to "let go" of them to the SAF and pray for their safe return.
The boys and us will be cheering for Joseph :-) ! We are damn proud of Schooling come what may, because he is one of us and we know he will do his very, very best to compete ! We will be rooting for you brudder .
10 December 2013
Post Note: For some who have not been through, they may not understand even after reading, persist to make light of the experience. This, we seek in our hearts to understand them. Being a grunt in the infantry and Armoured-Infantry, only those who have served will understand [Link] . For a personal blogpost like this one, matters regarding weapon systems, tactics and live-firing are out-of-bounds, of which there is a whole gamut to them. A lot of the stuff we do that are mention here may give the impression as mundane and trivia, but these things are no less important then the hung-ho stuff people who have not served will come to expect, maybe because of the exposure to too much Hollywood combat movies, served as "exciting" yard stick, expecting combat action, nothing less than blood and gore?
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