On Monday and Tuesday, we had range. ATP. It's basically a test where we take our M16 rifle and shoot targets at a range. There're 16 in the morning, 12 at night.
We set off at 930AM, which was like 2 hours behind schedule because the FUCKING bus decided not to turn up and make the whole company sit at the companyline to stone for 2 hours, waiting for the buses. Well, it wouldn't have mattered if we didn't have to book in on Sunday night, because we were SUPPOSED to have moved off at 730AM, which made it too late to book in on Monday itself.
I wonder how many people understood that statement, but just understand that I was pissed. Luckily, our PS is a jolly-good-fellow and allowed us to go back to bunk for to rest instead of sitting under the sun. Unluckily (or luckily) enough, the bus came after 15 minutes. *blood boils*
We got to practise a bit of shooting, I managed to pass and I got a decent 18 out of 28 shots on target. It was pretty boring because there was plenty of waiting around. I had to wait for my turn to shoot the targets and then wait for nightfall and the journey back to camp was a good 45 minutes. We only got to sleep at 130AM and had to wake up at 5AM to prepare for Tuesday's range - the actual test. I was pretty much zoned out from the lack of sleep and the lack of warm up due to not doing any zeroing of the weapon. I went on the get a miserable 5 shots out of 16 for the day shoot and had to get 9 out of 12 for the night shoot. Simple maths tells me that I could only miss 3 shots or I'd fail the entire thing. Passing is 14 out of 28.
First target, at 50m, prone position. I laid on the groudsheet, which got wetter and wetter as the water from the surroundings entered the depression that I made. Thus, in that uncomfortable position, I managed to get 2/3.
Second target, also at 50m, kneeling position. I told myself I had a chance. I got 2/3. I became a nervous wreck. I could only afford to miss one more.
To cut the story short, and to take out a bit of the drama... I only managed to hit 1/3 for the third target. Which meant that I had failed, even before I attempted the 100m illum target. BOO.
I was kind of pissed after that. Oops. Did I say pissed? I meant majorly disheartened. I went on the get 0/3 for the 100m target. And thus my total score was something like 10/28. Dismal. Complete rubbish result compared to the day before. Let's not even talk about getting marksman (which means getting a badge and 200 freaking dollars in cold hard cash). I didn't even bloody pass. It made me wonder what the fuck I was doing at the range on 4 hours of sleep, and the time I spent cleaning my rifle etc. etc. And the money I wasted on the food from the ninja van. Well, it did have good tau huay, mee pok and all. Bah.
We had a major rest session in Wednesday but were deprived of nights off. Well, even if there was, I might not have left camp. It's just that the idea of having it means a more relaxed time in bunk and that we had some freedom. The most important thing we did was to prepare for Exercise Wild Cat.
Cold joke by Sgt Gary - Do you know why the navigation exercise is called Exercise Wild Cat? Figure it out, the answer will be at the end of the next paragraph.
Yeah, my group consisted of Jeeveraj, Chia Keat, my buddy and Jeffrey, and of course myself. The plotting and calculating of eximurth yadda yadda was done by Jeevaraj and CK with plenty of helpful advice from Sgt Wei Zhi. I tried to make myself useful by getting the signal set, providing bootlace and basically playing assistant. These preparations were the reason why we couldn't book out. On the bright side, we escaped a 5km run.
And the answer is: The cat is getting out of hand.
Moving on, we set out for Lower Mandai at about 7AM or so. The night before I was determined to try carrying the signal set. I've always heard from BMT commanders that the thing was a killer so I decided to set my mind to carrying it. It was sort of a challenge that I set for myself. I told myself that I would try carrying it till about 12noon, and drilled the thought to my brain. Sure enough, I managed to do it (with the help of my detail-mates who helped carry some of my field pack items), but a headache told me that it was time to pass it on.
It wasn't as light as a normal fieldpack that was for sure. It did take some determination to carry it for as long as I did. However when I asked who would be so nice as to take over the signal set, it didn't take 2 seconds for my buddy replied, "Buddy, I help you take." My buddy is a fantastic guy, although he has a reputation for being rather slack. So it really meant the world to me when at that critical moment, he'd volunteered and saved my ass.
He's the kind of guy who, when he puts his mind to something, will accomplish that something easily. Like during endurance runs, he can't be bothered to run while I always run till I'm half dead at the end and of course finish at the front. However he'd kick my butt when running 2.4km, even with me running with my bestest best effort.
Anyway, later he asked how I managed to carry the signal set for so long; yes it was freaking heavy and I was glad he understood what I went through. I wanted to carry the signal set again after we had a break but he was determined to continue taking it.
That to me is the greatest thing I've gained from the entire trip for Ex Wild Cat. To know that I've the best buddy that I could ever have.
Moving on, this navigation exercise had us bashing through the forest of Lower Mandai and for most of us, it was a tad challenging but a dream come true. You know, kind of like a childhood image of soldiers bashing through forests, looking for stuff in movies, having to deal with vegetation, the weather (it rained in the afternoon), heavy fieldpacks and of course, playing around with the map, pacer and compass to find their way around. We felt like real (infantry) soldiers during the exercise. It wasn't something that we'd like to do any time soon, but you know how guys like to pretend that they're heroic and tough soldiers when they're kids? It's kind of like a mini I'm-a-tough-soldier dream (for 10hours) come true.
It wasn't that bad but I banged into twigs just 2 cm above my groin and that hurt a lot. There were plenty of leaves in my face just walking through the forest. In fact there were leaves everywhere so walking through the trees was pretty much like being molested by a thousand hands. Okay, a bit of exaggeration there but it was pretty weird having so many leaves brush my face, my body, my legs... Every imaginable place. Then there are the thorns. We knew we had to do it, so we just bashed through them bravely but... thorns, being thorns, aren't that easy to get through. They hooked onto my uniform and I had to disantangle myself from them.
My detail spent 4 hours looking for a checkpoint that wasn't there. It did plenty for the morale.
Anyway, that's basically what happened for Exercise Wild Cat. Memorable. Adventurous. Of course there were the unglamorous parts like having to wait for a freaking long time to load stores and waiting till the sky turned dark for the tonner to pick us up and send us back to camp and that our detail and another one were deprived of the chance to go back earlier for dinner and taking the air-conditioned bus. Not worth mentioning, and it's something I take in my stride.
Then there was a mega punishment which was kind of dramatic over a missing bendable antenae (can't be bothered to spell that right), which was found in the end. Bottomline: Stores are important.
On Friday, the bigshots were late because they were busy attending some important stuff so all of us (midgets, small fries) waited an hour plus before beginning the outcamp 5km run at Mt Faber. Waiting. I do not wish to comment on waiting because that just triggers endless vulgarities from inside of me. Uncontrollably.
The run was good actually. I enjoyed the uphill and downhill track tremendously although the pavement was only wide for a person or three at a time. The scenery was gorgeous as well. My PC made a good conducting. Ooh, and he's going to be promoted to Captain. Our platoon is very excited for him (and of course for ourselves hopefully) and extend our heartiest congratulations by cheering when it was announced in the RO. The other platoons just sat in silence. Tuh. Where is the love?
Well, it was a pretty happening week, and as tiring as it was eventful. That's pretty much the reason why I looked forward to this weekend to chill out, relax and escape. And I'm looking forward to the public holidays as well. More time to enjoy and let my hair (despite the lack of it. hmphe) down. YAYNESS!
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