The Journey To Officership: Week 11 & 12 | Social Night

Taken on 23/12/15 BRAVO Social Night

Bravo Platoon 2 on the stage

Hey ya everyone! I'm so delighted to write up this blog post because it's something less dry and much more fun in it! I thank my readers for putting up with me on the less interesting contents over the past 10 weeks! As the saying goes, "After the bitter comes the sweet". You have finally reached the sweet part of my OCS journey! Applause! Hahaha

It's one event that every cadet looks forward to. A night where every cadet is caught beaming with excitement, happiness and pride. Simply because we have fought so hard over the past 10 weeks for this night! It's a great blessing for being able to bring either one of your closest friend or loved ones to witness this milestone of your journey. We're sincerely thankful for the opportunity. Therefore, I would like to take this chance to thank my dear, Kit, for making my social night a memorable and meaningful one!

Date: 23/12/2015

Venue: Officer Cadets' Mess

Time: 1830 hrs - 2230 hrs

Dress Code: No. 2

So what was my preparation for this social night? Here it is!

Booked out at approximately 1200 hrs and got a lift to Bukit Panjang to purchase flowers for the night! Believe me, I was contemplating so hard on how many roses to get: nine or twelve. After much hesitation and persuasion by the auntie, I went with nine roses. As the chinese saying goes, “长长久久“, henceforth I wish that everything will last for a long long time. Not really a superstitious guy over here, however since social night is a meaningful night for everyone, so why not give something that holds a meaningful message behind it? Hahaha. 

Thereafter, reached my girlfriend's house via a cab at around 1400 hrs but was an hour late. Opps! We had spent quite some time purchasing our flowers as the auntie was already busy with other orders and initially, she was also hesitant to take our orders. Nonetheless, she decided to help us! :D It's all our fault for being late due to the poor planning. :P Had lunch with her family and started the preparation from 1500 hrs to 1730 hrs. It's a mad rush, I swear! My dad then fetched me and my girlfriend to SAFTI for the social night! 

Okay, I know perhaps it's a boring preparation up there. HAHAHA

Maybe I should just let pictures to express the joy and excitement filled within the social night itself! 

My Wonderful Section! 

2nd from the bottom left (Section Instructor)

Section Swag Shot!

She gave me flowers! 

My dearest! 

Special thanks to my friend, Mike, for the photo booth! It was amazing!

Okay this is all! I thought I have taken quite a few photos last night but it turned out otherwise. :P On top of just socializing, there was also programmes such as magic shows, platoon performances and games! In essence, it's just a night specially set for us to commemorate our hard work! Thankful for everyone in my platoon! Let's advance into Professional term together! 

- Wonderful memories created

The Journey To Officership: Week 10 | Scorpion King

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Hey everyone! I know I have not been updating my OCS journey to everyone on a weekly basis. Fret not, I am finally back to do so! I am currently on my 12th week of OCS. 

As the name of the title suggests, Scorpion King, what's the first thing that comes to your mind? Are we dealing with scorpions this time? Will we be crowned as the king of scorpions at the end of the day? Or is it just another name for our mission, but why scorpion king as the name? 

Truth to be told, I have no idea why SAF has named this mission as Scorpion King. My best guess on the rationale behind the name of the mission would be due to what we were going to do over the short span of 4 days and 3 nights.

Dig, Digging, Dug. Yeah, we were digging close to a total of 70 hours. Yeah, now you can figure out how much sleep rest we had in our mission. Other than our primary goal which was to dig and build up a all-round defence for our base, the secondary goal was also to conduct attacks on other bases. 

If there is one thing I want to rant, it's this: The weather sucked. Rained everyday. D:

Anyway, if I may break down the mission into phases, this would be it: 

Day 1

We were led to our defence site, and it looked as if the route to heaven. Before my eyes of our defence site was an up-up-up-up-up-uphill slope that we have to walk up! Notice the number of "up" was used, you can try to imagine how high it was. Walking it up with my FBO has already used up so much of my fresh energy before the start of the mission. So once on top, what's next? Started the digging of my own shell scrape and attempted to finish before last light. 

Day 2

Hey ya! Don't think I am sleeping! I'm still partially awake! Some breaks were taken in-between the mission though! Went for an attack mission at 0630 hrs and was sleepwalking for a good 2 km before contacting the enemies. Thereafter, continued with what I already started last midnight: my wonderful fire trench. I swear it was one of the craziest moment in my life. The amount of dirt and sand I have dug could accumulate to a mini construction site. 

Day 3

Yeah, fire trench was almost completed! Went for an attack mission at 0730 hrs and was appointed as the section commander for breeching. Got screwed by instructors because things didn't went as planned and I delayed the breeching for my entire platoon. Things got better after we regrouped and went to attack again! :) Hereinafter, continued to touch up on my fire trench as well as setting up of concertina wires around our base! Went to the GPMG post to help out in the digging as well. 

Day 3 was considered as the most hellish moment of our mission. We had to ensure our defence was completed before first light on Day 4. Everyone worked their asses off and helped each other with their respective trenches. In particularly, many of us had went to help out with the COMMAND post. Perhaps, from the help required or rendered by everyone, you may picture how big the COMMAND post had to be. With the help of everyone, everything was completed at around 0400 hrs.

Day 4

Now with our defence completed! We went for our final attack mission at 0700 hrs. At this point of time, fatigue and hunger has already affected my energy drastically. Luckily, I was an observer on Day 4 for the mission. Everything went pretty smooth after our mission. Continued to touch up with whatever we could, and now comes the GREAT news! It's time to cover up what we have dug over the days! This also signified the end of our mission! Yup, we took a good few hours to complete the entire closing process. 

Day 5

Woke up at 0530 hrs and marched to Kranji Memorial Hall to learn about the history of our brave soldiers who fought during WWII. A pretty pleasant and insightful experience! By then, we were also already in our new set of uniform just except for the still squishy and muddy boots! Thereafter, as usual, continued with the cleaning and maintenance of our weapons. 

Happiest moment of the week: BOOK OUT! :D

- Hectic and shag yet at the same time, blessed by the angels as I did not have any encounters with scorpions along the mission!

The Journey To Officership: Week 9 | The Monster Gun (MG)

Finally! Have the time to update everyone again! 

Hmm! Week 9 of 38 already but it still seems so long! Hahaha. Let's go! I'm gonna fill you all up with what has happened this week!

The Monster Gun is indeed a powerful one. Just by the weapon's weight, appearance and complexity are sufficient to allow one to understand why is it a monster.

So what is this Monster Gun (MG) ? It is no other than the general purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) used in war to assault at least a platoon's worth of enemies. I was learning on this weapon's characteristics and handling throughout the entire week. 

Right after we have learnt about the gun, we moved on to Exercise Cougar (Section and GPMG Live firing) on Friday! Yup, it's live rounds. No longer blank rounds. Everyone was worried about their safety but SAF would always ensure that it's totally safe, otherwise I would not be here updating you all. Hahaha. I can't really reveal much but hmm, the experience was LOUD and THRILLING. It's once in a life time experience and I was taken aback by the impacts! Benefited quite much from the live firing. 

Ah yeah, almost forgotten! We also had a 9 km route march this week! Still quite manageable but I feel that 16 km will be the real deal for myself. 

Yeap, book out on a Saturday afternoon before hell comes next week.

SCORPION KING

- Quite a boring and exhausting week ...