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!