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 ... 

The Journey To Officership: Week 7 & 8 | The Ultimate Resilience

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One of the longest period spent inside the army training.

----Exercise Centipede----

Yeah, I finally started one of the highlights of service term in OCS: Exercise Centipede. It's a 7D6N outfield back in Tekong, where majority of the males started their NS journey. 

I'm about to fill you guys up with the experience! Let's go! The experience was surely not a pleasant and easy one. You have to do lots of high kneeling up to a point where your skin just tears even with the knee guard provided. Also, we had to build our own Basha tent to sleep in it for the next 7 days. My buddy and I had totally no idea how to build one as we were not taught how to build in BMT. So we just, "Aiya, all we need is a shelter and off we go!" Okay la, I enjoyed the stay in my own basha. Hahaha

Just like part and parcel of every soldier's life, you will have to camo on 24h the moment you're in outfield, the only difficult part was that you had to do it for 7 days straight. Honestly, I wondered how I survived. LOL. 

I remembered many moments whereby the stupid camo got into my eyes during section battle and I was blinded partially, and I had no absolute idea where I was advancing. HAHA. Aside from the inconvenience brought by camo on me, there was also tons of stores amounting to weight of 10+ kg to carry! "Section advance! Enemy Ahead! Enemy Overrun! Ice! Spider Ice!" were some of the frequently heard commands over the 7 days in Tekong. 

What was the toughest part in exercise Centipede wasn't the section fire movement missions, instead it was the navigation once again! Walking up to 10+ km under the flaring sun with heavy stores was a killer. I suffered severe back pain from it. Luckily, it was only temporary and I recovered quickly. 

TECHNICAL BREAK AT DAY 4! YES! You are not seeing it wrong! It's a break!! Okay, the best part of it was habouring inside a lecture room with AIR-CON watching the movie titled "Lone Survivor". Fresh rations! FRESH! I enjoyed totally! However, the break was shortlived! We were brought back to the harsh reality on the same day. 

Gone was the navigation, now we were left with assessments to assess whether we were capable of being section commanders! My assessment didn't went smoothly and only managed to scrape through it. Oh well, I gave my best and I had no regrets. 

I also found out I wasn't as good as compared to my other section mates in fire movement. I died a few times during my friends' assessment. Thereafter, I was nicknamed "Why I Die" because I always ask the instructor why was I declared dead. My friends would then laugh and just call me a burden. Hahaha. It was really a fun and thrilling 7 days outfield with my section mates! 

We ended off the Exercise Centipede with a 8 km tactical route march back to our last habouring area before heading back to OCS. 

To sum up, Exercise Centipede was an outfield to assess cadets whether were we capable of taking lead to become section commanders. 

----Post Exercise Centipede----

I cleaned my SAW weapon for a good 7 hours to clear off the carbon accumulated over the 7 days. It was like a living hell for me as I had to clean like crazy after firing 200+ blanks. 

We were all definitely shagged out from the exercise centipede ... but what's coming up next was truly a test to our resilience.

We had 6 km endurance run the day after we returned back in OCS. Okay I gave my best and completed with a timing of 30:29. 

The day after our 6 km endurance run, we had our 6 km fast march in the early morning before heading for Exercise Coyote: Urban Operations (2D1N). 

Exercise Coyote was damn fun la! Clearing staircases and rooms were super thrilling. Combat in urban areas were so much easier to me. 

YOU KNOW WHAT'S NEXT? BOOK OUT LO!

- Not enough time to rest at all. 

The Journey to Officership: Week 6 | Section Drills

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This week was a short one! Started off the week on a beautiful Wednesday.

It's a week whereby our physical limits were tested and pushed to the limits. I swear, I almost died from it. It's a totally new level of shag-ness with stores strapped onto your body walking long distances on rocky roads with steep up and down slopes.

This was also the moment where I realized my combat fitness is ZERO, literally. I was constantly grasping for more oxygen every step I took. I was so freaking close to falling out but of course, I didn't because of my friends who cheered each other on.

Yup, so with a unprepared state of mind and combat fitness, we completed a whole day of navigation walking for long distances for numerous hours. Although I disliked combat rations very much, I realized that I was left with pretty not much choice but to consume so as to survive and push on.

Other than navigation, we also had section fire movement drills. Communication was the key to success in every fight. It was extremely difficult to get everyone on the same page initially, however with more practices, we eventually formed a link within our section. Pretty glad that there was not much argument between section mates along the learning process.

With that, we are heading to Tekong for a 7D6N outfield next week!

- Tired, I need some good rest. Haha

The Journey To Officership: Week 5 | Demolitions, Weapons, and PT

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This week was a mad rush!

It's a cycle of learning followed by tests one after another. The tempo was really fast. We had live firing on demolitions, M203 and matadors for this week!

Let's touch on the demolitions first! So it's just waiting for your turn in green uniform the entire afternoon. Door charges, cross charges, claymore and i-chain were the ones we had during our live firing. Only the selected few based on test results will be chosen to do Door charges, cross charges and claymore. Well, I wasn't selected for anything so I only got to do i-chain! Should have studied harder! Haha.

Moving on to the most anticipated and exciting part of the week, the live firing of M203 and matadors! I swear it was damn fun la. Pew --- shoooooo at a rate of infinity ---- boom ... BOOM!! Everything went smoothly and ended by early afternoon. Headed back to wing line for lunch!

IPPT test 3 was also held in this week! I'm happy that I made a big improvement!! I did a total of 60 push-ups, 53 sit-ups and gotten a timing of 10:23 for my 2.4 km run! Like finally!! I'm out of the RT zone!!! I"M SO HAPPY! Hahaha, I guess I will just have to keep fit on my own then!

There was also a 4 km fast march. It would only be so much more manageable if people at the front stayed compact at all times.. platoon 1 has a small gap, platoon 2 widens this gap, and platoon 3 runs up to close up the gap. This is a fast march and not a fast run!! Haha but anyway, good workout on my legs. It was burning after we completed the march.

- Here comes my 3 days rest! :D