Military Induction, Singapore Style
My nephew is a 21 year old Singaporean Chinese lad. Yesterday was D day for him, he had to do his induction into the ARMY. As I am sure most of you are aware, two years national service is compulsory here. I got an exemption because I am too old (maybe they don't want gweilo's). So, instead of the usual goodbye at the bus pick up point that I got, they give you a full tour of the training facility. They showed us the rifle range, obstacle courses, sleeping quarters etc. Then they took us to an auditorium and the WO there has boards made up with every item of field kit etc and went through the lot. We witnessed them taking the oath and then went over to the mess and had an ARMY scran (ARMY food is shit no matter what country you are in it appears to this author). So whilst doing the tour, I slipped away for the odd durrie. I was watching these squads of lads marching left right and centre. They are all kitted out in black shorts, brown T's and runners!!!! The drill instructors are dressed like PTI's, no shit. There is no barking of orders like we had it "Keep up the step Penny", nobody was in step, half of them squaregating and arms flying about everywhere like bloody windmills. Their facilities are top notch. The fella in charge of the base told us when he addressed us that the emphasis is on personal rewards yada yada and they take a softly softly approach. I have a tendancy to agree. All the recruits looked like they were having a ball marching around the parade ground. Personally I think they do the intake over a day or two and the lads I saw maybe got there the day before. Today, when mum and dad are not around, is probably when they clamp on the screws. In the past few weeks two lads just plain dropped dead. One in basic training and one in a unit. Big public outcry but the fact is they had dodgy tickers and it went undetected. Once they hit their limit, game over. So all hard physical activity is on hold in the military here for a couple of days until they go through their proceedures. Told the nephew that I take it as a personal slight that he did not join pussers. Funny story..... when I joined up there was this guy in my intake named Louie Pergaletto. Had a phobia of water. So they could not get him into the water, couple of instructors got the shits and threw him in. Well, 'ol Louie went nuts, thrashed around, and inevitably went to the bottom like a stone. They had a couple of ships divers on standby and they retrieved him, he looked like a drowned rat, Louie was as white as a sheet and had the 1000 yard stare...... spooky. So he did backward swimmers for a month but they never got him in the water. Last I heard he was transferred to the Pongos.
My nephew is a 21 year old Singaporean Chinese lad. Yesterday was D day for him, he had to do his induction into the ARMY. As I am sure most of you are aware, two years national service is compulsory here. I got an exemption because I am too old (maybe they don't want gweilo's). So, instead of the usual goodbye at the bus pick up point that I got, they give you a full tour of the training facility. They showed us the rifle range, obstacle courses, sleeping quarters etc. Then they took us to an auditorium and the WO there has boards made up with every item of field kit etc and went through the lot. We witnessed them taking the oath and then went over to the mess and had an ARMY scran (ARMY food is shit no matter what country you are in it appears to this author). So whilst doing the tour, I slipped away for the odd durrie. I was watching these squads of lads marching left right and centre. They are all kitted out in black shorts, brown T's and runners!!!! The drill instructors are dressed like PTI's, no shit. There is no barking of orders like we had it "Keep up the step Penny", nobody was in step, half of them squaregating and arms flying about everywhere like bloody windmills. Their facilities are top notch. The fella in charge of the base told us when he addressed us that the emphasis is on personal rewards yada yada and they take a softly softly approach. I have a tendancy to agree. All the recruits looked like they were having a ball marching around the parade ground. Personally I think they do the intake over a day or two and the lads I saw maybe got there the day before. Today, when mum and dad are not around, is probably when they clamp on the screws. In the past few weeks two lads just plain dropped dead. One in basic training and one in a unit. Big public outcry but the fact is they had dodgy tickers and it went undetected. Once they hit their limit, game over. So all hard physical activity is on hold in the military here for a couple of days until they go through their proceedures. Told the nephew that I take it as a personal slight that he did not join pussers. Funny story..... when I joined up there was this guy in my intake named Louie Pergaletto. Had a phobia of water. So they could not get him into the water, couple of instructors got the shits and threw him in. Well, 'ol Louie went nuts, thrashed around, and inevitably went to the bottom like a stone. They had a couple of ships divers on standby and they retrieved him, he looked like a drowned rat, Louie was as white as a sheet and had the 1000 yard stare...... spooky. So he did backward swimmers for a month but they never got him in the water. Last I heard he was transferred to the Pongos.