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Chong Liang
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It only seems last week...

02/07 is my 3rd full batch, 4th set of recruits considering the 04/06 leopard batch. How time flies. During the 04/06 period when we just came in as fresh sergeants from sispec aslc, we were still considered "xin jiao" - new birds. Everything we also do, everything we must learn. The bulk of the DI duties fell to us, and field camp was more like a training session for us.

The leopard 04/06 batch, though short (barely a month and a half), was by far the most memorable as it was my very first batch. Looking back, some of the memories still linger, especially the frequent visits to SBL with Jihad and some of the other leopard specs. It was almost like a war, the sergeants were always trying to protect each other's backside from the warrant officers who would dish out punishments for us at any sign of misdeed. I suppose we didn't kena as much only because we weren't permanent specs there. Still, it was one of the better batches as the recruits were motivated ex-poly students with a lot of life. Seeing them progress each day gave me reasons to smile in an otherwise gloomy confined place. Though many would say tekong is the best place to be because of the instructor job, fact is that freedom never seem to appear as prominent in the good points list.

In addition, Leopard pl 3 04/06 had a deep impact on me not only as an instructor, but as a person. My PC, Warrant Lim Chin Yeong (aka yandao lim, aka my mentor, i duno wat else we called him) said this to us at one point of time:

"Only when your personal stuff is settled can you concentrate fully on your work. "

Though it was just a simple sentence without any hidden meaning, fact is that we often mix our personal problems and thoughts with work and let it affect us. Our platoon was just like a family. He was like a godfather, we were like his sons. Any disagreements could be solved easily, if not once he stepped into the picture and put his leg up on the chair in his typical "ah beng" pose we knew we were in for it(haha...not so aggressive la). He was also the one who revitalised that energy into us in army, the urge to do things properly, not because you want to impress upon others or any other motive, but because you really want to do it. im grateful for all that.

Once back in Orion we took the PES C 04/06 batch. My first look at my section and i was like, wow. one was covered in tattoos, one was so round he just reminded me of the smiling buddha back in taiwan, one was already married, and one i even doubted whether he was actually PES C because of his well toned body. 13 guys from all walks of life, from fat to skinny to pai kia to refined, all of them share something similar. all of them has a health problem. i still remember sitting down and asking them one by one to explain to me what on earth their problem was, something so reminiscent of a doctor. as the days passed there were the ever frequent trips to the medical centre, so much so that it became my second home in camp other than my own bunk. attendance was a wee bit complicated given that all of them had a status, and it became pointless to give them status tags if they weren't to become a permanent asset of the no. 4 uniform. field camp (field excursion more like it) was boring, every single day they would go back to bunk and sleep. zZzZz... after 7 weeks they eventually passed out, but not before our heads got big and they got big too owing to their lack of exercise. lol.

01/07 ptp batch came just a few days after 04/06 POP (no rest at all =( ) and confinement again. this time round we didn't have the luxury of lull period, plus the fact that all were jc boys with loads of aspirations. This batch was quite a love-hate batch in my opinion, because on our part the recruits were sometimes just annoying as they can do the stupidest things that we could ever imagine, but yet some were just being funny cocksters that you can't help but laugh. On their part welfare just seemed to be equalvalent to harsh and unreasonable training, given the numerous night PT and the never-ending insulting that we dished relentlessly like a avalanche of bombs on them. Yet, they needed quite lot of "whacking" if they actually wanted to be able to survive in command school. ZUO REN NAN arh...

This was a batch in which i finally decided to discard that "rationale and welfare sergeant" image and play bastard with them. But in the end i realised that it just wasn't natural. it just felt odd being the baddest and unpredictable. It went all the way to irrational and emo (PMS they call it) and it wasn't easy for them as well as for me. Well, towards the end it was just like "another batch passed out". Meaning, half time for us, lull period's approaching. March beckons.

So now, after the so'called lull where we didn't get to enjoy our off and leave properly. sometimes we were at home relaxing, sometimes we were in camp doing outfield urban training. sometimes we were at some course, sometimes we were at chalet without any civilian mood for enjoying. neither here nor there huh. As 10 Apr approaches, the 02/07 batch would be one to look forward to. At the same time, it spells the end of orion pl 3 since 04/06 pes c. Faisal (PS) is clearing his leave and Weibin is moving on to pl 1. In comes Iqbal as PS and new spec Kok Siong. Hopefully pl 3 will keep its culture like before and work together as one. And i suppose it's time to be me again, as being the reel just doesn't seem natural. With that i sign off, with confinement of almost 21 days beckoning. Wah like taiwan sia 21 days... only that $$ wouldn't seem so much of a concern being in camp =) tataz...

---------Always look on the bright side of life - every darkest sky has a shining ray-------------

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