2nd ICT Training (724 GDS)

I am just back from my 2nd ICT!! Yes finally, I see some form of civilisation at last. Though it was very tiring, nevertheless, let me recount what shit load of hell I have just gone through...

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Day 1

Nothing much of concern. In process, CO parade and then taking over the store. The facility in Jurong camp 2 is much much better than that eons years old Tanjong Gul Camp. New buildings, functioning toilets and new beds!! Administration and accommodation side was super impressive. Have the Army finally shade its old habits of ineffectiveness and "bo chap-ness" and decided to let NSmen live in better condition?? We shall see in the days to come....

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Day 2
Cannot stand my feet rotting in my boots any longer, so I decided to head down to the Medical Center to report sick to get some medicine to kill off those fungus growing on my skin. Well, army is still army. The medical center let me wait from 8am to 1pm just to see the Medical Officer, simply a waste of time!! Don't they know that I still have lots of store to prepare?? In the later part of the day, there is familiarisation of motorbikes and underslung training. Luckily for us, the rain stop us to do further damage to the bikes. Taking off the crash bar is easy, but fixing it back, is another story. Another slack day so far....

Day 3

Live underslung operation! Whenever bikers like us heard the word underslung, all of us will start to go crazy. Why? Because this means 2 hours to take off the crash bar, 0.5 hours to net up the bike, 0.5 hours to pray that nothing will be damage or dented when the bikes are lifted up and another 3-4 hours to mount the crash bar back, that is provided that we can mount it back to its original position, which 99.9% of the time, we can't! Heh heh, luckily, we escape the live task this time round, but we did see the motars and jeeps in action of being lifted up by the chinooks and super puma below!!

. Super Puma in action

Chinook doing air lift and drop

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Day 4

CCAC, another word that all scouts hate and fear to hear. Why? Because this will means that we have to start poking each other using the Yakut size needle to inject saline solution. If your buddy is a bo-bo shooter... all the best to you. Pray that you will not get a big "orh ceh" at the end of the ordeal...

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The IV setWith the super big needle .

Day 5
Preparing of store and mounting of TES set for the Company Mission Exercise. After 3 years of studying, my combat fitness drops to almost none. Plus they are using the old 10 kg 940 signal set instead of the newer 7 kg 940-A set, there is only one sentence I can say: "May the force be with me!!"

I don't know am I sway or what? For the 2 years of my NSF life, I have not encounter any snakes in the jungle before. But for this ICT, I encounter 3 snakes in fact!! The first time was at Lam Kiong Helicopter site where we see the live 2 hours animal planet of a frog battling a snake! In the end, the frog unethically won because of human intervention. The 2nd time was at the Company Mission Exercise in Marsiling area. As we were bashing through a track, we were stun to see a stick hang in the middle of an open patch. Upon closer inspection, it is actually a snake in a ready to strike position!! A close call in fact because I cannot foresee what will happen if we walk through the snake killing range...The 3rd will be in the BME mission, where one of my commander is bitten by a snake in the middle of the night. His whole hand is swollen but luckily no fatal injury happens to him.

Day 6
Book out and book in on the same day. Sian...

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Day 7 - 9

Battalion Mission Exercise. Weather forecast: raining for most area of Singapore. Result: wet uniform, wet boots, mud ground, no sleep, hungry mosquitoes. This is really testing us on survival of the fittest.

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