Saturday, February 28, 2009
Retrospective.
When I was still a full-time national serviceman, I, along with everyone else, dutifully counted down the days to ORD with a crazed fervour.
It was torturous, I'm telling you. I was home maybe one day a week at most for most parts. We had to do our standbys duties, our CDS duties, staff parades, and operation after fucking operation.
I pretty much had no life outside camp and the unit. I had no time for music or to practise the guitar. Everyday starts mind-bogglingly early with a run, and then it's a whole day of dodging arrows that are being viciously shot your way. It was one helluva place, but then, in hindsight, it was probably one of the best things that could have ever happened to me. Because aside from experiencing and witnessing some of the most extraordinary things, I also acquired a whole bunch of lifelong friends.
It's always like that with us frail little human beings; we only truly appreciate something when it's over. Well, to be frank, in the last month of service, I was already feeling pangs of sadness on having to leave everyone. I guess my sentiments were pretty much shared by all us. Especially YX, who is a regular.
Okay, let's talk about my band of brothers. Very cliched, I admit, calling them my band of brothers. But the similarities are abound and undeniable, and there really isn't another term that can so aptly describe us.
I was already friends with some of them since BMT, and then onto SISPEC. Then we endured freaking ETI together, followed by the CBRD Commander's Course under the insane Master Leong C.K. Then we all enter Bravo Coy as total greenhorns together, where we had to come together and fend for ourselves.
We have been through a crazy array of different trainings sessions together, from the plain physical trainings, to specialised equipments, to weapons, etc. Not fogetting the many operations and sweeps.
And we all shared a bunk for more than a year. I see these dudes 24 hours a day, almost 5 to 6 days a week. That's roughly 120 hours a week. We live, eat and sleep together. Let's say you see your best friend 5 hours a day in school for 5 days, that's only a measly 25 hours per week. And I bet you also don't share the same bathroom without doors with your best friend in school, or brush your teeth, shave and wash-up together every damned morning. You get the idea.
And when you live with someone, you really get to observe them and learn every single thing about them. Each individual's good and bad traits are plain as hell to see and also possibly magnified. So you really know what's going on with every single one of them. So at the end of the day, if you still find that you can become close friends with them, then I guess you've got yourself a 'brother'. And man, we really looked out for each other, you know that you can depend on each and every one of them with your life.
And I really miss the good ol' soccer sessions, the gym sessions, and the tea-sipping, trash-talking sessions and morning canteen gathering for breakfast.
And the tougher the times were, the closer we got. And since we are batte-ready combatants in this crazy unit, we pretty much had a rough time. I'd never have traded my place for a 8-5 admin job. I'm glad to be a staying-in combatant, because as such, I gained so much more. You'll gain nothing from a 8-5pm admin job. So for those yet to enter NS, please don't fuck around. Be somebody in the service, do something different, challenge yourself, test your limits. Unless you really have a medical problem that it's all cool, but if you are planning to ochestrate some hare-brained scheme to avoid being a combatant, I beg you to heed my advice.
Oh and please do not be mistaken. Although all this bonding here and there sounds pretty damned gay, it simply cannot be further from the truth. The weirdo and the thief were already being cruelly ostracised. But I guess they deserve it.
Anyway, we went to Thailand together just after we ORD-ed. It was the first time I had gone overseas without my parents. And boy, it was really fun. 
