​It seems like just a few weeks ago I blogged about ORD. And now suddenly it is already well into reservist. That was how it was then also. We ORD and then had 2 years of lull period where I truly enjoyed myself, forgot about such the army and suddenly it is back to back reservist.


ICT 2 and 3 were back to back low key reservist. Very much like the first in camp, it concentrated much on group, section and platoon tactics. I kinda like the war gamings and outfields. And also it was only 5 days so it was ok. Not that long. 


What I didn’t like was getting back to doing night missions and the long walks. It is harder now that you are less fit. I remember sweating at night, in the middle of a dark forest, uniform drenched in sweat. Super sleepy. It was miserable. Your body heating up due to the physical strain but yet freezing in cold due to the drenched uniform. Body also confuse. So was I feeling hot or cold? Yes I remember that. It was miserable. And oh I can remember the smell of the forest at night. Until today, every time I ride my bike at night and smell the scent of the forest, I will be reminded of the long miserable night walks.


Also, I was sleepy most of the time. I am already a heavy sleeper, reservist made me sleep deprived. I remember I was so pissed off when I could only go to sleep at 2am and had to wake up at 4am. What nonsense was that? What happened to 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep before strenuous activity? Nope. Never happened. It was just work after work after work. I was so so pissed off. I can still feel the anger today and especially now when I remember those moments.


I don’t know if you remember I mentioned in a post some time before this. Basically almost everyone in my active NS unit were posted to the same reservist unit. But there were some colleagues who were army regulars and had to move on to their own vocations after NS. Thus we had a number of missing personnels. My platoon commander was a regular, so was my platoon sergeant. So they didn’t join us for reservists. Section 1 Sergeant Collin was a regular too. Section 2 Sergeant Fardlie signed on to the police force. Sergeant Chris from Section 3 deferred for some overseas studies. Their respective section 2 ICs had to take up their roles during these 2 ICT. On paper, I was supposed to take up the platoon sergeant role but since we were missing our PC, I had to go all the way covering the PC role. These roles were supposed to be filled up by “top up” soldiers from other units but they haven’t arrived yet. Most probably due to administrative reasons. So yeah, most of us had to do a lot of tasks since we had to cover roles for missing personnels. So yup. Slept at 2, woke up at 4. 

Remember the condescending trainers? Yup. During one of the missions, I snapped and it felt good. They were barking and making noise and were not tactical at all. The “enemies” spotted us approaching because they were not being tactical while we tried hard to be as soldierly as possible. And they also follow the book while we were already comfortable in our own way of doing things which as long we didn’t jeopardise the mission or our safety. 


I remember we were suppose to form up at a “Form Up Place” (FUP) just before we assault the enemy objective. On paper, we were supposed to “dump” or leave of field packs there and go into firefight without it so that we can run and move faster. Upon completion of the attack, we will then go back to our FUP to collect our field packs. But there were a lot of times during active NS where we didn’t dump our field packs because the objective wasn’t far away or wasn’t in a huge place. And also, we had a lot of important stuffs in our field pack that we can use during the assault. And also it was trouble some to dump them and then collect them later. Therefore we were quite apt to conduct our firefight with our field packs on.


The attack started and I led my platoon into the firefight. We didn’t dump our field packs. It was an easy fight anyway and we were used to it. The trainer shouted at me saying, “Commander! Why didn’t you dump your fieldpacks?” on their condescending manner as if they went through world war 2 or some shit. I shouted back at him, “We can still fight with our bags on! And who is going to collect our bags later? You?! Shut up and catch up!” I then continued running up the objective. I saw his stunned look. It felt good. Really ah… some of these army regular trainers ah… they want to step regimental and all knowledgable and as if they went through some world war, but they actually really cannot make it one. If you all read and remember what my SISPEC PC Warrant Sim said. He was right. 

​So ICT 2 and 3 ended. We still didn’t have top up personnels. The section 2 ICs were then sent to SISPEC to do their section leader course and come back to our unit to become sergeants. Damn. Having to go SISPEC during reservist really sucks man. But that’s how it is. I got eyeballed too. They wanted to send me to 4 weeks platoon sergeant course. I said no. Never going to happen. If you are going to send me to some course during reservist, I am going to defer till I am 40. No way am I coming and make me sleep at 2am and wake up at 4am. No way. It’s too much. I told them that. Send me to course, I will defer and you won’t see me again.


And that’s what I did. I didn’t attend ICT 4 and 5. I deferred. Even though ICT 2 and 3 were low key and only 5 days, I am not going to go through it until the admin sort their shit out. So I deferred for 2 years. 2007 ICT 4, I was involved in Gentarasa. 2008 ICT 5, I was involved in Kallang Roar shoot. It was really whatever lah. You made me sleep 2hrs a night, we had to cover for missing personnels, we had to deal with rude trainers, so nope… I’m not coming back till you sort it out.


Next week : ICT 6 ATEC 1
Categories : The Army Series