THE ARMY SERIES : GUARDS CONVERSION COURSE

BACK TO MAINLAND!

​Hello mainland! I am back! I was so happy to be back on the mainland that I didn't mind at all to be posted to 3rd Guards. Whatever. Wherever. As long as I'm back. Tekong was depressing. Well at least Tekong has mobile coverage now and the recruits there can bring their handphones. So you see, it should be much better now. And you see why I am writing this series? Because it is so much different now and what we went through then, would just be a myth if we are to tell these experiences to anyone now and in the future.

What's up Bedok

​Circa March 2001. Bedok Camp 2. Home of the 3rd Battalion Singapore Guards. About 80 of us who have just graduated from School of Infantry Specialist (SISPEC) 17th Advanced Section Leader Course (ASLC), stepped foot into the camp. It was spanking new. We would be attached to the 10th Mono intake of recruits who were at that time undergoing their Basic Military Training. Once they complete their BMT, we would also complete or Guards Conversion Course and will be assigned as their leaders. See, it was all planned and set up. Anyway, the camp was spanking new. The previous batch, ie. the 9th Mono Intake started their service in Kranji Camp. Halfway through their service, they shifted to Bedok Camp. When they completed their service, 10th Mono took over. So the camp would most probably be about only a year old. Compared to old army camps that you can imagine, this place is like a heaven to stay for the next 1 year 9 months. With new blocks, beds, toilets, facilities, etc. The guys from 3rd SIR across the field could only watch in envy. 

We were then separated into 4 groups of about 20 persons each group which were called “syndicates”. They had fancy names then. A “syndicate” means a group or section. The trainers were called “cadre”s. I was grouped in syndicate 3. 

Our Guards Conversion Course would last 4 weeks. There is an online video series if you google Guards Conversion Course. It is not exactly what we went through but it was somewhat similar. So maybe you can have a look at the videos. As for me, I only have diminishing memories in my head as we didn't have digital cameras then. Interesting thing about our course then was, it was the first time for the formation to experiment a “Gentlemen's Course”. Supposedly they were going to treat us trainees as “gentlemen” instead of the usual dreaded “tekan” course. Well, after SISPEC, I guess this was a nice change and welcome. Maybe this Guards Conversion Course (GCC) won't be so torturous after all. 

There were a number of requirements for us to complete in order to graduate from this course. If I'm not wrong, they were

10km run within 50 minutes.
Helicopter, tower and cliff rappel.
2km Coastal Swim
Guards Assault Course
Summary Exercise

For administrative or logistical reasons, we would not complete the coastal swim during the course but we would do it later in the year together with our men from 10th mono intake. 

We were welcomed by HQ company sergeant major, Staff Sergeant Saygar. He had this distinctive way of walking and talking. Numerous badges on his uniform. A commando and a guardsman. Cool character. We all had a kick of imitating him and apparently I was the only person who could imitate him as close as possible. 

As mentioned, we would be there for 4 weeks. It was still a 5 and a half day work week then, meaning we would book out on Saturdays and book in every Sunday evenings. Even though I could only see civilisation for 1 and a half days a week, at least we were on mainland. A public bus stop just outside the gates. 

Staff Saygar said that, not only would this be a “Gentlemen's Course” (his favourite phrase was “all of you are all commanders level”) we could also come to camp in bermudas and sandals. That was kind of cool. Polo T, bermudas and sandals to book in. Unlike other army camps in Singapore. We were also told to bring sporty shades for training. Bedok camp was by the sea so to us, it kind of had the beach camp vibes. A few days later, they even set up a small “shop” with retailers from ASICS and Oakley to sell us running shoes and sport shades at a heavily discounted price. Yeah it was kind of cool.

​10 KILOMETRES RUN

So 1st requirement. To complete a 10 kilometres run within 50 minutes. We went through a number of running training before we had to go through this test. As Bedok Camp was just beside East Coast Park, our running training was held there. So if you were there at that time, you would see these boys, running bare bodied in running shorts, Asics shoes and Oakley shades. Either running at our own pace or as a large group. Quite a cool image. Not only it was for the image, but it actually brought the soldiers' morale up. We had pride in our training and of course none of us would want to look like weaklings running in public. I still hate running though.

Anyway me and a couple of others could never meet the timing of 50 minutes. Tried as hard as we might, I just couldn't clock below 50 minutes. My buddy, Nurizam, even piggy backed me for hundreds of metres just so I can catch my breath while gaining ground but I still could not make it. I think my fastest time was 50 minutes 20 seconds. Irritating I know. Yes for the whole of my full time NS life, I never gotten below 50 minutes. In a sense, I failed the commanders test of 50 minutes but I completed the course as Guardsman because the time set for the other soldiers was 60 minutes. So because of this, I served my vocation in a Guards unit but I only got my khaki beret and shoulder guards tab a year later after the unit turned operational.
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​RAPPELING

​I was looking forward for this. What made me excited to be in the Guards unit is that I will get opportunities to do rappeling. One of the officers said that Guards units are either seaborne or airborne and it depends on your intake. Luckily for us, ours was the airborne intake. The next batch will be the seaborne intake. I'd rather be in a helicopter than on the RPL in the sea. 

In GCC we were trained in 3 situations of rappeling. One was tower rappel where we already tried in SISPEC. But here we learnt different styles (we called it stunts). There was the normal tower rappel meaning we go down the tower backwards facing the wall, there was the Australian rappel where we would go down face first. There was also the inverted rappel where we go down head first. 

The other was the cliff rappel which had the normal rappel and Australian rappel. Additional stunts were the hasty rappeling. It is the kind where we didn't have carabiner to coil our ropes. It was just ourselves and a rope and we go down the cliff sideways. We also had a buddy rappel where we piggy back a buddy (as if they are casualties) and we rappel down with him. The cliff rappel lessons were done on this cliff in Changi. 

During my first hasty rappel attempt, which was scary as we didn't have a carabiner to coil our ropes, I kind of panicked and lost my footing and posture. I held on to the rope for my dear life midway down the cliff and was hanging there facing the cliff with my feet dangling downwards. I didn't know what to do. Our Regimental Sergeant Major, Warrant Siva, shouted from below asking me to get my posture right and be brave. But I kept hanging there. He laughed via the loud hailer and kept shouting, “Faster get your footing la! You want to hang there for how long?! Macam cicak la!!” I finally got my footing and rappeled down. He laughed when I was at the bottom, saying I looked like a cicak (gecko). From that day onwards until the end of my NS days, he called me Anwar Cicak Man. This was in 2001. Way before the CicakMan movie in 2006 that was acted by Saiful Apek. Coincidentally a doppelganger.

Last one was the most exciting. A heli rappel. We would rappel down a Super Puma helicopter in groups of 4. Go google “Guards Heli Rappel” and you would see what I mean. The helicopter would hover 90 feet in the air as the ropes were only 100 feet long. 100 feet up in a helicopter at Sembawang Air Base, I could see my block of flats before rappeling down.

That's me doing an inverted tower rappel

Tiny me doing a cliff rappel

​GUARDS ASSAULT COURSE

​Honestly I cannot remember anything about this. Basically it is a series of obstacle course that you have to clear in a group within a stipulated time. Along the way, you will be posed with challenges by the cadre. Those OBS camp kind of stuff.
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​FAST MARCH

I cannot remember this one either. But a quick google search says that it is 10 kilometres long. I cannot remember what was the timing that we had to meet. Though I think I kind of remember the abrasions and blisters on our feet, groins and armpits.
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​SUMMEX

Last was the Summary Exercise (SUMMEX). I think it was 5 days in Tekong. Yes. Back to Tekong. Again I cannot remember much as it was very fast. I can only remember it was mission after mission and we had minimal sleep so it was pretty much zombie and survival mode. I remember it was tough and pretty brutal. So much so I cannot mention them here. I hope I can remember if any of you were to ask me personally and verbally. But yes it was tough and quite brutal. 

One experience that I can share would be this. 

There was one mission where a group of us in our syndicate, I think about 10 of us. We were on one side of Pulau Tekong and we were supposed to do a reconnaissance mission. So the 10 of us walked quietly in the middle of the night, I think it was like 12 am, in our full battle order, to spy and gather information on an enemy base located at the other end of Pulau Tekong. It was roughly 5 kilometres away. 

The mission was simple, walk 5km, gather information of the enemy base, walk back 5km to our base. It was a slow walk though, with the loads on our back and the quiet tactical walk in the night. 

After we successfully gathered the information, we walked back. A few hundred metres on our way back, we were told that we were ambushed. Thunderflashes and gunshots exploded around us. Until now I don't know whether it was the enemy who ambushed us or the cadres giving us a hard time. But anyway the whole thing was a simulation and we had to comply regardless. 

So we ran as hard as we could as a recce mission team were not allowed to engage in fire fights. We ran. As we ran, the cadre would shout out casualty and one of us would be “shot down”. We then had to carry them while we run. 

We kept on running. More and more of our groupmates were declared casualties. I remember this very clearly. Out of 10, 7 were declared casualty. So 3 of us had to carry 7 of our mates. The 3 of us were me, Fardlie and Hamdan. 3 skinny fellas. Since we could not sprint anymore, we had to do front and rear cover. Meaning, I would run 100 metres forward and point my gun forward as a security. Hamdan had to cover our rear as Fardlie dragged 7 men to my position. Fardlie would then become the rear guard at my position. Hamdan then would run 200 metres and overtake me by 100 metres to be the front cover and I would drag the 7 bodies to Hamdan's position. And we took turns. 

I remember we had about 4 more kilometres to do this process. It was about 3am. We had to be back by 4am to relay the information we gathered to our base so that we can prepare for a 6am dawn attack. I don't know if you can imagine this torture. Just imagine 3 boys dragging 7 fully loaded soldiers for a good 2 kilometres. 

At one point, we were so tired. We knew we cannot make it back in time. Fardlie Hamdan and I just laid down on the ground beside each other. We were done. We cannot make it. Our Cadre, Sergeant Khartik was screaming at us to get up. He gave the simulated threats like we were going to die, our mission will fail, our base will be destroyed, the enemy is going to make us Prisoners of War, etc. But we didn't move. He then moved on to real threats like we are going to be charged and confined for insurbodination and ignoring orders. The 3 of us just looked at each other on the ground. We were ready to be charged. We could not carry 7 bodies for another 3 kilometres like this. We just didn't move. 

Sergeant Khartik was a fierce soldier. We were all afraid of him. I think it was just there and then, he told us, he would recover all soldiers, provided we can sprint back to base by 4am. And he did. And so did we. We all got up and sprint our hearts out. 

Yes. Things like that. It was tiring. On our last mission, we had to fast march to Tekong Jetty while being “chased” by the enemy. Susceptible to random ambush and artillery attacks. We had to carry casualties and did front and rear cover and the basic routines. It was tough. Very tough. 

One of the cadre, I don't know who, shouted at us and said, “The moment you reach the jetty, your mission will end! Endure and carry on! Once you reach the jetty you will be guardsmen and all guardsmen will have a glow in their eyes! Earn that glow!”

It sounded cheesy. We thought it was cheesy too. We just continued with our mission. 

We reached the jetty and we were allowed to stop being tactical and have our rest. They declared that SUMMEX was over. We cheered wearily and congratulated each other. That's where we saw the truth in the cadre's words. I kid you not. I saw literal glows in everyone of our eyes. We couldn't believe our eyes too (pun intended). Yes all our eyes were glowing. I saw it myself. I even asked my mates, “are my eyes glowing too?” They said yes. I remember this image until today. It was cool. Really. Many many years later when google came about, I found out it that our eyes dilated due to lack of sleep and hydration causing the glow effect.
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IT WAS OK

Not everything was torturous in the course. There were some fun moments too especially because it was a “Gentlemen's Course”. Our morale was quite ok throughout the course. I remember this particularly one incident. 

Remember I said that I was the only one who could imitate Staff Saygar closely? There was another guy who could imitate an officer. I forgot his name and also the officer's name. Let's just say that the guy's name is Tan and the officer is S1. 

One night while we were in a firing range, we were all sitting and chatting in pitch dark in the middle of the range while waiting for instructions. It was high morale and chatty and all. It was really pitch dark and all that we could see was the night sky. To move around, we had to look up and take references from our friends' silhouettes. So Tan and I walked to the edge of the group and sat down quietly. We waited a few minutes to blend in the dark. Everyone was still chatting. And then Tan and I imitated S1 and Staff Saygar.

Tan: So Saygar.... how was the range today?

Me: All ok sir. So far all ok. They all commanders level they all should know.

Tan: Any problems for the night range? Why is there a delay?

Me: We are waiting for instructions sir. But so far all ok sir. 

Everyone just became quiet. Silent. They didn't expect Staff Saygar and S1 to be there. It was really quiet until Tan laughed out loud.

Tan: Aaaaahhh!!! You all scared right??!!!!

They all then realised it was Tan and me and we all had a good laugh.

And then also my syndicate 3 got a confinement on the last weekend of the course because we left a night vision goggle in Tekong during the summary exercise. But being sergeants, we now were allowed to use the Specialists Mess. A place where there was food, aircon, TV, pool table, darts, board games and such. So it wasn't really a terrible confinement. 

All of us graduated from the GCC happily. It was a tough yet fun course. Thanks to the Gentlemen's Course idea. I don't know if there are anymore Gentlemen's Course after that but we were lucky to be in one. Almost all of us got our khaki beret and guards shoulder tab except me and a few other who have yet to complete the 10km below 50 minutes run. As mentioned, I never passed that run until today. I was kind of hoping that they would kick me out from the unit and send me to a less tough vocation but it never happened. 

As we completed our GCC, the men from 10th Mono Intake completed their BMT as well. A good weekend bookout and when we come back next week, we would be assigned to our companies and men where we would then train them to become Guardsmen in what is called the “Advance Infantry Training” or AIT.

NEXT WEEK : Advanced Infantry Training

Categories : THE ARMY SERIES