- Published on
Ok here we go! The highlight of every full time NS is ATEC 2. The highlight for reservist soldiers, is also ATEC 2. You would have known by now what is ATEC. If it is something new to you, here is the list of links to the posts regarding ATEC
https://www.anwarhadi.com/blog/exercise-wallaby-again-part-1
https://www.anwarhadi.com/blog/ict-4
I think it was a 2 weeks ICT. Should be. Or maybe more. The first week should be the preparation and final “revision”. We went through our SOPs and tactics in different tactical situations. I have forgotten about this week already. But I can roughly remember it was quite fun. We had high morale because this would be the last time we would be “cheong suaing”. Basically means that it would be the last time that we would be going into the jungle and have our tactical exercises. The last time in our life. Hopefully…
2nd week in. It’s time to put our battalion to the test. Waah I really cannot remember already. But I am sure it is the normal things. Walk… walk…. attack… defend… walk….attack… defend… How far we walked, where we walked, how many missions we had, I have totally forgotten about them all. Which is actually quite sad to not remember. I understand why I won’t remember though. Because it was tough. It was auto pilot. It was mission after mission. It was tiring. And the thing I hate most… walking in the jungle at night. Heavy load on my shoulders and back. Clothes all wet due to the perspiration caused by body heating up. But you shiver everytime you stop because of the drenched clothes in the cold of the night. Hot and cold at the same time. I cannot explain it. It was just miserable. I kept psyching myself up. This is the last time. No more mission. No more jungle. No more cheong sua. No more suffering. Endure and Carry On.
FINAL MISSION
All good things will come to an end. We finally had our final mission. I think it was quite standard. We capture an enemy objective and then defend the area in case of any enemy’s efforts to recapture their place.
Ok so we managed to capture a hill in the jungle. Like I said, I cannot remember where. The enemy ran away and now we have to defend it. So we dig our shellscrapes, hide in it and wait. For how long, no one knows. We just wait for them to come and fight back. If they fight back. We just waited.
I remember that it was in the bright of the day. What time? I cannot remember. It was in the day. The dreaded thing about defending is, we won’t know when the enemy will come. And if they come. We won’t know if we have to conduct a quick attack or a block force. We were tired and the shellscrapes were so comfortable. To do a quick attack means we have to leave the shellscrape and chase after the retreating enemy or capture a nearby objective to strengthen our position. A block force means we will have to be redeployed further up and block a counter attacking enermy force and protect our battalion back at the defence site. It was a lot of uncertainties and we were tired.
But our morale was high. We know that it will end soon and we will leave all these “army fighting in the jungle” thing behind.
Then, it happened. And this one…. I remember vividly.
Ok so we managed to capture a hill in the jungle. Like I said, I cannot remember where. The enemy ran away and now we have to defend it. So we dig our shellscrapes, hide in it and wait. For how long, no one knows. We just wait for them to come and fight back. If they fight back. We just waited.
I remember that it was in the bright of the day. What time? I cannot remember. It was in the day. The dreaded thing about defending is, we won’t know when the enemy will come. And if they come. We won’t know if we have to conduct a quick attack or a block force. We were tired and the shellscrapes were so comfortable. To do a quick attack means we have to leave the shellscrape and chase after the retreating enemy or capture a nearby objective to strengthen our position. A block force means we will have to be redeployed further up and block a counter attacking enermy force and protect our battalion back at the defence site. It was a lot of uncertainties and we were tired.
But our morale was high. We know that it will end soon and we will leave all these “army fighting in the jungle” thing behind.
Then, it happened. And this one…. I remember vividly.
THE ENEMY
We were chilling and then we saw the enemy from a far. I think it was a company size enemy. A company size means there were about 500 soldiers. But…. but….. in a simulated warfare, there will be a group of people carrying coloured flags. So if one single guy walks carrying say a green flag, it means he is representing 7 soldiers. A yellow flag represents 28 soldiers. Something like that. So it wasn’t really 500 soldiers attacking us. It was just about maybe 20 soldiers with different coloured flags.
We were excited. We were excited for our final fight. We were disappointed that it was just simulated with flags. We were hoping to see real soldiers who we can fight with. But heck. We fired away.
Since the enemy is supposed to be representing a whole lot more number of soldiers, they didn’t seem to “die”. The flags just kept walking towards us. There were umpires to keep the fight fair of course. Like I said, we didn’t care. We just kept firing. When the enemy flags kept walking towards us, we called for reinforcements. I remember this. I was in the platoon 9 sector. But the enemy fire power was too strong therefore we had the whole Charlie company to reinforce our sector. It was fun to see more people joining us into the firefight. But more people also mean, more mess.
We were excited. We were excited for our final fight. We were disappointed that it was just simulated with flags. We were hoping to see real soldiers who we can fight with. But heck. We fired away.
Since the enemy is supposed to be representing a whole lot more number of soldiers, they didn’t seem to “die”. The flags just kept walking towards us. There were umpires to keep the fight fair of course. Like I said, we didn’t care. We just kept firing. When the enemy flags kept walking towards us, we called for reinforcements. I remember this. I was in the platoon 9 sector. But the enemy fire power was too strong therefore we had the whole Charlie company to reinforce our sector. It was fun to see more people joining us into the firefight. But more people also mean, more mess.
Then suddenly I hear someone on my left shouting, “Hornet! Hornet!” I cannot remember who. Then our CSM, Sergeant Lau also shouted. “Hornet! Hornet! Retreat!” In my mind was like, alamak…. must retreat. Then when everyone was retreating, Sergeant Lau gave loud shout, “go!”. I saw him struggling. Apparently he was stung by hornets. I wonder why he didn’t run. I realised he dropped his spectacles and was struggling. Hornets were swarming him. I took out my smoke grenade and threw it to his area. As the smoke exploded and started filling the air, I ran towards Sergeant Lau and pulled him through the smoke and away from the area. It all happened so fast. It wasn’t like I took a short nap while waiting for the smoke to appear.
As I pulled him through the smoke and away from the area, I felt a sharp jolting pain on my left wrist. It was my first time getting stung by hornets. Just 2 stings but it had these shock feeling. I remember I shouted “aarrghh!” and dropped to the ground. It was very quick, short sharp jabbing pain with a shocking sensation. I quickly got to my feet and continued pulling Sergeant Lau to a safer area which was the main track with the medic and the rest of the safety personnel.
When we reached the track, the safety personnels checked on us. A number of us got stung. Some have started swelling. It was funny. When all of us were accounted for, we heard them announcing, “EXERCISE CUT!” The magic word. THE magic word. And with that, our chiong sua days came to an end. In one of the day, in the year 2011… ATEC 2 was over. I cannot even remember when. It was just sometime in 2011. 11 years since we enlisted.
As I pulled him through the smoke and away from the area, I felt a sharp jolting pain on my left wrist. It was my first time getting stung by hornets. Just 2 stings but it had these shock feeling. I remember I shouted “aarrghh!” and dropped to the ground. It was very quick, short sharp jabbing pain with a shocking sensation. I quickly got to my feet and continued pulling Sergeant Lau to a safer area which was the main track with the medic and the rest of the safety personnel.
When we reached the track, the safety personnels checked on us. A number of us got stung. Some have started swelling. It was funny. When all of us were accounted for, we heard them announcing, “EXERCISE CUT!” The magic word. THE magic word. And with that, our chiong sua days came to an end. In one of the day, in the year 2011… ATEC 2 was over. I cannot even remember when. It was just sometime in 2011. 11 years since we enlisted.
AFTER THAT
After that… I cannot remember much except that I was enduring the swell on my left arm for days. I received a good service medal for the Hornet Adventure. I didn’t care about anything. ATEC was over. No more chiong sua. We made it. What was the redcon score? I cannot remember either. As long as we didn’t have to redo it.
3 more cycles, and my unit will be done.
In retrospect, it was bitter sweet. But at that time, it was a relief. Especially when the swelling subsides. Anyway, we are not done yet. 3 more cycles. A few more blog posts to go.
3 more cycles, and my unit will be done.
In retrospect, it was bitter sweet. But at that time, it was a relief. Especially when the swelling subsides. Anyway, we are not done yet. 3 more cycles. A few more blog posts to go.
Memories fade. Hornet sting scar hasn't.
- Published on
The last time I posted in this blog series, we still didn't have AI generated image. That was 1 year ago. So fast. Anyway this is just an image of us chilling at the canteen.
Ok let's get back to blogging. I have a few more topics left before I finally conclude this Army Series blog.
It has been a long while since I last wrote my last post. Pretty much due to being unmotivated. As mentioned, the viewership for this website is actually pretty low. But I also noticed that the bulk of the visits to this website, most particularly blog, is the army series. Apparently it is quite popular. And also I have received a number of encouraging comments, and link up with past army personnels who enjoy the posts. Therefore, I thought I should just finish this.
Another reason is, I am worried that my posts could be revealing sensitive army information. But recently since the advent of Tiktok, I saw that there are a lot of army posts. There are also videos such as "Our Singaporean Son" series on youtube. So I guess, whatever that I mention here can be seen visually on these posts and videos. I guess it should be ok.
Anyway, if there are any readers here who enjoy these posts who would like to sponsor my works, be it my theatre works or writing works, do let me know ok. It's a long shot but worth a try. Maybe I should compile these blog posts into a book. What do you think? Will anyone buy?
Well let's get going. I have been preparing for the next few posts for a while now. Simply because I have been having a hard time trying to remember the events. So yes. That is the initial point of this blog. To document before my memory fails. So let's go.
MAKEUP ICT
deferred my ICT 4 and 5. I had some important jobs to do and also because I didn't want to be sent to Platoon Sergeant Course. I mentioned these in my previous post. Also, I got quite fed up as how the ICT was run. The load, both physical and workload that we had to do because we were down in the number of personnels, the low sleep hours just to cover these workload, I think it is unfair. So if these people can ponteng, so can I. So I did.
Of course the army will not let you go so easily. Since I deferred 2 ICTs, I had to make up for them. Which honestly I didn't mind because it means I won't be doing the stressful workload in my own unit.
Of course the army will not let you go so easily. Since I deferred 2 ICTs, I had to make up for them. Which honestly I didn't mind because it means I won't be doing the stressful workload in my own unit.
MAKE UP ICT 1
This is a mystery. I tried so hard to remember this one but I simply cannot. It just disappeared from my memory. I tried looking up my NS records online. They have been deleted. Effectively telling me that the army is an erased past of my life. I don't even remember when.
I can only roughly remember that I slept at a training shed in Pasir Laba Camp. I think...... I think only la... I was tasked with the other people who had to do the makeup to become the "enemy" for some unit. I roughly remember the word "OPFOR" in some signs. It is a very hazy memory. The only thing that I was sure is that it was a very short ICT. Less than a week. So it was a Low Key ICT. This ICT will become an annoying factor once I reached my 10th reservist cycle. Hopefully I will remember to mention this in the future 10th ICT post.
I can only roughly remember that I slept at a training shed in Pasir Laba Camp. I think...... I think only la... I was tasked with the other people who had to do the makeup to become the "enemy" for some unit. I roughly remember the word "OPFOR" in some signs. It is a very hazy memory. The only thing that I was sure is that it was a very short ICT. Less than a week. So it was a Low Key ICT. This ICT will become an annoying factor once I reached my 10th reservist cycle. Hopefully I will remember to mention this in the future 10th ICT post.
MAKE UP ICT 2
This one I can remember a bit. Let me try.
I remember it was a Monday. I reported to Jurong Camp 2. There were a number of us from my own unit 662 Guards. I think maybe about 30 of us. We then headed to the auditorium wondering what we were doing there. The guys said that this is a Make Up ICT for the ICT that we missed. But what exactly are we supposed to do, none of us knew.
I cannot remember the content of the briefing. I could only remember being very happy that finally we will have a "slack" ICT. We will all be attached to become umpires for another unit's ATEC 2. Ok la. Quite slack I think. Just follow them. Give them scores. Still have to walk in the jungles with them but at least no need to carry full battle order. 5 days of hiking and enjoying nature. Fresh rations (no need to eat combat rations). I'll take it. This is going to be fun.
Hahaha. Combat rations. I thought I didn't have to eat them. As we are umpires for the reservist unit on ATEC, we will be attached to different platoons of the battalion. The battalion will start their ATEC on Monday but the first 2 days will usually be planning. They will only go to the field on Tuesday, earliest. So we can slack in the bunk and only go out on Tuesday evening. That's a good deal. Unfortunately, somehow....... myself and another friend, Yi Wei got attached to the Batallion recce team. We were only told about it on Monday evening after dinner. Since it is a recce team, it means they have to go into the jungle earlier than their own unit to recce. Basket... So meaning, Yi Wei and I had to follow the recce team and head to the jungle immediately. The Enciks from ATEC who were in charge of us were very nice. They said... it was just our luck. The rest will only leave camp on Tuesday, but we had to leave now. They packed for us combat rations and gave us extra bread and chocolates and pocari sweat as a "gift". I wasn't upset la. I was just.... alamak..... just my luck. So I still had to eat combat rations for Day 1.
So Yi Wei and I were sent to meet our Recce team. I honestly cannot remember their unit. I think there were about 7 of them. One section. They were nice people. Only one Malay guy. I don't remember their names or how they look like. They were in camo already anyway.
We board the lorry and travelled to Mandai. I remember we unloaded in between Peirce and Seletar Reservoir. It was about 12am. I was sleepy. The recce team then settled themselves into the vegetation. I told them that if they are to rest, make sure they have assigned their rotational patrol teams. They said, they have everything under control. They had their rest in the camouflage of the thick vegetation. Yi Wei and I took our rest too but we slept facing the track where there were less mosquitoes. I remember while we were sleeping, Yi Wei woke me up twice. Once because a family of wild boars walked past us and another time was because he sprayed the fruity smelling mosquito repellant on himself and then got stung by bees instead.
Before daybreak, we started walking. It was quite an easy walk as we are familiar with the area. Basically we had to walk from the Peirce reservoir area, skirt along BKE and head towards the Marsiling training area at Lorong Asrama. The recce team were also familiar with the area. It has been used many times therefore the tracks and paths are very clear. So it was quite a leisurely walk. I think this track is already open to the public already now. I think you can cycle there because I see track marks on the Street Directory. And yes... we ate combat rations because the main body will only join us on Wednesday early morning.
I remember it was a Monday. I reported to Jurong Camp 2. There were a number of us from my own unit 662 Guards. I think maybe about 30 of us. We then headed to the auditorium wondering what we were doing there. The guys said that this is a Make Up ICT for the ICT that we missed. But what exactly are we supposed to do, none of us knew.
I cannot remember the content of the briefing. I could only remember being very happy that finally we will have a "slack" ICT. We will all be attached to become umpires for another unit's ATEC 2. Ok la. Quite slack I think. Just follow them. Give them scores. Still have to walk in the jungles with them but at least no need to carry full battle order. 5 days of hiking and enjoying nature. Fresh rations (no need to eat combat rations). I'll take it. This is going to be fun.
Hahaha. Combat rations. I thought I didn't have to eat them. As we are umpires for the reservist unit on ATEC, we will be attached to different platoons of the battalion. The battalion will start their ATEC on Monday but the first 2 days will usually be planning. They will only go to the field on Tuesday, earliest. So we can slack in the bunk and only go out on Tuesday evening. That's a good deal. Unfortunately, somehow....... myself and another friend, Yi Wei got attached to the Batallion recce team. We were only told about it on Monday evening after dinner. Since it is a recce team, it means they have to go into the jungle earlier than their own unit to recce. Basket... So meaning, Yi Wei and I had to follow the recce team and head to the jungle immediately. The Enciks from ATEC who were in charge of us were very nice. They said... it was just our luck. The rest will only leave camp on Tuesday, but we had to leave now. They packed for us combat rations and gave us extra bread and chocolates and pocari sweat as a "gift". I wasn't upset la. I was just.... alamak..... just my luck. So I still had to eat combat rations for Day 1.
So Yi Wei and I were sent to meet our Recce team. I honestly cannot remember their unit. I think there were about 7 of them. One section. They were nice people. Only one Malay guy. I don't remember their names or how they look like. They were in camo already anyway.
We board the lorry and travelled to Mandai. I remember we unloaded in between Peirce and Seletar Reservoir. It was about 12am. I was sleepy. The recce team then settled themselves into the vegetation. I told them that if they are to rest, make sure they have assigned their rotational patrol teams. They said, they have everything under control. They had their rest in the camouflage of the thick vegetation. Yi Wei and I took our rest too but we slept facing the track where there were less mosquitoes. I remember while we were sleeping, Yi Wei woke me up twice. Once because a family of wild boars walked past us and another time was because he sprayed the fruity smelling mosquito repellant on himself and then got stung by bees instead.
Before daybreak, we started walking. It was quite an easy walk as we are familiar with the area. Basically we had to walk from the Peirce reservoir area, skirt along BKE and head towards the Marsiling training area at Lorong Asrama. The recce team were also familiar with the area. It has been used many times therefore the tracks and paths are very clear. So it was quite a leisurely walk. I think this track is already open to the public already now. I think you can cycle there because I see track marks on the Street Directory. And yes... we ate combat rations because the main body will only join us on Wednesday early morning.
I guess you can cycle along these tracks now.
The Malay guy I mentioned, he will always stop to pray at the 5 prayer times. But he prayed in a strange way. I observed but never asked. He will always ask his Sergeant for 5 minutes during prayer time. And then he will sit quietly under his camo scarf. And then... done. Still a mystery to me.
The night came again. This one I remember very clearly. The recce team said we have to head to the Gali Batu Flyover. I thought they were using it as marker for their rest point. But they literally went there. We head underneath the flyover. There were 2 black trash bags. One had styrofoam packets of chicken rice. The other had can drinks with packed ice. The team took one each, turned to us and said, "Sergeant... we got for you also." Hahahhaha. It was funny. They managed to have those delivered there. So cool. So ok la. Something other than combat rations. After a good rest, we continued walking to the meet up point with the rest of the battalion.
Here onwards, I cannot remember. The last image I have in my head is, the battalion finally linked up with us. I remember I hear the soldiers echoing calling for "Sergeant Anwar!!" I replied that I am in front of the line. They echoed back, "He is in front!". I then see the ATEC Encik walking up the line looking for me. He reached me, tapped me on my shoulder asking if I am ok. I said yes. He gave me more bread. Stuffed them into my pants and SBO pockets.
Even though those are all the things I can remember about this ICT, I can remember clearly that it was a nice ICT. A welcome change to the stressful ICT 1 to 3. Somehow this was a High Key ICT so it was definitely more than 5 days. But I really cannot remember anything after this.
All the more reason for me to quickly finish up the rest of the posts in this series.
Thank you for reading and following me thus far. Let's look forward to the next post, ATEC 2!
Categories : The Army Series
Click here to navigate: Blog Table of Contents
The night came again. This one I remember very clearly. The recce team said we have to head to the Gali Batu Flyover. I thought they were using it as marker for their rest point. But they literally went there. We head underneath the flyover. There were 2 black trash bags. One had styrofoam packets of chicken rice. The other had can drinks with packed ice. The team took one each, turned to us and said, "Sergeant... we got for you also." Hahahhaha. It was funny. They managed to have those delivered there. So cool. So ok la. Something other than combat rations. After a good rest, we continued walking to the meet up point with the rest of the battalion.
Here onwards, I cannot remember. The last image I have in my head is, the battalion finally linked up with us. I remember I hear the soldiers echoing calling for "Sergeant Anwar!!" I replied that I am in front of the line. They echoed back, "He is in front!". I then see the ATEC Encik walking up the line looking for me. He reached me, tapped me on my shoulder asking if I am ok. I said yes. He gave me more bread. Stuffed them into my pants and SBO pockets.
Even though those are all the things I can remember about this ICT, I can remember clearly that it was a nice ICT. A welcome change to the stressful ICT 1 to 3. Somehow this was a High Key ICT so it was definitely more than 5 days. But I really cannot remember anything after this.
All the more reason for me to quickly finish up the rest of the posts in this series.
Thank you for reading and following me thus far. Let's look forward to the next post, ATEC 2!
Categories : The Army Series
Click here to navigate: Blog Table of Contents