Category: Army / National Service
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Butt Party* Fall In: 50 Years of SAF
Even if the last time any of our military units saw battle was before 1965 (Konfrontasi – 1SIR), I now realise been wrongly telling people that we don’t have a martial tradition. I think half a century of SAF makes it a tradition. Some of the operations the SAF have undertaken may not necessarily have…
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SAF Day
The last major training exercise I was part of was held in Shoalwater Bay, Queensland. On the night before the end of the exercise, (which was also an assessment known as ATEC that determines whether a combat unit is fit for operations) the communications radio in my armoured fighting vehicle crackled with a higher than…
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Your Grandfather’s Mother Tongue Is it?
I had great fun at the last minute pop-up Talkingcock In Parliament 3 organised by Colin, Yen Yen and others on Saturday evening. There was a great variety of speakers anyhowly hum-tumming what Mother Tongue means to us because it’s been anyhowly hum-tummed into our lives. This is what I said: My Hokkien mother spoke…
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Purple Light
I do not remember rape being part of the song called Purple Light. (I never even knew the song was called Purple Light – it was always “My rifle, my buddy and me”). Several of my peers think the words in question were added in the last 10 years or so. Shame on the commanders…
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From the White Horse’s mouth
I was enlisted in December 1988, just as the Army was changing their combat helmets from heavy steel to high tech Dupont Kevlar, and apart from my dog tags that said I was allergic to penicillin and triple antigen vaccines, my medical docket had this mysterious ink stamp that simply said, “W.H.” Read more at…