Category: Army / National Service

  • My National Day Parade

    I remember National Day Parade 1990 the most because it’s the NDP I was involved in. It was held at the Padang, and it featured the most impressive mobile column display since independence, involving all the military hardware and soldiers (like us) of the day. At the beginning of that year, my battalion mates and…

  • Water displacement formula, 40th attempt

    Back when I was in full time NS, the cleaning of weapons was a mundane, time-consuming, daily chore. Between the 7 troopers in a combat section, we’d have around seven small arms (M16S1), couple of grenade launchers (M203), couple of light automatics (Ultimax100), two GPMGs, and a heavy machine gun (Browning .5 HMG). Carbon residue…

  • When once the flag flew me

    Once, during NS, me and two other guys were made the battalion’s flag raising party for one of many early morning parades. This task entailed picking up the flags from the Regimental Sergeant Major’s office, checking the cords to make sure nothing was frayed, and rehearsing our marching to the flag poles at the top…

  • Got hope lah

    If just some of the ill-mannered kids grow up to become selfless heroes, like 2LT Kok Khew Fai, who is just 20, and has done something you think you only read about in books or see it in the movies. If you haven’t already heard, the instructor-officer was accompanying his recruits at a live grenade…

  • NSFW

    It’s the weekend, so if it’s Not Safe For Work, it’s ok. Isn’t it? It’s also ok during reservist in-camp training, but because they’re so strict with camera phones, we were spared looking at stills of Edison Chen’s conquests, because, I mean, who would bother transfering porn from their 3G camera phones to low tech…