Just came back from 2 week of reservist. This happens to be my last one and I have completed my 11 in-camps (yes one more extra) and fulfilled my obligation as a male citizen of this country.
I know many people dread going back or “keng” out of the army but I personally don’t want to owe the country and I am proud to have completed my duty as a combat soldier not a Pes C soldier. (No offend to some out there. : P)
Some reflections to share.
I had some great time in the army, met some nice people and it had in a way reminded me to stay fit till this very day, 14 days after my ROD.
I had seen the transformation of the army from 2nd Generations as a recruit till what it is today a 3-G army.
I had worn the old WWII helmet and the new Kevlar one.
I think I also wore quite a range of the army wardrobe.
I have wore the super old uniform, to the newer camo one and recently the pixelized one. I even wore the crab black PT short, the green PT shirt (strangely the newest one back to green), the camo PT shorts (hey bet not many of you remember), the black PT shorts, the grey T and singlets, the Brown T and finally the new green T and singlets.
I wore the super old hard boots to the softer leather one and now the gortex one.
Food in the canteen has improved drastically. From the “cooks” days to the Singapore food industry of today.
Out rations was served on meal bags over mess tin to Styrofoam box till the paper box of today.
I have fired the M-16 and the SAR 21.
Ridden in the Mercedes 3 tonner, the New 3 tonners and now the 5 tonners (air-con some more), the land rover, the Jeep (can’t remember the name) and now the ford OUV. Took a ride on unimod, the 5 tonners, the 7 tonners and some of the unique rafts during my combat engineer days.
So the army had indeed changed, evolved over the years. But I still can't stand the bureaucracy involved. This will take another essay so you guys can ask me next time.
I am both sad and happy at this MR stage.
Sad that I will be seeing less of my friends, will be missing the time off from office, the super challenging talk cock sessions and the games in the Mess.
But I am happy to be out of the system. No more Mods Manning, no more reporting to the stupid automatic machine whenever you need to travel, no more red tapes and crabs in camp. Got to say the efficiency level of the army has not improve much since I first enlisted.
I am also happy to leave after scarifying 2 years 4 months full time of my life and follow by 14 years of reservist.
I question myself what has our county became today. With 1/3 of us a foreigners we are depending only a few hundreds thousands of Singaporean males to defend our land. We are scarifying our life and time to ensure our country is stable and safe while people from other country can just came and enjoy. What for?
Some Perm Sec cam during my ICT and a word from him set off the alarm bell in me.
He said the regulars are not the main army but we the NS man are. What he said is true, we the normal citizen are the bulk of the armed forces but then why are we paid peanuts during my NS days and the regulars are paid a fortune? Sad.
Anyway I had paid my debt and good luck to those who have sons.
But it’s not so bad in the army these days. It had taught me endurance, determination, teamwork, leadership and mostly friendship.
Goodbye SAF, it was a nice journey but it could be better.
