Seven Extra

Being an infantry unit, we were obviously located in the most obscure areas in Singapore. Unfortunately, we in Lim Chu Kang camp were saddled with the lousiest deal of all: walking to the training area.

Anyways, beside us was this dormant brigade, which had little more than a skeletal staff of 5 or 6 running the office, maintaining the many vehicles parked in the premises. Our guard duty as prowlers brought us to various checkpoints around the camp where we had to mechnically record the time we reached it. The route included a trip into and around the perimeter of the brigade's camp. The process included drawing the key to the gate to the brigade from the guard room, unlocking the gate and relocking it once we were in, and then most of us would then sit in there, smoke, listen to the transistor radio, etc. for about 15 minutes before making our way again.

One fortuitous night, the Platoon Idiot and the runner-up were assigned to prowler duty together... off they went at 12am, reaching the brigade around 1240, logged into the checkpoint unit, and then proceeded to lie down for a while. Minutes became 2 hours, and they still hadn't returned to the guard house at 2am.

The Guard Commander started getting worried, and cycled around the entire camp to find them but to no avail. The only possibility was: Brigade...

Alas, there was only 1 key to the gate, and it sure as hell wasn't with the Guard Commander. In fact, he could see that the gate was padlocked from the inside, and that could only mean one thing... He shouted and shouted until his throat was hoarse, but still no response. We have 1 term for this sentiment, and it's called balls drop.

Anyways, they 2 monkeys woke up in time for breakfast at 5:30am, saved the 2 following pairs of prowlers having to do their duty... in fact, they signed 7 extra, and saved a lot of people from having to do guard duty.