Friends who know me say that I do not have what it takes to be an instructor as I'm too soft-hearted and kind to do anything horrible to recruits.
Well here's a chance for you folks to see how I am like in camp! Well not exactly see but you can hear, right from the horses mouth how I behave in camp. Bwahahaha. And what better way then to hear from the recruits themselves!
Yeah. The recruits were told to type last weekend, half a page of appraisal for their individual platoon commanders. Taa-daa! The end of course instructor appraisals are out and hear what the maggots in camp say about me...
THE GOOD
"One of the few instructors who bother to do PT with us, kinds of motivates us to do better when commanders train beside us."
"Knows a lot of extra stuff that is not taught in BMT anymore but still goes through the extra mile to impart his knowledge."
"Makes lame jokes but at least it loosens up the tense training atmosphere."
"Understand the pains of a recruit and guides us accordingly."
THE BAD
"May look like another JC kid on the block but he is no pushover, of all the sergeants I fear him the most."
"Lacks adequate communication with us. Does not really care for our welfare."
"Has temperamental mood swing, can be joking with you one moment and screaming at you in another."
"His tall lanky frame is the harbringer of the most hineous of punishments."
THE UGLY
"Likes to say 'You maggots are climbling on my head. And even worse! You guys are shitting on it! Like to take my kindness as my weakness right?' Normally after this we would face the floor."
"Looking at him during training makes you think he is an ass or someone very unreasonable and a lot of hatred is involved."
"We have so much to do and we only fall in late for 1 min and he knock us down... Bloody hell."
"His flaunt of blatantly blunt degratory and insultory phrases during his frequent scolding sessions, without the use of profanities and vulgarities shows he has a good command of the language. But some of us being non-jc students or hokkien soldiers would not understand what he says."
And...
THE IRRELEVANT
"Has a good sense of dressing especially in his taste of shoes. But his watch is rather gay looking and is not his type. He should change to those metal strapped watches."
"His more than frequent use of colourful and complex English phrases would put any GP tutors to shame."
"Plays too much basketball but is very good at shooting especially from the 3-pt range."
"This supposedly harmless, buck-tooth and mild-mannered instructor has a monster lurking behind his cute smile."
The things recruits say. Hahaha. You can tell some of them are more proficient than I am in terms of language. And its not suprising. This bunch of JC punk asses are quite astute I must say. I've recruits who score 7 distinctions for A levels just this year. WTH....
But I just laugh it all off. As I told them on the first day of their enlistment, "I'm not here to please you or to make your stay here enjoyable." And why should I care when I'll ORD in 3 months??? Bwahaha!!! *Evil laugh* Of course there are much more things they mentioned about me but I just chose some of the more interesting ones.
Anyone got any funny things your man said about you or any funny characteristics or habits of past superiors to share?
Technorati tags:singapore, nationalservice, army
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
time management
One thing that I learnt when I went to Tekong for BMT was that time passes by very slowly. I think its probably the fact that while the rest of Singapore is sleeping soundly, we all have to wake up a 5am. Of course there were times, we were allowed to wake up half an hour later. Even rarer was letting us wake up at 6am.
I remember there was this one time when we were getting our injections from the medical centre. We had woken up at 5am, did our 5BX, had breakfast then had a stand by area. So while my platoon was waiting its turn to get injected, I looked at my watch and the time was only 9am! You'd think it'll be nearer to 10 o'clock or something.
Another incident was towards the end of my BMT. After sending our weapons back to the armskote, the time was early 7 o'clock. And the best thing was lights off was at 10.30pm. This meant that I had 3 1/2 hours to do what wanted. Having so much free time was such a privilege. It also meant I had no idea what to do with so much time. After taking a shower, I just lazed around finding things to do.
One negative aspect of having very little time is the day I came back from outfield. After doing all the usual stuff and getting fucked by out seargent for our poor movement that day, the time was 10.20 pm. Lights off was at 10.30 pm. And the following day we had to wake up at 5am. You can probably imagine the rush to get cleaned up. And its not easy to get dried camo off your face.
I remember there was this one time when we were getting our injections from the medical centre. We had woken up at 5am, did our 5BX, had breakfast then had a stand by area. So while my platoon was waiting its turn to get injected, I looked at my watch and the time was only 9am! You'd think it'll be nearer to 10 o'clock or something.
Another incident was towards the end of my BMT. After sending our weapons back to the armskote, the time was early 7 o'clock. And the best thing was lights off was at 10.30pm. This meant that I had 3 1/2 hours to do what wanted. Having so much free time was such a privilege. It also meant I had no idea what to do with so much time. After taking a shower, I just lazed around finding things to do.
One negative aspect of having very little time is the day I came back from outfield. After doing all the usual stuff and getting fucked by out seargent for our poor movement that day, the time was 10.20 pm. Lights off was at 10.30 pm. And the following day we had to wake up at 5am. You can probably imagine the rush to get cleaned up. And its not easy to get dried camo off your face.
Friday, February 17, 2006
name reversal
hello fellow soldiers, this is my first post on this website. hope you will enjoy this funny story my friend related to me recently
he had reported sick one day. so when his number flashed on the electronic board, he went in and found 2 MO's talking to each other. The first MO was telling the other how he knew this guy in BMT. His name on his No. 4 uniform read B.Y. CHEE. But what was written on his jockey cap was CHEE B.Y.
he had reported sick one day. so when his number flashed on the electronic board, he went in and found 2 MO's talking to each other. The first MO was telling the other how he knew this guy in BMT. His name on his No. 4 uniform read B.Y. CHEE. But what was written on his jockey cap was CHEE B.Y.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
stories from my camp
i just want to share 2 funny stories from my camp. here goes:
1) I was doing saturday guard-duty one day. And as usual on weekends, there was a problem with the guards (I don't remember what the problem was). I don't know what's it like in other camps, but when the new guard duty schedule comes out in my camp everyone will rush to change with each other.
anyway, my guard commander (a 2SG) for that day had a reputation in camp. he also had a superior feeling about himself. more on that later. and since there was a problem with the guards, I ended up doing the 1st shift (8am - 10am) and the 3rd shift (12pm - 2pm). Of course, i took it all in my stride. after all it was a saturday.
Nothing much happened until the next morning when the sunday guards started coming in. My colleague was one of the sunday guards. He was the type of person who thought that everyone is his friend. So he went up to the saturday guard commander and started talking to him. And then he asked him if he sent the guards prowling the night before. This made the guard commander unhappy and he made ALL the guards do a turn-out. imagine doing a turn-out at 8am on a sunday morning. At the same time, the sunday DO came in (a 1WO). He saw what was going on and told the 2SG to let the saturday guards fall out. The 2SG wasn't interested and told the 1WO "wait sir, let me turn them out first." cool as a cucumber I tell you.
2) the second story happened in early 2004. my whole company had to sign a form declaring that we had no live ammo in our possession. This was done in light of a few people being charged for having the above mentioned in their possesion. On the form we had to say what our position was in the company (OC, technician, etc). When i was collecting all the forms back, I noticed what one regular wrote on that column. Although he's a technician, he wrote area-cleaning IC. It was absolutely hilarious.
1) I was doing saturday guard-duty one day. And as usual on weekends, there was a problem with the guards (I don't remember what the problem was). I don't know what's it like in other camps, but when the new guard duty schedule comes out in my camp everyone will rush to change with each other.
anyway, my guard commander (a 2SG) for that day had a reputation in camp. he also had a superior feeling about himself. more on that later. and since there was a problem with the guards, I ended up doing the 1st shift (8am - 10am) and the 3rd shift (12pm - 2pm). Of course, i took it all in my stride. after all it was a saturday.
Nothing much happened until the next morning when the sunday guards started coming in. My colleague was one of the sunday guards. He was the type of person who thought that everyone is his friend. So he went up to the saturday guard commander and started talking to him. And then he asked him if he sent the guards prowling the night before. This made the guard commander unhappy and he made ALL the guards do a turn-out. imagine doing a turn-out at 8am on a sunday morning. At the same time, the sunday DO came in (a 1WO). He saw what was going on and told the 2SG to let the saturday guards fall out. The 2SG wasn't interested and told the 1WO "wait sir, let me turn them out first." cool as a cucumber I tell you.
2) the second story happened in early 2004. my whole company had to sign a form declaring that we had no live ammo in our possession. This was done in light of a few people being charged for having the above mentioned in their possesion. On the form we had to say what our position was in the company (OC, technician, etc). When i was collecting all the forms back, I noticed what one regular wrote on that column. Although he's a technician, he wrote area-cleaning IC. It was absolutely hilarious.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Army memories
Not us. Hawk Company (and our 'sister' company, Gryphon) represented the socio-economic diversity of Singaporeans. We had a university graduate. We had primary school leavers. We had Chinese, Malays, Indians and one Eurasian. You name it, we probably had it. We even had someone who lived on Pulau Bukom. It said so on his ID card.
Link
Technorati tags: singapore, nationalservice, army
Sunday, January 22, 2006
a plea; from a medic
with regards to medicals
Dear NS men, I'm a medic in one of the Divisions. I am the medical board I/C. I have been crucified and shot down countless times because I am not working fast enough.
To tell you all the truth, I have been working tirelessly to process your medical reviews so that you can be sent for downgrading as soon as possible. But because medical boards are only conducted at 1400 hrs in the afternoon once/twice a month because Chairmen of medical boards are busy Senior Medical officers. and the afternoon has only 2.5 hours; the board will end at about 1645. Do bear in mind that the Division has average 17,000 personnel, and designated medical board medical centres have other medical centres coming to it for board on the same day.
All in all, we board about 100 people a month. But my medical centre alone see up to 100 medical reviews a month. so every month is a mad rush for me process all the medical reviews, wait for the chairman to come; and then another mad rush so process all the downgrade results. It definitely does not help when the software your working with is still in its teething pains and have ALOT of hiccups. So waiting time for a downgrade to be processed is 2-3 months.
I do understand that some of you reallly suffer from bad injuries and illnesses and it affects your health and I am workin as fast as possible. I am the only one in the medical centre who knows how to do downgrades because our estab does not allow more manpower. I as a NSF will fulfil my duties to best of my abilities. All of you have sacrificed for the country in one way or another. This is the only way the country can repay you, I represent the country's gratitude and will do my best.
I pray that this short write up will allow you to understand the mechanisms of the medical board procedure and please don't comprain so much. I, a NSF is on the other end of your comprain letter suffering .
P.S. this note does NOT apply to chao keng-ers.
Technorati tags:singapore, nationalservice, army
Dear NS men, I'm a medic in one of the Divisions. I am the medical board I/C. I have been crucified and shot down countless times because I am not working fast enough.
To tell you all the truth, I have been working tirelessly to process your medical reviews so that you can be sent for downgrading as soon as possible. But because medical boards are only conducted at 1400 hrs in the afternoon once/twice a month because Chairmen of medical boards are busy Senior Medical officers. and the afternoon has only 2.5 hours; the board will end at about 1645. Do bear in mind that the Division has average 17,000 personnel, and designated medical board medical centres have other medical centres coming to it for board on the same day.
All in all, we board about 100 people a month. But my medical centre alone see up to 100 medical reviews a month. so every month is a mad rush for me process all the medical reviews, wait for the chairman to come; and then another mad rush so process all the downgrade results. It definitely does not help when the software your working with is still in its teething pains and have ALOT of hiccups. So waiting time for a downgrade to be processed is 2-3 months.
I do understand that some of you reallly suffer from bad injuries and illnesses and it affects your health and I am workin as fast as possible. I am the only one in the medical centre who knows how to do downgrades because our estab does not allow more manpower. I as a NSF will fulfil my duties to best of my abilities. All of you have sacrificed for the country in one way or another. This is the only way the country can repay you, I represent the country's gratitude and will do my best.
I pray that this short write up will allow you to understand the mechanisms of the medical board procedure and please don't comprain so much. I, a NSF is on the other end of your comprain letter suffering .
P.S. this note does NOT apply to chao keng-ers.
Technorati tags:singapore, nationalservice, army
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Closure
In today's news: Finally, a decision and explanation on Melvin Tan's case.
So, it seems he took advantage of a very nifty loophole that existed in the system (not anymore, though), eh? Well, I'm fine with that. You can't help people exploiting loopholes. My faith in MINDEF has been partially restored; the grudge was never with Melvin in the first place. And it's good to see them starting to get serious about draft dodgers.
I was considering, maybe give people an option to opt out of citizenship instead of forcing them to serve? I.e. become a citizen of another nation by teh time you're 12, or be forced to serve NS. I think 12 years is a sufficiently long time for people to stay and consider. Or perhaps you want to measure by length of stay in Singapore, more than 10 years and people ought to serve? Less enlistees, yes, but also less complaints about being forced to serve without alternative.
And I don't understand the MPs' talk about Einstein and Stephne Hawking never becoming a Singapore citizen if they were forced to serve. Hey, we're an island nation, and this being reality we can't have the best of both worlds. Choose between having a well-defended nation, or highly talented nation, or a compromise between the 2.
Any option other than serving NS is the first step toward transparent elitism, and no matter how much people like the idea of seeing some actual talent in Singapore at the expense of equality, that is not something I want to see while I'm alive. Einstein and Stephen can serve and stay, or they can f*** off. I'm perfectly fine watching them contribute to science as a citizen of another nation.
Besides, I don't think it would be too much trouble for MINDEF to create new NSF appointments that allow top minds to interact with DSTA engineers on new experimental technology and whatnot, right? Ever considered this way of serving the nation? As long as you put them in military uniform and in a position that complements their abilities for the next 2 years, this NSF is happy enough.
To let on a small secret (that hopefully won't get me charged), SAF actually enlists NSFs in trial networking experiments. That's right, they're not all regulars. Not everybody has to chiong, not everybody has to clean rifles, but everybody has to serve the nation if he is deemed fit to. Anyone here disagrees?
Technorati tags:singapore, nationalservice, army
So, it seems he took advantage of a very nifty loophole that existed in the system (not anymore, though), eh? Well, I'm fine with that. You can't help people exploiting loopholes. My faith in MINDEF has been partially restored; the grudge was never with Melvin in the first place. And it's good to see them starting to get serious about draft dodgers.
I was considering, maybe give people an option to opt out of citizenship instead of forcing them to serve? I.e. become a citizen of another nation by teh time you're 12, or be forced to serve NS. I think 12 years is a sufficiently long time for people to stay and consider. Or perhaps you want to measure by length of stay in Singapore, more than 10 years and people ought to serve? Less enlistees, yes, but also less complaints about being forced to serve without alternative.
And I don't understand the MPs' talk about Einstein and Stephne Hawking never becoming a Singapore citizen if they were forced to serve. Hey, we're an island nation, and this being reality we can't have the best of both worlds. Choose between having a well-defended nation, or highly talented nation, or a compromise between the 2.
Any option other than serving NS is the first step toward transparent elitism, and no matter how much people like the idea of seeing some actual talent in Singapore at the expense of equality, that is not something I want to see while I'm alive. Einstein and Stephen can serve and stay, or they can f*** off. I'm perfectly fine watching them contribute to science as a citizen of another nation.
Besides, I don't think it would be too much trouble for MINDEF to create new NSF appointments that allow top minds to interact with DSTA engineers on new experimental technology and whatnot, right? Ever considered this way of serving the nation? As long as you put them in military uniform and in a position that complements their abilities for the next 2 years, this NSF is happy enough.
To let on a small secret (that hopefully won't get me charged), SAF actually enlists NSFs in trial networking experiments. That's right, they're not all regulars. Not everybody has to chiong, not everybody has to clean rifles, but everybody has to serve the nation if he is deemed fit to. Anyone here disagrees?
Technorati tags:singapore, nationalservice, army
Thursday, December 15, 2005
BoBo
Range Conducting Officer: "Control to Chamber 1."
Chamber Safety Officer: "Send."
Range Conducting Officer: "Did Lane One hit any target?"
Chamber Safety Officer: "Lane One. Did you hit any target?"
Assistant: "Maybe."
Chamber Safety Officer: "Did the target fall?"
Shooter: "Should have hit."
Chamber Safety Officer: "?????... Chamber to Control. Lane One may have hit the target."
Range Conducting Officer: "Control to CSO. The score I have is ZERO. Please confirm."
Chamber Safety Officer: "Roger. Lane One. Did you really hit the target."
Shooter: "Kua Bo. Not too sure."
Chamber Safety Officer: "Chamber to Control. Lane One cannot confirm."
Link
Technorati tags: singapore, nationalservice, army
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Podcast: the mrbrown show: The Famous Pianist
Servicemen with the following codewords are to report to their mobilisation centres immediately: "Foreign Talent, Famous Pianist, Service Defaulter, Small Fine, Cancelled Show..."
Link
Technorati tags: singapore, nationalservice, army
Friday, November 25, 2005
Thursday, November 24, 2005
"$5K can don't do NS"
Be world class pianist can pay $5000 siam NS and reservist, be world class penis can downgrade or not? Cheebye!!!!
Link
Technorati tags: melvyntan, singapore, nationalservice
"Encik Tan has something to say"
Lim peh is fucking angry right now. Do you know why Lim Peh is fucking angry. Because of this guy call Melvyn Tan. This fucker, according to the newspaper, defaulted on his NS and he was only punished with a fine. A fine. Can you believe it? Just a fucking fine. Back in my time, when you want to try to play with the system, you better standby one big tub of jello 5-O to lubricate your ass because when the system fuck you up, it really fuck you up real hard. Dun play play eh.
Link
Technorati tags:melvyntan, nationalservice,singapore
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
TODAY: Blog away, but be mindful of security
I got to out-Gonzo the "Gonzo" Journal in this week's column, even though I'd rather not have:
Read more at TODAYonline
As you probably already know, I got myself in the middle of a debate over personal freedom and the need to protect Operational Security.
The Sunday Times had reported how three servicemen (myself included) were "warned" by the Ministry of Defence about the unauthorised posting of articles and pictures of our recent military exercise in Australia.
The reporter had called Mindef to ask if there was a policy about blogging and the posting of pictures about military life.
This set off a chain of events which led to my National Service (reservist) unit's commanding officer calling to tell me that there was some concern in Mindef over my blog posts and photographs, as well as those of other national servicemen.
Being a conscientious citizen-soldier, I took down all the posts on my blog as well as that on "Days Were The Those" (singaporearmystories.blogspot.com) — a collaborative blog I initiated which takes contributions of national service stories from the public — while the matter was looked into by my commanders.
There was no formal warning per se, but rather, a reminder from my commanders that while the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) encouraged people to talk about their national service experience, individuals had to be mindful of operational security — like the effectiveness of the SAF's weaponry — when doing so.
Not surprisingly however, the foreign press got wind of the story, and couched it in — how do I put this? — a different language.
The Sydney Morning Herald (www.smh.com.au) declared, "Singapore has barred servicemen from posting unauthorised accounts and pictures of military life on the Internet in a further tightening of restrictions on the growing blogging community here.
"The new rules … followed the conviction of two ethnic Chinese bloggers for posting anti-Muslim tirades deemed as threats to social harmony and political stability in the multi-racial city state."
I've since restored my blog posts, following consultation with my NS unit superiors, who, together with their superiors, agreed that while I should have asked for permission to post photographs first, there weren't problems with the posts about army life.
As you probably also know, military blogs are not new, and have been the focus of some attention, especially from American military officials.
If Vietnam was the first "television war", and the Gulf War from 1990-91 the first "live broadcast" war, then the current American involvement in Iraq has a high chance of being known in the annals as the "blogged war".
There are apparently several hundred military blogs in the United States alone, with military blog portal Milblogging.com listing 451 sites by US personnel alone.
The popularity of military blogs has led to renewed debate and some concern over the free flow of and easy access to information online.
In August, US Army Chief of Staff, General Peter J Schoomaker, wrote a memo in which he pointed to the need to protect "Opsec" or operational security.
"Some soldiers continue to post sensitive information to Internet websites and blogs, for example, photos depicting weapon system vulnerabilities and tactics, techniques and procedures. Such Opsec violations needlessly place lives at risk and degrade the effectiveness of our operations," the memo read.
Writing "in real-time", as some analysts put it, raises the immediacy of the action, and probably for the first time, the "live" reporter is the soldier himself or herself.
Typical of such a blog is "A Soldier's Perspective" (www.soldiersperspective.us), where you're likely to read about things that may have been already reported by traditional media, only from an actual participant's perspective.
So, how do the relevant military authorities deal with the proliferation of personal military blogs?
A call to Mindef's public relations branch revealed that the proper procedure is for a serviceman to follow the proper chain of command if he or she is unsure of the suitability of the matter to be published.
This applies to NSmen (reservists) as well as full-time service personnel.
Mr Miyagi aka Benjamin Lee has been entertaining readers at miyagi.sg for over a year, and is still counting down the number of years he has left of National Service obligations.
Removed postings restored after storm in a teacup over writings on army life
THIS week, I received calls from concerned friends and relatives who wondered if I had gotten myself into trouble with the authorities because of — surprise, surprise — my blog.
Read more at TODAYonline
As you probably already know, I got myself in the middle of a debate over personal freedom and the need to protect Operational Security.
The Sunday Times had reported how three servicemen (myself included) were "warned" by the Ministry of Defence about the unauthorised posting of articles and pictures of our recent military exercise in Australia.
The reporter had called Mindef to ask if there was a policy about blogging and the posting of pictures about military life.
This set off a chain of events which led to my National Service (reservist) unit's commanding officer calling to tell me that there was some concern in Mindef over my blog posts and photographs, as well as those of other national servicemen.
Being a conscientious citizen-soldier, I took down all the posts on my blog as well as that on "Days Were The Those" (singaporearmystories.blogspot.com) — a collaborative blog I initiated which takes contributions of national service stories from the public — while the matter was looked into by my commanders.
There was no formal warning per se, but rather, a reminder from my commanders that while the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) encouraged people to talk about their national service experience, individuals had to be mindful of operational security — like the effectiveness of the SAF's weaponry — when doing so.
Not surprisingly however, the foreign press got wind of the story, and couched it in — how do I put this? — a different language.
The Sydney Morning Herald (www.smh.com.au) declared, "Singapore has barred servicemen from posting unauthorised accounts and pictures of military life on the Internet in a further tightening of restrictions on the growing blogging community here.
"The new rules … followed the conviction of two ethnic Chinese bloggers for posting anti-Muslim tirades deemed as threats to social harmony and political stability in the multi-racial city state."
I've since restored my blog posts, following consultation with my NS unit superiors, who, together with their superiors, agreed that while I should have asked for permission to post photographs first, there weren't problems with the posts about army life.
As you probably also know, military blogs are not new, and have been the focus of some attention, especially from American military officials.
If Vietnam was the first "television war", and the Gulf War from 1990-91 the first "live broadcast" war, then the current American involvement in Iraq has a high chance of being known in the annals as the "blogged war".
There are apparently several hundred military blogs in the United States alone, with military blog portal Milblogging.com listing 451 sites by US personnel alone.
The popularity of military blogs has led to renewed debate and some concern over the free flow of and easy access to information online.
In August, US Army Chief of Staff, General Peter J Schoomaker, wrote a memo in which he pointed to the need to protect "Opsec" or operational security.
"Some soldiers continue to post sensitive information to Internet websites and blogs, for example, photos depicting weapon system vulnerabilities and tactics, techniques and procedures. Such Opsec violations needlessly place lives at risk and degrade the effectiveness of our operations," the memo read.
Writing "in real-time", as some analysts put it, raises the immediacy of the action, and probably for the first time, the "live" reporter is the soldier himself or herself.
Typical of such a blog is "A Soldier's Perspective" (www.soldiersperspective.us), where you're likely to read about things that may have been already reported by traditional media, only from an actual participant's perspective.
So, how do the relevant military authorities deal with the proliferation of personal military blogs?
A call to Mindef's public relations branch revealed that the proper procedure is for a serviceman to follow the proper chain of command if he or she is unsure of the suitability of the matter to be published.
This applies to NSmen (reservists) as well as full-time service personnel.
Mr Miyagi aka Benjamin Lee has been entertaining readers at miyagi.sg for over a year, and is still counting down the number of years he has left of National Service obligations.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Blogging about National Service is OK
As seen in the Sunday Times: Reservist photo! Oct 2005: Relaxing on the ramp. (Guess which one's Sgt Foreskin?)
How can one not talk about National Service, especially when it's a very large slice of one's life? Cannot right? I mean, cannot don't talk right?
Even if you paid $5,000.00 for skipping National Service altogether, you'll still want to talk about it, right?
'Eh, um, nah, give you $5,000.000, you don't call me for NS, ok? I'm not free'.And that's why the nice folks at MINDEF are saying that there's nothing wrong with blogging about National Service, and in fact, encourage people to talk about their experiences in the Army, Air Force and Navy. (Civil Defence and Police Force folk, your own pasal, I dunno... you come under a different Ministry).
'Not free? Why?'
'Um, I playing piano in London, dowan to come back liao'.
'Nabeh! Next time terrorist attack, me and my NS unit don't protect you then you know! Chow Piano Player!'
They also said that they liked the fact that there were objective views from National Servicemen of all ages, instead of just from traditional channels, like that of MINDEF's publications. In these publications, you'll never hear of how the food sucked in camp or how a logistical stuff-up caused us to eat 'Combat Ration Muslim Menu 4 Spicy' for three days in a row, which does happen once in awhile.
The matter at issue when I took down all Army-related posts and pictures were actually just the pictures themselves. I didn't have authorisation or clearance from MINDEF to publish photographs. My own fault for assuming that because I had authorisation (given by my unit in 2004) to take the pictures during training, I had authorisation to post them on the web, which I had done so since 2004.
So, the 100+ Flickr photographs I had posted, some since 2004, were the ones that got me in this bit of strife. But not to worry, because the kind folk at MINDEF, maybe about two dozen of them, took a look at the pictures earlier in the week, and decided that there wasn't any security breach.
In any case, when I was alerted to the potential breach of security issue by my unit's commanding officer on Wednesday, I voluntarily took down all pictures and posts while the unit, the brigade and the division investigated.
Apparently, MINDEF was alerted on Tuesday to my photographs, some taken since 2004, by Straits Times correspondent Jeremy Au Yong's (Nabeh, thank you ah, friend - I've spoken to MINDEF and they'll extend your reservist until you're 55) call, asking them about their 'blogging policy' for NSmen.
Thursday morning was supposed to have been a quick trip to historical Selarang Barracks to return sensitive military equipment (tool, entrenching, steel, with cover, canvas, and stick, holding, tool, entrenching, steel, with cover, canvas, and jacket and pants, parka, all-weather, camouflaged, gore-tex, with cover, SSN12345678910 and SSN12345678911), but it turned out to be a very long morning meeting all manner of military officers who were there to investigate the matter and to reassure me that it was alright to talk about Army matters online. They also gave me a rough guide as to what could and could not be said, saying that they'd prefer NSmen to 'use their own discretion' when talking about Army matters.
So anyway, it's mostly cleared up now, and with most of Sunday spent answering SMSs and phone calls from concerned family and friends wondering if I had been detained at detention barracks, I'm now putting back up all my Army-related articles and photographs, with the exception of one or two pictures, of which I've been told, MINDEF would 'prefer' not be shown.
What kind of pictures, you may well ask? Pictures of military hardware are usually sensitive - especially the interior, because you don't want the enemy to see how MINDEF 'zhngs' our rides - as are pictures of injured servicemen - because you don't want the pictures to go public before the serviceman's family is informed of his injuries - but to be really sure before you share your photos with the public, check with MINDEF first. There are several ways you can do this. For mine, I've been told that I could check with the Army Information Centre (AIC) who'll check my pictures to see if they're ok.
As for any other form of information, common sense will tell you that if a matter is one that is the subject of an ongoing investigation, you shouldn't blog about it in detail.
So, go ahead, talk about your Army experience - how good it is, how stupid it is, what a waste of time it is - and continue contributing to Days Were The Those.
Slice of life: Feb 1990: It was Mr Miyagi that came up with the name for 'Attila' Combat Team, 46th Bn, Singapore Armoured Regiment; Nov 2005: Still in use, seven batches and sixteen years later.
Some things haven't changed. Relaxing on the ramp: August 1990
Friday, November 11, 2005
Beckham out of Vogue
Cpl Lee (formerly Pte Lee, now promoted ... the one who volunteered for a strip search at range) seems determined to supersede the escapades of the now infamous Pte Khor (read Adventures of Private Khor, The Finale and The Recrudescence).
As we brought our field plants (field plants consist of chainsaw, generator, etc) outfield to test to ensure they were all in working order, we happened to brought the handsaw along.
That was when Cpl Lee asked 2 of my friends (in the tonner):
"Hey, we need to bring down the handsaw to test or not ah?" 
Cpl Lee tends to spend endless minutes every morning pushing his hair up, such that it stands and I'm not sure who he wishes to impress (?) So when my friend was joking as our CSM had made a previous joke that Beckham's mohawk hairstyle was not in fashion anymore, and my platoon sgt said we could always shave off his hair. To which Cpl Lee promptly tried to push his hair down! Haha, that really left me and my friend in stitches.
Again just yesterday, another friend was operating the bulldozer trying to level the area when Cpl Lee promptly asked him to stop, and took out a small branch that was in the way. It left my instructor shaking his head as well, baffled as the dozer could easily have cleared the vegetation away - something Cpl Lee "risked" his life to do something the dozer is specifically used for.
This has just been another chronicle of an uneventful week in Cpl Lee's life.
Original Post | Linus' Daily Antics
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