Why 2007? Yes, because it's that delayed. I had this written on scraps of paper, sometimes when sitting in a moving IFV (okay, not so much moving as sitting around with the engine running), and with my usual file-it-anywhere system in place I had some trouble tracking down all the pieces. So here it is at last.
An announcement first - this year's military stint and time off of TransFans begins on March 25 and ends at April 1. Just one week in The Wild(tm) this time, hopefully it's not a joke...
The following events take place between January 4, 0730hrs to January 24, 2359hrs, 2007. Yoda Says is put on hold because Yoda was disappointed at the fan response to Episode III.
JANUARY 4, THURSDAY.
One long ride and several bus changes, and I'm back in camp. As usual we're required to form up in the quadrangle & hear a short speech from the Commanding Officer, so rather than ramble on about all that I'll address a lesser known aspect of the army:
Haircuts.
Here at home we usually hike up to the ol' Hong family homestead at the top of the quarry, where our dad cuts our hair with a small collection of scissors and this buzzcutter, in return for doing some chores... and it STILL ISN'T UP TO ARMY SPECS. On top of being pulled aside to wait at the barbers', where some hairy bugger with one tattoo for each of his rape victims or something, runs a red hot buzzcutter up our neck, and you pay them S$5 for THAT. It's like the credit system for purchasing army supplies - they may claim to top up your smartcard ID with about S$100 every two years, but when that runs out you gotta fork out your own money to make up. And all it takes is a new pair of boots to KO your credits for two years.
1630hrs. Nothing to report till now, cos this is the only real highlight of the day - watching this video that explains some of the new hardware we're getting. And I don't mean weapons. So we're down to the second stage of our Armor Training Evaluation Course (hereafter called ATEC), and they've designed these new electronic fancy devices that indicate our movements in the field and detect 'damage' and so on, like a real life MMORPG, which is actually pretty cool - until you get to the devices themselves. Ranging from those that bolt onto your rifle barrel or strap onto your helmet, to whole sets of 'em you gotta stick on the walls of your armored vehicles. Some are bolted on, sometimes replacing existing bolts on the armor plating, but where they couldn't find a place to bolt 'em they used a combination of double sided tape and glue. Really. We're talking about armored vehicles that roll out at an average of 70km/h n The Wild(tm), and ram down trees. Not very secure at all.
1800hrs. Seems a bit soon, but listen on. Right after the above presentation was a short speech fom our current Commanding officer, who's been relegated to light duties following an operation for a detached retina, and a slightly longer briefing concerning safety and camp discipline. Suffice to say the smokers have less designated smoking areas, and the lounge may be open but the casino won't be running quite so soon.
2000hrs. You know you're in for it when you're all issued with lifejackets that you gotta inflate and test before we KO for the night.
FACT: Mosquitoes start biting at about 200m outside camp borders.
JANUARY 5 FRIDAY
Breakfast was dismal, followed by another trip to the auditorium for another lecture. This time we focus on more on Rules Of Engagement and Laws of Armed Combat, with some addendums like how to counter reporters and the media. Suffice to say that stuff like pushing the camera away and taking their film and tapes really is all Hollywood.
1000hrs. A more elaborate lesson, involving the backbone of our fighting force - the Bionix IFV. This time we revise the procedures to prepare for river crossing, and if you think that means the IFV can actually swim then HOO BOY you'd be wrong. Basically we need to raise a massive accordion screen that extends 6 feet from the top of the IFV and goes all the way around, surrounding the turret and roof hatch, which prevents the river from getting onto the vehicle as it trundles along the riverbed. This involves an intricate system of poles holding it up from the inside. It gets better...
1430hrs. Here's the real highlight of the day, the real reason for those lifejackets... we're climbing into one Bionix IFV with the accordion screen up and everything, then sitting in it as it backs into a river - then go through the procedure of emergency disembarking, which means we're expected to vault over the screen, inflate them lifejackets and JUMP INTO THE RIVER. I KID YOU NOT. Nothing can really prepare you for the first step in eight feet of murky crocodile pee - I kinda wish I bought a clothespeg for my nose. And it's fairly embarassing when you forget the right way to kick in the water, and just sort of paddle with both arms. By the time we were out of there and walking to the truck, I was seeing stars. At least there were laughs - safety proecdures involved a semi-submerged jetty inches belows the surface and stretching over 20 feet into the river, so someone can somply walk to the middle of the river to drag someone out. Let the Jesus jokes commence.
1900hrs. The man-work isn't over - had to put those river-logged boots back on again (yeeks) and drag out all our organic weapons for the mounting of those MMORPG devices mentioned yesterday. Fixing them onto the barrels was easy enough - aligning them just right was tricky - but unscrewing the smooth metal battery caps and twisting them back with just your bare hands is DAMNED TEDIOUS. It doesn't help that the calibration equipment is still relatively alien to us... but by the time we were done, these buggers were running back and forth and firing their guns at this test target like it was a bloody shooting gallery. Damn kids.
FACT: Crocodile pee is not actually liquid, but closer in consistency to what we'd call bird poop.
The Aaron Hong War Journal, 2007
Moderators:Best First, spiderfrommars, IronHide
-
Aaron Hong
- Me king!
- Posts:1269
- Joined:Fri Jan 11, 2002 12:00 am
- ::No pity for fools
- Location:...No let ME fold the map GAAH
-
Aaron Hong
- Me king!
- Posts:1269
- Joined:Fri Jan 11, 2002 12:00 am
- ::No pity for fools
- Location:...No let ME fold the map GAAH
JANUARY 6, SATURDAY
Can't remember the last time I was free enough to go a-dumping. My god, if I spent any more time on the toilet they're gonna have to move my locker in here.
1000hrs. And the outlook is - manwork all morning with a significant chance of heavy loading. The real highlight of the day comes much later, as...
1330hrs. Rather than one BX backing into the same body of water again and again, we got every BX in the regiment backing into the water, to check for leaks. The Dip Test as we call it is a little more extensive as we're using a controlled body of water, a 20ft deep 100ft long pool with slopes at both ends, made of old fashioned concrete, but the water still looks like yuck. And I take back what I said - the Bionix IFV really does float. I saw it bobbing. And the worst that happened was that some bugger left a pair of gloves in the IFV's tail basket, so they came floating out when the IFV was submerged, but luckily one floated back into the tail basket while the other one drifted close to the edge, where it was picked out without any AFHV-worthy incident.
1930hrs. After several delays involving other treaded vehicles joining up on the flotation action, for the sheer hell of it, and one fairly dismal dinner, it's time to go home for the weekend - but sleeping easy at home is another matter, as the events of the following week will blow everything we've been through out of the water. Literally.
- CLOSED ON JANUARY 7, SUNDAY
JANUARY 8, MONDAY
For reasons that will be made known later, this segment is being written well after the fact.
So we got back to camp Sunday night 11pm, and we're told that I'd be with the Advance Party ie. moving out early ahead of the Main Body ie. everyone else. So we tried to get some sleep (and I can't stay asleep for more than 2 hours each time, same as the last time) and by the time it was 5.30am we were strolling to the cookhouse and greeted with the sonorous sounds of "NOOO, WE'RE OUT OF BEARCLAWS!"
...Okay, not really. Here's the deal - we're starting the day with a Coastal Hook exercise, followed by a Full Troop Exercise that lasts till Wednesday afternoon. You'll see why in a minute.
1000hrs. So the Advance Party reaches the riverbead clearing ahead of time, and we're done with all our Advance Partying (which is not what it sounds like), and finally everyone else gets there, in trucks. A second set of trucks come pulling trailers that have all the boats stacked on them - and forget Classics Bumblebee, we're talking big ol' metal rigs with up to 5 10-foot-long metal boats stacked upside down on them. The next step is to back the trucks with the boats toward the coastline, and I cannot tell you just how hard it is to take a 3-ton truck with a free swinging trailer in reverse, down a narrow gravel path, with 2 bends and lots of overhanging branches. And I can't remember if they had the safety beeping sound when they backed down the path. Never mind mere jackknifing, we had one truck go right into the trees and the branches ripped right through the canvas. There's that long-awaited AFHV moment.
1200hrs. Unloading the boats off the trailers is one thing (it made us all look like pallbearers, with everyone in the same uniform and all) but the additional equipment is a different case.Here's some trivia for you: the coxswains (on loan from a different unit) are the only ones qualified to even handle the outboard motors, even down to the simple act of loading and unloading them. All I know is, those things are heavy.
1230hrs. Boating time! No lucking out, no reassignments, it's into the boats for everyone. And it wasn't half bad really - we got the scenic route, saw a wakeboarder doing his thang, even got a closeup look at one of them offshore fishing rigs. Of course the chaos of hitting the coast, hopping out, dragging the boats up the gravel and running to take point makes up for that.
1500hrs. Back in camp again, and we got merely an hour to prepare as we go into the big chalupa here, it's time for...
1600hrs. Full Troop Exercise, which essentially means climbing into the IFVs and taking a leisurely drive into The Backyard (you know what that means) and then... we'll have to tackle this in point form.
Can't remember the last time I was free enough to go a-dumping. My god, if I spent any more time on the toilet they're gonna have to move my locker in here.
1000hrs. And the outlook is - manwork all morning with a significant chance of heavy loading. The real highlight of the day comes much later, as...
1330hrs. Rather than one BX backing into the same body of water again and again, we got every BX in the regiment backing into the water, to check for leaks. The Dip Test as we call it is a little more extensive as we're using a controlled body of water, a 20ft deep 100ft long pool with slopes at both ends, made of old fashioned concrete, but the water still looks like yuck. And I take back what I said - the Bionix IFV really does float. I saw it bobbing. And the worst that happened was that some bugger left a pair of gloves in the IFV's tail basket, so they came floating out when the IFV was submerged, but luckily one floated back into the tail basket while the other one drifted close to the edge, where it was picked out without any AFHV-worthy incident.
1930hrs. After several delays involving other treaded vehicles joining up on the flotation action, for the sheer hell of it, and one fairly dismal dinner, it's time to go home for the weekend - but sleeping easy at home is another matter, as the events of the following week will blow everything we've been through out of the water. Literally.
- CLOSED ON JANUARY 7, SUNDAY
JANUARY 8, MONDAY
For reasons that will be made known later, this segment is being written well after the fact.
So we got back to camp Sunday night 11pm, and we're told that I'd be with the Advance Party ie. moving out early ahead of the Main Body ie. everyone else. So we tried to get some sleep (and I can't stay asleep for more than 2 hours each time, same as the last time) and by the time it was 5.30am we were strolling to the cookhouse and greeted with the sonorous sounds of "NOOO, WE'RE OUT OF BEARCLAWS!"
...Okay, not really. Here's the deal - we're starting the day with a Coastal Hook exercise, followed by a Full Troop Exercise that lasts till Wednesday afternoon. You'll see why in a minute.
1000hrs. So the Advance Party reaches the riverbead clearing ahead of time, and we're done with all our Advance Partying (which is not what it sounds like), and finally everyone else gets there, in trucks. A second set of trucks come pulling trailers that have all the boats stacked on them - and forget Classics Bumblebee, we're talking big ol' metal rigs with up to 5 10-foot-long metal boats stacked upside down on them. The next step is to back the trucks with the boats toward the coastline, and I cannot tell you just how hard it is to take a 3-ton truck with a free swinging trailer in reverse, down a narrow gravel path, with 2 bends and lots of overhanging branches. And I can't remember if they had the safety beeping sound when they backed down the path. Never mind mere jackknifing, we had one truck go right into the trees and the branches ripped right through the canvas. There's that long-awaited AFHV moment.
1200hrs. Unloading the boats off the trailers is one thing (it made us all look like pallbearers, with everyone in the same uniform and all) but the additional equipment is a different case.Here's some trivia for you: the coxswains (on loan from a different unit) are the only ones qualified to even handle the outboard motors, even down to the simple act of loading and unloading them. All I know is, those things are heavy.
1230hrs. Boating time! No lucking out, no reassignments, it's into the boats for everyone. And it wasn't half bad really - we got the scenic route, saw a wakeboarder doing his thang, even got a closeup look at one of them offshore fishing rigs. Of course the chaos of hitting the coast, hopping out, dragging the boats up the gravel and running to take point makes up for that.
1500hrs. Back in camp again, and we got merely an hour to prepare as we go into the big chalupa here, it's time for...
1600hrs. Full Troop Exercise, which essentially means climbing into the IFVs and taking a leisurely drive into The Backyard (you know what that means) and then... we'll have to tackle this in point form.
- That stuff about being tired enough to fall asleep in a trundling IFV? Forget all that. Thanks to one IFV driver being declared out of commission due to a bleeding forehead (wimp), our IFV had to accommodate his BX's crew along with ours. Everyone gets crammed squatting into the Box in real slave-immigrant fashion. And being allowed to discuss battle plans in The Wild(tm) under a canvas shelter while sitting on benches should be considered a luxury, but when you're sharing IFV space with said canvas and benches as well, it's a whole different story.
- Saw a herd of I don't know what creeping through the brush, and when I say 'saw' I mean 'barely making out sme murky brown things moving through a big murky green thing', it being sundown and all.
- For now we're still on fresh rations ie. food from the cookhouse being shipped over in cardboard boxes. Unfortunately they forgot to ship some forks and spoons along with them, so we resorted to tearing the corners of the boxes and using those. There's an idea - perorating the boxes to allow to rip a spoon-shape from the box. I gotta write these down.
- My elder brother Nick came back from Thailand over the weekend, and got for me this fancy army belt for an early birthday present. With said birthday being TODAY.
Last edited by Aaron Hong on Fri Mar 21, 2008 6:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.
-
Aaron Hong
- Me king!
- Posts:1269
- Joined:Fri Jan 11, 2002 12:00 am
- ::No pity for fools
- Location:...No let ME fold the map GAAH
JANUARY 9, TUESDAY
1900hrs. Hot news - after all that **** we've been through, they're not giving us the night off or anything. The lounge may be open but Movie Night isn't about to happen either. And not without reason - someone upstairs suggested that if we stayed back to set up the accordion screens for our IFVs before lights out (and this can take a while, trust me), we'll swim (aargh pun) right through the dip test tomorrow without any hassle, and even end the week's festivities on a Friday. Incentive or placebo? Nobody really knows.
- Couldn't sleep for more than 2 hours total - 1 hr at a time - because sitting crosslegged with 9 other dudes in a space about 8 by 6 feet shall bring the knees much excruciating pain.
- The actual exercise involves having a row of IFVs trundle alng a winding path, after which everyone climbs out and charges up the hill with guns blazing - but for us it's crawling out the IFV painfully and stretching our limbs. What the hell.
- Freak rainstorm near the end of the day mean that we had to drape canvasses over the IFV's open parts and sit it out. There's word that if it elevates to a thunderstorm, no more rolling and running the rest of the day (or at least till said thunderstorm clears.)
- Freak rainstorm carries on well into the night. Sleep is no longer an option as knee pains and no place to rest my head means I literally have to sit this one out. And then there's the return of the Commando Mosquitoes, the ones that don't need to go for exposed skin and simply pierce right through your uniform. Sweet mother of AAAARGH.
- Tried unfolding my legs a couple of time to lessen the pain somewhat. I believe this is why I can still walk.
- There's several reasons why we don't take a poop when we're out here.
- Less time for eating = less eating = less poop. Maybe the body recycles EVERYTHING.
- Standard procedure requires you to dig your own poophole and cover it later, so anyone walking off with an entrenching tool in one hand and a roll of toilet paper in the other is seldom questioned.
- Less time to poop. I think this is self-explanatory.
- Using your own poop to plant 'dummy mines' for 'training purposes' is severely frowned upon.
- Only slept for 1 hour last night. Really. Hot damn.
1900hrs. Hot news - after all that **** we've been through, they're not giving us the night off or anything. The lounge may be open but Movie Night isn't about to happen either. And not without reason - someone upstairs suggested that if we stayed back to set up the accordion screens for our IFVs before lights out (and this can take a while, trust me), we'll swim (aargh pun) right through the dip test tomorrow without any hassle, and even end the week's festivities on a Friday. Incentive or placebo? Nobody really knows.
-
Aaron Hong
- Me king!
- Posts:1269
- Joined:Fri Jan 11, 2002 12:00 am
- ::No pity for fools
- Location:...No let ME fold the map GAAH
JANUARY 11, THURSDAY
We're going into a bit of a winding-down period right now. Little to do in the morning but to retur those fancy electronictargeting harnesses and take stock of everything. Those IFV-Floaters we set up last night are going through the grill (ie the lap pool) all through lunch hour, because the entire battalion's doing it and each run takes hella long. Not that they're missing anything, because lunch was about OK or so.
1600hrs. Read the clock wrongly and thought it was dinner time, so I spent the two free hours doing something new - Kit Exchange. For those of you who know just enough about how the army works, it just means that you turn in your banged-up old equipment and get fresh new stuff in return (limited to the really large items, though). In m case it was a helmet that was starting to flake and give me a headache, much like your boss after 7 years.
so I turned it in for a new one, one size larger, and proceeded to decorate it, like this.
1830hrs Yeah, did I mention anything about the drizzle we had all day? Because it got WORSE. Roaring-volume rain at this time of writing, so much that I'd actually be glad if we didn't get the night off this time.
Okay, not really.
2340hrs. I don't know what you guys will find harder to believe - the fact that some last-minute heavy loading involving getting neded supplies into the IFVs ended at this time, or that the heavy rain from the previous entry HAS NOT ENDED at this time. The news on TV has it that we've officially reached our total rainfall quota for the first quarter or something. It's all right for now since we've spent pretty much the whole day indoors or otherwise out of The Backyard, but I really hate for this to happen during ATEC. If we get let out early I'll be praying to all my AV goddesses for a day.
JANUARY 12, FRIDAY
A little point form at times doesn't hurt, so:
1130hrs. The rain let up for about half an hour.
1200hrs. Lunch aside, we were shuttling back and forth with more stuff to load into the IFVs, mainly food.
Also on the agenda was a briefing from the Commanding Officer, a LTC wh's basically in charge, just giving a talk of sorts, about the system that governs the length of each training stint - some believe that if we do well for ATEC, we'll get reduced two-week sessions after this. Possibly. On the other hand, the number of phone calls I've had to make to possible MIA personnel is draining my battery faster than regular life does.
1700hrs. Here's the deal - they're letting us go home early on Friday night, to make up for the missed night out I'm assuming. More importnatly, we'll be rolling out for the big chalupa on Monday, which means when we head back to camp on Sunday night we have to sign in a bit earlier - the original stipulated time would have been 2 in the afternoon, but fortunately they've haggled with the training staff to push the time down to 7 in the evening. Small mercies, eh?
We're going into a bit of a winding-down period right now. Little to do in the morning but to retur those fancy electronictargeting harnesses and take stock of everything. Those IFV-Floaters we set up last night are going through the grill (ie the lap pool) all through lunch hour, because the entire battalion's doing it and each run takes hella long. Not that they're missing anything, because lunch was about OK or so.
1600hrs. Read the clock wrongly and thought it was dinner time, so I spent the two free hours doing something new - Kit Exchange. For those of you who know just enough about how the army works, it just means that you turn in your banged-up old equipment and get fresh new stuff in return (limited to the really large items, though). In m case it was a helmet that was starting to flake and give me a headache, much like your boss after 7 years.
so I turned it in for a new one, one size larger, and proceeded to decorate it, like this.1830hrs Yeah, did I mention anything about the drizzle we had all day? Because it got WORSE. Roaring-volume rain at this time of writing, so much that I'd actually be glad if we didn't get the night off this time.
Okay, not really.
2340hrs. I don't know what you guys will find harder to believe - the fact that some last-minute heavy loading involving getting neded supplies into the IFVs ended at this time, or that the heavy rain from the previous entry HAS NOT ENDED at this time. The news on TV has it that we've officially reached our total rainfall quota for the first quarter or something. It's all right for now since we've spent pretty much the whole day indoors or otherwise out of The Backyard, but I really hate for this to happen during ATEC. If we get let out early I'll be praying to all my AV goddesses for a day.
JANUARY 12, FRIDAY
A little point form at times doesn't hurt, so:
- IT HAS NOT STOPPED RAINING. Granted it's more of a drizzle by now, but it's the principle of the thing.
- According to a notice concerning how our armored vehicles (hell, ALL vehicles) are required to display all their numerical designations (to be known hereafter as callsigns), Hattenschweiler at 500pt is the official font of the SAF. I don't think there's a special reason.
1130hrs. The rain let up for about half an hour.
1200hrs. Lunch aside, we were shuttling back and forth with more stuff to load into the IFVs, mainly food.
Also on the agenda was a briefing from the Commanding Officer, a LTC wh's basically in charge, just giving a talk of sorts, about the system that governs the length of each training stint - some believe that if we do well for ATEC, we'll get reduced two-week sessions after this. Possibly. On the other hand, the number of phone calls I've had to make to possible MIA personnel is draining my battery faster than regular life does.
1700hrs. Here's the deal - they're letting us go home early on Friday night, to make up for the missed night out I'm assuming. More importnatly, we'll be rolling out for the big chalupa on Monday, which means when we head back to camp on Sunday night we have to sign in a bit earlier - the original stipulated time would have been 2 in the afternoon, but fortunately they've haggled with the training staff to push the time down to 7 in the evening. Small mercies, eh?
Last edited by Aaron Hong on Mon Mar 24, 2008 11:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
-
Aaron Hong
- Me king!
- Posts:1269
- Joined:Fri Jan 11, 2002 12:00 am
- ::No pity for fools
- Location:...No let ME fold the map GAAH
JANUARY 14, SUNDAY
1900hrs. Not much to talk about really - had to carry out the zeroing of those laser emitters, but for the big guns this time. By which I mean the grenade launcher and heavy machine gun mounted on the IFVs, and these require their targeting panel gimmicks to be placed 100 metres away. That's a damned long walk just to adjust the screws each time. Got back to the company lounge just in tie to catch The Day After Tomorrow - ironically, the rainstorms have let up quite a bit.
JANURAY 15, MONDAY
This is it, folks - the big chalupa, the Real Deal, the ATEC stage 2 as we call it. Being written well after the fact, we go into point form yet again as we embark on 4 days and 3 nights of NONSTOP HORROR THE LIKES OF WHICH HAVE NEVER BEEN REVEALED ON THE INTERNET*
JANUARY 16, TUESDAY
0500hrs thereabouts is when it begins. As per regulation, everybody stands on the roof of the vehicle, inside the accordion screen as the IFVs start trundling into the river for a little cruie. We have some M113s still on the force, and those float way better than the IFVs, but it's a little disturbing to see the M113s go into the water until there's less than a foot of them above the surface, and M113s don't have the accordion screens for added protection - just some prayers that she doesn't go down any further. We had a bit of a nightmare in the works as one M113's left tread left the riverbed before the other, causing it to drift sideways for a bit before they righted it somehow. And I hate to be the bugger who forgot to close the caps of the giant water bottles mounted on one M113's tail end, BEFORE it went under.
Back to point form:
1900hrs. Not much to talk about really - had to carry out the zeroing of those laser emitters, but for the big guns this time. By which I mean the grenade launcher and heavy machine gun mounted on the IFVs, and these require their targeting panel gimmicks to be placed 100 metres away. That's a damned long walk just to adjust the screws each time. Got back to the company lounge just in tie to catch The Day After Tomorrow - ironically, the rainstorms have let up quite a bit.
JANURAY 15, MONDAY
This is it, folks - the big chalupa, the Real Deal, the ATEC stage 2 as we call it. Being written well after the fact, we go into point form yet again as we embark on 4 days and 3 nights of NONSTOP HORROR THE LIKES OF WHICH HAVE NEVER BEEN REVEALED ON THE INTERNET*
- Started of on a rather hectic note, waking up, getting breakfast that wasn't worth the time, securing of weapons and some last minute stores as well as loading said stores on the IFVs, all within the same hour and a half. Fortunately things slum down for a bit after that, since the official time to roll out is given at 12pm.
- Did the math - the stipulated time for the end of this excursion is at 12pm Thursday, thus rolling out at 12pm Monday means that we will in fact be out in The Wild for precisely 72hrs or 3 days - not 4. Yay for flimsy boosts of morale.
- Nightfall is where all the nightmares kick in - imagine setting up a moldy 30-foot wide camouflage net in the dark with just 3 or 4 people. All things considered we did pretty well.
- Saw some lord-knows-what creeping through the bush... wait, did that already.
- Got no more than an hour of I'm guessing what was sleep before it's time to roll up the camo net and get ready to move. It's time again to set up those accordion screens, only now in PITCHF**KING DARK, as we prepare to do some actual river crossing this time.
JANUARY 16, TUESDAY
0500hrs thereabouts is when it begins. As per regulation, everybody stands on the roof of the vehicle, inside the accordion screen as the IFVs start trundling into the river for a little cruie. We have some M113s still on the force, and those float way better than the IFVs, but it's a little disturbing to see the M113s go into the water until there's less than a foot of them above the surface, and M113s don't have the accordion screens for added protection - just some prayers that she doesn't go down any further. We had a bit of a nightmare in the works as one M113's left tread left the riverbed before the other, causing it to drift sideways for a bit before they righted it somehow. And I hate to be the bugger who forgot to close the caps of the giant water bottles mounted on one M113's tail end, BEFORE it went under.
Back to point form:
- The river crossing put a little break in the usual one-attack-path-after-another pattern we usually go through in The Wild due in part to having to take down all the flotation props, which can take a while. 20 minute time limit be damned. And that's just before sun-up, kiddies.
- I'm starting to count these days by the number of missions, since sleep is less of an option now - the good folks assiged to my IFV thought of sticking packs of lemon tea and cans of tinned fruit in the iceboxes normally intended for medical supplies. Starcraft anyone? I gotta say this, I've never had tinned fruit of any sort, but I'm starting to see the appeal of those Half Peaches In Syrup that Annie loves so much.
- As before, the nightmares begin after sundown. Someone in the planning branch apparently thinks that a road which the rainstorms have turned into A RIVER OF MUD is a good place to park a row of IFVs. Seriously. The few times we got passing Land Rovers illuminating the scenery with their headlights, it's nothing but mud bordered by grass. You can't walk two steps without your boots doubling in weight. And let's not forget your pick of over 500 genomes of mudborne flesh-eating viruses. And the SMELL. GAAH.
- Things aren't looking good at all - did I mention that the new laser systems turning this field trip into a big MMORPG are in effect now? Two days in the field and we got 4 IFVs declared pwned.
- When it rains, it pours mud. One of our bike scouts (who zip around the same Wild that we do, on scramblers, at 3 times the speed) had an accident (no thanks to the mud) and after the bike was declared unfit for action, they decided to load him AND HIS BIKE into my IFV. Son of a bitch. Those tires carried close to 30 pounds of mud right into the place where we'd eat and sleep for another two days, BLOODY WELL DONE.
- Military discipline means that we can't use our torches after dark. I don't have to tell how how bad that can get for us.
Last edited by Aaron Hong on Sun Mar 23, 2008 5:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
-
Aaron Hong
- Me king!
- Posts:1269
- Joined:Fri Jan 11, 2002 12:00 am
- ::No pity for fools
- Location:...No let ME fold the map GAAH
JANUARY 17, WEDNESDAY
Not much to do upon hitting home base except unloading everything from the IFVs, then return our weapons and try to clean up a little around the vehicle sheds and so on - because we're getting the night off. Happy.
Well, actually it's rather sad that most of us are too pooped to go anywhere - and too pooped to poop in some rare cases.
- Not much to do except wonder why the hell we've been saddled with a bike scout that nobody else in the chain of command wants anything to do with. At least we can be thankful it's not one of the tank jocks - no, I don't think we could accommodate a SM1 in here.
- The mud in the tires is starting to bake in the heat, which I'm actually thankful for because at least now it doesn't smell so much like mud.
- The good folks in my vehicle break out the bread and tinned tuna.
- We've been observing the biker scout for a bit and can't find any external indication of injury from aforesaid bike accident - which may be because, well, he's fat. Word has gotten to the medical officer and we've been allowed to unload him at the casevac station - BUT GODF--KIT THEY WON'T TAKE THE BIKE.
- Haven't slept a wink in days. It's not much but I thought it needed its own entry.
- The bike may be taking up all the good spots to sleep, but oddly enough, that chair smack dab in the middle of the vehicle did the job. I mean, I wake up and bam it's daylight. It makes a much needed difference from the endless day-into-night-into-day we've been having so far.
- Ants are crawling in and out of these holes in the mud caked on the bike tires. I bet they have a freaking colony in there by now.
Not much to do upon hitting home base except unloading everything from the IFVs, then return our weapons and try to clean up a little around the vehicle sheds and so on - because we're getting the night off. Happy.
Well, actually it's rather sad that most of us are too pooped to go anywhere - and too pooped to poop in some rare cases.
-
Aaron Hong
- Me king!
- Posts:1269
- Joined:Fri Jan 11, 2002 12:00 am
- ::No pity for fools
- Location:...No let ME fold the map GAAH
JANUARY 19, FRIDAY
Breakfast was OK considering we're actually waking up in camp, after sleeping on actual beds, and more importantly, at our leisure for once (between 5.30 to 7 am) for the first time in 5 days. No time to celebrate, as we immediately get down to the cleaning of equipment and handing over of equipment and other military items, and everybody's favourite, accounting fo the disappearance of some of said military items. Had a few near misses in the morning, but the ones that did turn up missing are the worst - two of those canister batteries, totalling S$2000. HOT DAMN. Not that those were the only missing items on the list, just the most expensive.
1900hrs. Dinner was too spicy for my taste. You wouldn't expect nightfall while in camp and away from The Wild(tm) to bring any nightmares, but you'd be wrong. It's an administrative nightmare - ignoring those missing items momentarily, we're supposed to get the night off and a nice long weekend (keep reading) but the folks in the armory decided that the rifles weren't clean enough - at about 8.30pm. It takes about an hour for 20 people to give 100 rifles the overall treatment, down to polishing the bolts, and after doing all that we'd be all pooped out and only able to take that trip home after a proper night's sleep - problem is the cookhouse isn't bothering with making us breakfast tomorrow morning so THAT'S out of the question.
So for now, it's off to the armory in two neat rows while chanting the Hi Ho song or whatever we can improvise, then everyone drags out anything made of metal and costing more than we make, then stripping them down to the bare parts and giving said parts the complete once-over. AND IT GETS BETTER.
2130hrs. Now we're good to go - but some bright spark decided that we have to help deal with all the leftover combat rations issued to us (you'd honestly think real soldiers eat more than that especially in The Wild(tm)), by making sure every man passing through those gates is carting about 5-7kg of foilpacked chicken pasta, hardtack biscuits, and some of those powdered drinks that we really should be staying away from in the first place (field discipline, gotta drink plain water only). It's a good opportunity to scavenge the useful stuff, but that's it. Until Monday Morning, Out To You.
- CLOSED ON JANUARY 20 & 21
JANUARY 22, MONDAY
Well, technically it's still January 21, Sunday, 2300hrs, which is the designated time that every trooper has to be behind the gates, hunting for the sign-in book in the company office, then up to the bunks and unpacking ONLY TO DISCOVER I FORGOT MY BATH TOWEL. GAAH. Fortunately I had a reserve so I could shower before sleep - that is a HELLA LONG WALK FROM THE GATES I gotta tell you.
0700hrs. Slept all right, but breakfast was so bad I went to the canteen and ate something else. We're down to the past part-of-a-week now, and just becauuse we're done with rolling out and carrying guns doesn't mean the worst is over. Oh no. For starters, 10 people from each company were arrowed for cleaning duty, specifically at the treaded vehicle washing bay - and this is no joke, because 72 hours multiplied by 5 companies fielding 10 or more tanks, IFVs and what have you adds up to approximately 20 TONS OF MUD in the washing bay. God dammit, we were shoveling that crap all morning.
1630hrs. After an okay lunch and a nap (I know, rare) it was time for the official ATEC debrief. Just two points: our company came out of that MMORPH with more remaining party members than the other companies put together, and 2. sleeping shirtless in the open while in the middle of a huge exercise - a BIG no-no. Right after that was the Return of the Survey, not much different from last time - then the Return of the Battalion Cohesion Activity, also not much different from last time. Catered dinner again, though there seems to be more items on the menu this time. Apparently they're doing a larger variety of small munchies instead of larger but less varied munchies. Nothing wrong with that.
1930hrs. Here's something new to the War Journal - we get treated to a series of music and dance numbers, courtesy of the oft-misunderstood SAF Music and Dance Company (and by oft-misunderstood I mean that one of the dancers was clearly a transvestite.) You've probably heard of this one before - certain officers were dragged onto the stage and made to sing or dance or otherwise participate somehow, including a Thickest Chest Hair competition. Yeah. The actual stageshow was much better thankfully, including an inhouse band and several covers of songs hip and recent. I knew they'd do Black Eyed Peas dammit I shoulda taken bets...
Breakfast was OK considering we're actually waking up in camp, after sleeping on actual beds, and more importantly, at our leisure for once (between 5.30 to 7 am) for the first time in 5 days. No time to celebrate, as we immediately get down to the cleaning of equipment and handing over of equipment and other military items, and everybody's favourite, accounting fo the disappearance of some of said military items. Had a few near misses in the morning, but the ones that did turn up missing are the worst - two of those canister batteries, totalling S$2000. HOT DAMN. Not that those were the only missing items on the list, just the most expensive.
1900hrs. Dinner was too spicy for my taste. You wouldn't expect nightfall while in camp and away from The Wild(tm) to bring any nightmares, but you'd be wrong. It's an administrative nightmare - ignoring those missing items momentarily, we're supposed to get the night off and a nice long weekend (keep reading) but the folks in the armory decided that the rifles weren't clean enough - at about 8.30pm. It takes about an hour for 20 people to give 100 rifles the overall treatment, down to polishing the bolts, and after doing all that we'd be all pooped out and only able to take that trip home after a proper night's sleep - problem is the cookhouse isn't bothering with making us breakfast tomorrow morning so THAT'S out of the question.
So for now, it's off to the armory in two neat rows while chanting the Hi Ho song or whatever we can improvise, then everyone drags out anything made of metal and costing more than we make, then stripping them down to the bare parts and giving said parts the complete once-over. AND IT GETS BETTER.
2130hrs. Now we're good to go - but some bright spark decided that we have to help deal with all the leftover combat rations issued to us (you'd honestly think real soldiers eat more than that especially in The Wild(tm)), by making sure every man passing through those gates is carting about 5-7kg of foilpacked chicken pasta, hardtack biscuits, and some of those powdered drinks that we really should be staying away from in the first place (field discipline, gotta drink plain water only). It's a good opportunity to scavenge the useful stuff, but that's it. Until Monday Morning, Out To You.
- CLOSED ON JANUARY 20 & 21
JANUARY 22, MONDAY
Well, technically it's still January 21, Sunday, 2300hrs, which is the designated time that every trooper has to be behind the gates, hunting for the sign-in book in the company office, then up to the bunks and unpacking ONLY TO DISCOVER I FORGOT MY BATH TOWEL. GAAH. Fortunately I had a reserve so I could shower before sleep - that is a HELLA LONG WALK FROM THE GATES I gotta tell you.
0700hrs. Slept all right, but breakfast was so bad I went to the canteen and ate something else. We're down to the past part-of-a-week now, and just becauuse we're done with rolling out and carrying guns doesn't mean the worst is over. Oh no. For starters, 10 people from each company were arrowed for cleaning duty, specifically at the treaded vehicle washing bay - and this is no joke, because 72 hours multiplied by 5 companies fielding 10 or more tanks, IFVs and what have you adds up to approximately 20 TONS OF MUD in the washing bay. God dammit, we were shoveling that crap all morning.
1630hrs. After an okay lunch and a nap (I know, rare) it was time for the official ATEC debrief. Just two points: our company came out of that MMORPH with more remaining party members than the other companies put together, and 2. sleeping shirtless in the open while in the middle of a huge exercise - a BIG no-no. Right after that was the Return of the Survey, not much different from last time - then the Return of the Battalion Cohesion Activity, also not much different from last time. Catered dinner again, though there seems to be more items on the menu this time. Apparently they're doing a larger variety of small munchies instead of larger but less varied munchies. Nothing wrong with that.
1930hrs. Here's something new to the War Journal - we get treated to a series of music and dance numbers, courtesy of the oft-misunderstood SAF Music and Dance Company (and by oft-misunderstood I mean that one of the dancers was clearly a transvestite.) You've probably heard of this one before - certain officers were dragged onto the stage and made to sing or dance or otherwise participate somehow, including a Thickest Chest Hair competition. Yeah. The actual stageshow was much better thankfully, including an inhouse band and several covers of songs hip and recent. I knew they'd do Black Eyed Peas dammit I shoulda taken bets...
-
Aaron Hong
- Me king!
- Posts:1269
- Joined:Fri Jan 11, 2002 12:00 am
- ::No pity for fools
- Location:...No let ME fold the map GAAH
JANUARY 23, TUESDAY
Last two days are always the longest... We're doing something very different for today - remember that commanding officer who suffered a detached retina? Well, he has to leave the service and hand over the position to a new officer, so to commemorate this, we'll be doing a Change of Command Parade. Yes, an actual parade involving standing in rank and file and marching and turning and going TEN HUT on command. Everybody has to fold he sleeves of their uniforms to parade length, and use black polish to cover up the appearance of our boots after four days in the field, because hoses and brushing can only do so much. Rehearsals began at 0730 and again at 0930, because we really are that rusty - aparently they're going to save a bit of time and have everybody just freaking RUN into the quad, in rows of 5. It looks as silly as it sounds.
1100hrs. Rehearsals rudely interrupted as word comes in that the condition of the vehicle shed is still less that satisfactory (well what the HELL do you expect from 50-odd vehicles rolling in from The Wild(tm) after 4 days?) Nothing to do for it but to nick every ablebodied soldier (ironically, the company medic has been sick as a dog all week) and break out the brooms and brushes, even roll out two fire hoses to flush the mud out of the vehicle shed - and then the real problem begins, as we have to clean off our boots AGAIN for the Change of Command parade. Bad planning indeed.
1600hrs. For some obscure reason we're told o have our dinner early rather than after the big parade like most folks would, even though it's not likely to overrun into mealtime anyways (admittedly the time rolls a little slower when you're actually standing in rank and file, but that's for later.)
1630hrs. This is it. The Change of Command Parade begins... everybody runs into the quad (as said earlier) then forms up & waits for the CO to step in, give a little speech and then hand over this symbol of appontment (which looks like some kind of pewter diorama with a tank on it). The parade ends (yeah, kinda fast innit?) with everybody forming on both sides of th main road and waving as the CO sits in an IFV and rolls out (symbolically of course, he had his wie and son peeping out the back and everything). It's sillier than it sounds.
1700hrs. Lat night in this dump and no night out - this puts a huge dent in my plans as I got some extra junk I gotta cart home. At least the lounge is open and somebody thought to set up the casino, and we also got to catch a footy match on tv. Singapore vs Malaysia. Don't tell me this isn't relevant to what we've been here for this past month.
JANUARY 24, WEDNESDAY
It's official - we're going home today, judging from the size of the administrative cruise missile we were hit with. Never mind the physical fitness test in the morning, which I lucked out of due to a scheduling conflict - I'm talking about a 50 foot wide puddle on a ramp in the multistorey carpark that refused to drain or dry or otherwise clear on its own like it oughtt to. We were sweeping and brushing the murky water towards the main exit ramp, letting it Niagara down the road, until the water was cleared just enough for us to locate the drainage grate underneath. With a little plunger work, everyone spent the next 10 minutes watching the water drain out, and jab the grate with a brush occasionally.
1400hrs. Sometimes the administrative cruise missiles are low-flying and surrepitiously slow - afte lunch should have been the time to out-procss and hopefully bugger off for the year, but the process of clearing Lost Item statements meant that we have to pack our stuff and vacate the bunks more than 3 HOURS before we were allowed to scan our IDs and finally GET OUT OF THIS DUMP. SO LONG, LOSERS.
- JOURNAL ENDS HERE
That was it for 2007, and tomorrow morning it starts again... it's just one week so I'm not sure I'll even keep a journal for it at this point. Well, this is my bye for now.
Last two days are always the longest... We're doing something very different for today - remember that commanding officer who suffered a detached retina? Well, he has to leave the service and hand over the position to a new officer, so to commemorate this, we'll be doing a Change of Command Parade. Yes, an actual parade involving standing in rank and file and marching and turning and going TEN HUT on command. Everybody has to fold he sleeves of their uniforms to parade length, and use black polish to cover up the appearance of our boots after four days in the field, because hoses and brushing can only do so much. Rehearsals began at 0730 and again at 0930, because we really are that rusty - aparently they're going to save a bit of time and have everybody just freaking RUN into the quad, in rows of 5. It looks as silly as it sounds.
1100hrs. Rehearsals rudely interrupted as word comes in that the condition of the vehicle shed is still less that satisfactory (well what the HELL do you expect from 50-odd vehicles rolling in from The Wild(tm) after 4 days?) Nothing to do for it but to nick every ablebodied soldier (ironically, the company medic has been sick as a dog all week) and break out the brooms and brushes, even roll out two fire hoses to flush the mud out of the vehicle shed - and then the real problem begins, as we have to clean off our boots AGAIN for the Change of Command parade. Bad planning indeed.
1600hrs. For some obscure reason we're told o have our dinner early rather than after the big parade like most folks would, even though it's not likely to overrun into mealtime anyways (admittedly the time rolls a little slower when you're actually standing in rank and file, but that's for later.)
1630hrs. This is it. The Change of Command Parade begins... everybody runs into the quad (as said earlier) then forms up & waits for the CO to step in, give a little speech and then hand over this symbol of appontment (which looks like some kind of pewter diorama with a tank on it). The parade ends (yeah, kinda fast innit?) with everybody forming on both sides of th main road and waving as the CO sits in an IFV and rolls out (symbolically of course, he had his wie and son peeping out the back and everything). It's sillier than it sounds.
1700hrs. Lat night in this dump and no night out - this puts a huge dent in my plans as I got some extra junk I gotta cart home. At least the lounge is open and somebody thought to set up the casino, and we also got to catch a footy match on tv. Singapore vs Malaysia. Don't tell me this isn't relevant to what we've been here for this past month.
JANUARY 24, WEDNESDAY
It's official - we're going home today, judging from the size of the administrative cruise missile we were hit with. Never mind the physical fitness test in the morning, which I lucked out of due to a scheduling conflict - I'm talking about a 50 foot wide puddle on a ramp in the multistorey carpark that refused to drain or dry or otherwise clear on its own like it oughtt to. We were sweeping and brushing the murky water towards the main exit ramp, letting it Niagara down the road, until the water was cleared just enough for us to locate the drainage grate underneath. With a little plunger work, everyone spent the next 10 minutes watching the water drain out, and jab the grate with a brush occasionally.
1400hrs. Sometimes the administrative cruise missiles are low-flying and surrepitiously slow - afte lunch should have been the time to out-procss and hopefully bugger off for the year, but the process of clearing Lost Item statements meant that we have to pack our stuff and vacate the bunks more than 3 HOURS before we were allowed to scan our IDs and finally GET OUT OF THIS DUMP. SO LONG, LOSERS.
- JOURNAL ENDS HERE
That was it for 2007, and tomorrow morning it starts again... it's just one week so I'm not sure I'll even keep a journal for it at this point. Well, this is my bye for now.
