Sunburnt on Friday, November 05, 2004
Monday till Thursday, i was in tekong island for a field camp for my men. I guess it was a revitalising experience to be back on this island. The rain had poured down in torrents for these days in the jungle. I was in Permatang, the land of rubber trees. The soil there was really muddy enough for colonies of mud skipper to live there. The heavy mud that stuck to my boots made me feel like an astronaut walking on an eccentric planet. All these are not new to me. It was a sad coincidence that i am back to this particular camp site where my last batch of men had their field camp. There was no training shed, we have to build our own tentage. I believe my men suffered even more under the hands of someone as cruel and sadistic like me. Making them leopard crawl in the mud, stealing their weapons, punishing them, raving and pressurising them to maintain field discipline, occasionally knock the sense out of them.
This particular field camp is slighly different from my past few batches. I was a unit spec, taking monointake "kids" who are rash and nonsensical. Kids who quarrelled and fought over things u can never imagine. Instead of taking up the role as a disciplinarian, i ended up being coerced to become a babysitter, a ferocious babysitter.
This field camp allowed me to see the other side of my men, whether they can survive under demanding situtation when commanders keep pressurising them, keep pushing them for standards to be achieved.
At the end of the day, i know that there are ppl there who will hate me, loath me for my way of disciplining them, or training them for that matter. It doesn't really matter to me.
ORD lor.
Nick was out in the sun at
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