The greatest nightmare of every recruits' stay in BMT is FINALLY OVER for me! :D 6 days out in the jungle was actually pretty ok for me. Because, I expected worse.
Firstly I really, really want to thank God that through the 6 days, it only rained on the LAST NIGHT!! If it rains, you and your equipment will be all wet and you'll have to sleep in that wet condition. It rained on the last night so we were turned out and moved to the nearest training shed all dripping and drenched with rain water. We were then told to sleep....Imagine ~250 people squashed together soaking wet with hardly any leg space, sleeping.
Next I really, really want to thank God and the scientists who invented the field rations because I did not EXCRETE anything throughout the 6 days! HAHAHAHA! Shitting outfield is really disgusting. Thank God I didn't have any big nature call!! Haha.
Yup, here are some of the stuff I learnt :)
1) What I considered to be a mere commodity became a luxury. And what I considered a luxury became a dream! I learnt to appreciate the little things we have but always take for granted. The main commodities that were removed during field camp were:
> Taking a shower. We had to powder bath for 6 days straight!! O the refreshing sound of CLEAN water rushing down your sweaty body at the end of the day...Haha. That went missing.
> Sleeping on a nice, soft bed. We slept on ground sheets in the basha for the 1st 3 days and on the hard ground for the last 3! Ok, other than just sleeping on the ground, we actually were sleeping on the insects' homes and roads. One of my friends actually got stung by a centipede!! He survived it. Thank God.
> Brushing your teeth with an endless stream of water flowing out of the tap's faucet. No one bothered to brush their teeth as it was too lay chey and too dark at night...
> Doing your business in a toilet bowl. Yes this privilege was removed too! We had to do our stuffs in a hole in the ground.....I shan't elaborate. HAHAHA!
2) What endurance and willpower meant. We had a 8km++ road march before our field camp. For you guys who don't know what's road march, we have to march 8km++ in FBO - Full Battle Order.
This means we carry 25-30kg worth of stuffs on our backs - Our rifle [4kg], our LBV (Load Bearing Vest) with water bag, & water bottle [~8kg] and lastly, our Fieldpack with RATIONS and store items! [~2okg] for 8km. Ok it's our first time so it's pretty tough. The road march, by the way, left me with a few blisters on my toes... -.-"
But after our road march, our whole company have to set up our basha tents in like 15mins - meaning all the tents are neatly aligned. My company by the way has about 250 people.
This is the first heavier test of my endurance & will power. And guess what? This is nothing compared to digging our shell scrape. -_-"
We have to dig a hole in the ground with 2 steps down to fit our whole body lying flat (prone position) and a deep hole in the back to fit our fieldpack in without it jutting out.
This was the worst part of the whole field camp. Firstly because we have to dig the trench in SBO (Skeletal/Standard Battle Order) with our LBVs, HELMETS and rifles on...The helmet really is a pain in the head. Haha!
After hacking the ground for like 3-4 hours straight and seeing that all you have is a-little-out-of-shape-rectangle with so little depth really demoralises me. If you think digging out soil is easy, think again. A few guys in my company fainted. 1 guy came from my platoon.
To pass the shellscrape, you have to prone (lie flat) in it with only your rifle scope and abit of your helmet sticking out of the hole in the ground.
Cut the story short, I had tons of blisters on my hands, litres of my sweat absorbed into my uniform and LBV and we took like 10 hours spread out across 2 days of activities to finish our digging.
I PASSED the shell scrape test! Thanks to some of my bunkmates who helped me like Sebastian, Jorge, Nelson & Chee Eng :) who helped here and there. :D
The shell scrape was the ultimate test of endurance and willpower for me. So many times I just felt like giving up. And that was the time I really felt what the Bangladeshi construction workers felt man. HAHA! Digging in the hot sun with ~8kg of equipment on you is no joke.
These are the main stuffs I took home. As for what else we did there and all, ask me and you'll know a bit more, go through it and you'll become a man. :)
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