August Frenzy

I know its been a while, quite alot has happened for the past month or so. First, got called up for my very first In-camp training. And then the much awaited Olympics came. Lets talk about the ICT first.

There I was, newly assigned to the unit and then was thrown into a Brigade level full-troop exercise.Well, all was rather fine since I was able to click with the other platoon commanders but had a slightly hard time trying to merge completely into the scout platoon. I understand since their original PC had been with them all the way so its unrealistic to expect total acceptence for a new guy like myself. Still, that remains a minor issue. It was the scheduled 8 days of exercise that raised quite a few eye-brows and lowered morale for many. What made it so long was actually a series of "breaks" in between the mission. Only thing is, these "breaks" sap more energy than replenish it because of the waiting and wondering. It does no good to lower our fatigue levels.

Anyway, first mission was a supposedly simple recon mission but on one of the tougher objective routes for my team. And we were inserted at the wrong time, giving us only an hour of cover under darkness to walk. As if that was not bad enough, it seems as if I overrated my own capability cause the moment I picked up my field-pack and started walking, I knew I was in deep trouble. The other guys were just as bad but I did manage to put up a front to push them on but it was futile after 3 hours when we eventually resulted in 5 minutes of walking followed by 10 minutes of resting. It was just that bad. Our mission was FUBAR (F*cked Up Beyond All Repair) and we got "killed" by a patrolling Armour vehicle after a while. Why FUBAR? There was only 1 road in to our objective and there was a whole company of enemy troops waiting for us along the way. AND to top it all off, the objective was changed to another one AFTER we were declared "dead"... Consolation though that we get to rest for the entire duration of that first mission, only having to deal with surprised remarks of us scouts being "captured" (hello, we are dead, not captured. And dead scouts dun talk).

2nd mission wasn't so bad if not for me being trapped by an enemy patrol on my way to the objective from my Observation Point position. For 3 whole hours, I disappeared off everyone's radar (I think my team declared me captured). So there I was, trying to think of ways and means to get back to my OP. I eventually decided to try bashing through some very tall cane plants, making quite a fair din with the rustling. To think of the fact that its the Chinese 7th month did not help. I ended up at a road junction near an enemy OP position that was the very same one that trapped my only route back. They heard me alright but I was lucky they never came to investigate. So I just sat tight near the road in the bushes, tired, tirsty and very very pissed. I bidded my time and calculated the risks before making a run for it. A distance from the spot, I jumped into the forest and move quickly in the general direction of my OP. Either the enemy were asleep or too surprised to even give chase, I won't know. I knew for sure my heart was pumping like a motor piston. The guys were all damn surprised to see me for sure.

Final mission was something new to me. I was to act as the intel officer for the Armour-fighting force for the Battalion's defence mission. Nothing much happened though since the enemy opted to attack from another direction so nothing for me to do, right? Wrong! Another group launched their attack at another Battalion's defence position and I happen to be right in the area. And when the other OPs could not get through to the main intel centre, I ended up being the mobile intel centre in the field. Its not easy in that cold damp environment where water condenses everywhere, including rubber tyres. It was an eye-opener of an exercise really but hell no I don't want to go through it all again!

Not to mention that this whole thing made us missed a whole chunk of the Olympic events! Even though I'm not a fervant fan to watch every event, I'm still a strong supporter of the Olympic ideals and celebrating the best of Athleticism. Kudos to Michael Phelps and Usain "Lightning" Bolt for their prowess and to the Chinese (Whom cannot be entirely trusted for their product quality) for organising such an extraordinary Games that no other Nations can possibly match. (London has alot to think about and do). Good show but it's back to work now.