Endoh’s Dungeon

National Service has always been a big taboo in the lives of Singapore males. The sound of it with 18 years of prior existence really knock some sense into many of us. Hey, it’s time to grow up. Quit all the five stones and magic cards. In place, you get a duffer-bag-ful of items as though we have been sentenced to one of the labor camps.

Perhaps it’s coincidence. I just went back for a mob briefing on Monday, due to certain reasons that I can’t disclose openly. The situation of neighbouring countries are a little messy, that’s all I supposed I can say. And I feel this is something all Singaporeans should be aware of, and not sweep under the carpet. I came back, and I was delighted to read other prominent bloggers also talking about NS. What truly touched me, was DK’s description of the peaceful Singapore we are looking at now. All these can vanish within minutes. Once upon a time, we lamented as teenagers for having to leave our sexy little girlfriends (read sweet young things), spending day and night with a robotic-alike wife (read M16… sound effect very loud too!). Maybe a poster of Mariah Carey or Jennifer Lopez made lives a little easier in those years.

Chatting with my NSmen has always been inspiring. The very same lamenting soldiers are now military advocates. Even ah-beng soldiers realized the kind of aggressive actions that can befall on our land… mai siaoz siaoz ah, later send one MIG over and zua all over you then you know!

I was laughing when I heard that from one of the storemen, but yet what he said painted a very painful reality. It doesn’t even need you to be a first-class-honor grad to know that. And who can we count on when that happens? NATIONAL SERVICEMEN!

It’s not an easy thing to balance, having family commitments, careers, aging parents, in-camp trainings, recall mannings etc. Despite the harsh lives most of us live with, I have seen many opinions from NSmen change from “waste of time” to “we are our own best security”. With that, it simply means NSmen are more aware of our surroundings and getting to understand the importance of NS more. It’s a good thing.

There’s a lot of changes in army for the Gen-Xers. There are still lapses but it’s comforting that most lapses are administrative errors rather than operational ones. Do I mean the mistakes should take place? Of course not. But errors do happen from time to time, and we are all humans. The training has also evolved to be more efficient, and my favourite is the change in shooting format. We can now provide cover for the firer next to us.

I know it sounds stupid, but that’s precisely what we are trained for. Teamwork, and the hierachy in a battle group. If your commander gets shot, your second highest officer takes over. If he too gets shot, the third inline takes over the leadership. If you need to do a flanking, you provide covering fire while the flanking troopers get into position. Now you see, why changing the range firing system is one of the best improvements to me. And this year… my entire detail (consisting from 20s to late 30s) hit our goal of marksmanship. For the one and only NSman aged 39+, it was the best present we can give him for all his contribution, guidance and mentoring to younger ones like us.

Espirit-de-corp? Absolutely, and NSmen are beginning to enjoy our occasional “holiday” more. The greatest lesson learnt from army is probably, the world is a lot bigger than us and no man can survive alone. For this, I hope those NS boys whom I frequently hear saying stuffs like “war will never come to Singapore lah” will eventually grow and see the real threats.

And for ladies, whether you get to shop along Orchard Road or not, very much falls on the shoulders of the army as well. I remembered that SYT (read spoilt young twat) that was cursing and swearing at army for her boyfriend’s enlistment, I am not going to link it here. However, it’s a good lesson to learn about Singaporeans’ complacency.

Proud of being a NSman… why shouldn’t you be?