Outward Bounds

From July 1974 to July 1977 I was attached to the RSAF and was drawing a monthly salary of $980.00 which has the buying power of $4,500.00 today... so why did I leave? My mother would loved to have me sign on but if she only knew the angst that I suffered.. Having to work with crappy shitty Neanderthals and stupid bitches.. These women I refer to were those from HQ A.E.T.I. Changi.. Somehow they lost the copy of my 'O' level certificate and silly people that they were, they gossiped that I didn't complete my 'O' levels... Don't these stupid women know that to be an instructor you had to have a diploma and to get a diploma you first had to have an 'O' level certificate with 3 credits at least!! Stupid bitches!!

My day start at 0530 hrs and I take a shower and get into my uniform and walk to the bus-stop.. The first bus (no: 12) comes along at 0610 hrs. and I take a 90-minute ride to the end of the line and I change bus.. If I'm lucky I get on the next bus (either no:1 or no:2) and ride for another 30 minutes to Changi point. Then I enter the side gate and walk 10 minutes to A.E.T.I. exactly at 0800 hrs.. IF I AM LUCKY.. Usually, at the change-over bus-stop, the buses were too full to take any more passengers and I had to wait and hope for some colleague to give me a lift.. hence the gossip when Au gave me a lift (he's usually late).. Sometimes I get a lift from Lta Kumar, sometimes John or Richard (they car-pool) and once I even got a lift from the Commanding Officer Col G.A.Long.. Imagine my surprise when his sleek black car pulled up to the bus-stop and he leaned over to open the door and gestured for me to get in... I didn't know what to do - salute or not? And all the other soldiers at the bus-stop also went quiet and then hush hush whispers.. I quickly got into the car, said "Good morning, sir!" and he drove off. He was a nice guy and he asked a few polite questions like "Where are you staying?" and after I answered "Queenstown", he said "That's quite far." and I don't remembered what we talked about but it took only 10 minutes and we arrived at the office.. "Thank you, sir!" No salute.

And this gets me to what I don't understand.. why are officers so hard up for a salute? Will they wither and die if an enlisted man don't salute them? You see.. there was this officer from who-knows-where who was walking towards me when I was leaving camp and I didn't salute him (because I don't know how - I didn't go for BMT) and he asked me where I'm from and then he complained to the CI.. So after my brush with Loh Shee Tong, I was sent for training (to teach me discipline!).. Actually I was happy to go as it meant I didn't have to endure a 2-
hour bus ride every morning and I didn't have to see their stupid faces!

For my BMT, I reported to Beach Road Camp which was opposite Raffles Hotel and next to the NCO Club, about 45 minutes bus ride from Queenstown.. so much better.. There I learned to salute, to march, to dismantle and re-assemble the AR-15 and to fire the weapon.. Also learned the rules and regulations like subordination, blah blah blah... I thoroughly enjoyed the 3 weeks despite the aches and pain.. One thing I remembered was that during these 3 weeks, I had a wedding invitation from one of the staff and I was seated opposite Lta Kumar at dinner and he asked how was BMT (I felt that he was sneering) and I replied (with a straight face) : "They taught us to fire the AR-15 today and I hit the target. I might go for Sharpshooter training." That shut them up!!

After I completed BMT, I had to join in the Saturday morning parade because now I can march!.. so one Saturday I arrived, late as usual, and rushed to join the parade but my contigent already marched down so I decided to go for coffee at the canteen... How was I to know that the Inche (WO) saw me and marched all of them back up (to let me join in).. but I was nowhere in sight... So he put me on charge for not attending the parade! So I got charged...was escorted into the OC's office and answered yes to the charge, paid a $200.00 fine.. The OC asked why I didn't attend the parade and I answered "Late, sir" So he said "Leave your house earlier." I said "I take the first bus, sir!" Then he said "Take transport then." "But sir, transport don't go near my house, sir! I have to take a bus to take transport, sir!" "Oh I see, okay, I'll see what I can do." Haha .. Transport make a detour to pick me up..

Another chance for me to get out of camp for 3 weeks was Outward Bound School in Pulau Ubin. I applied to go for the course just to prove to myself that I can do it. The very first day we were told to run round the field until quite a few of us collapsed.. This was so that the people there know who to look out for.. then they took us for a WALK...... up the slippery slopes, through the swamp (where some of the girls lost their shoes in the mud).....over obstacles courses that commandos train in..... and at the end we went to the dormitories with scrapes and muddy clothes and looking like shit.... But it was fun! At the school, we learned to absail, rock climb, sail a schooner, sail a dinghy, canoe, dive off a jetty
[there was a girl, from the commando unit who could parachute from 20,000 feet but dare not jump off the jetty..because she could see the water!!]
use the flying fox, move from one tree to the next using rope bridges and sometimes, there was only a single rope and you have to do the commando crawl... this one is teruk on the inner thigh! Walked across a channel of water with the feet on one rope and holding on to another rope for balance.. I went into the water... Had to camp over night at Pulau Tekong (as a group) and find our way back after going through a series of checkpoints... Stole somebody's pineapple... Was left to camp on our own (one night)... scared the shit off some of the girls because they heard a strange sound.. which was me chopping at a branch to fashion a walking stick.. and a whole lot of other stuff.. I nearly sank the schooner.. I volunteered to climb up a very steep cliff but was turned down by the instructor who didn't think he could hold my weight.. He's a scruny guy! Nearly drowned when doing the canoe-capsized drill because my shorts were caught in the seat.. Jumped into the sea to do the man-overboard drill because I had my period... sprained my ankle jumping off the balance beam.....groped my way in total darkness... etc...Towards the end of the three weeks, we all had to run for three kilometeres and I didn't collapse , didn't come in first but didn't come in last either!

I lost quite a lot of weight and was very tanned when I returned to camp but my hairdo was the worst ever! Like Little Orphan Annie! That's because the rules state that either the hair is short, above the collar or tied up in one bun... so I permed my hair in tight curls so that it's above my collar and not long enough to tie! I did this just before I went for OBS and after three weeks the hair grew .. Like afro!! HAPPENING !!