We were soldiers...for a week

A week has come and gone...a week that was once greatly feared, but now cherished forever...a week that I experienced the best days of my life!...It's almost indescribable...

Day 1
My batchmates and I departed by bus from our PJ Intan campus to Pusat Latihan Tempur Darat (PULADA) in Johor at 8.00am last Sunday to begin a week's training as soldiers. The journey lasted almost 6 hours with intervals along the way. With signboards indicating that we were almost reaching the most awaited destination, I wished with all my heart that the ride would not end so fast. My heart was filled with mixed emotions...On one hand, I was excited about the military style training that I was about to commence, and on the other hand, I feared that my feeble body may not be able to bear it. The previous batches had given us a very scary description of their experience as soldiers, but one side of me was nevertheless very eager to go through it..somehow a voice within told me it wouldn't be that bad... But to put it simply, I prepared myself mentally for the worst.

Finally, we reached PULADA around 12 noon, where we were ordered to stand in the marching field. The commanders were shouting at us, and at that moment, it felt like the gates of hell had just swallowed us in. As we were divided into our platoons, each of us were asked to swallow a pill which is supposed to prevent malaria. Simultaneously, we were given a back-pack which contained survival necessaties to carry with us, and also an army t-shirt, which unfortunately was too large for me. I came to PULADA with my own back-pack, a carry bag containing the army boots, belt and beret, and ironed clothes in hanger, in my hand. The additional luggage was too much for me to handle. Fortunately, the guys in my platoon helped me carry my load to the hostel.

The hostel we were given to stay was actually the hostel of Australian soldiers. It was like a dormitory. 2 were allocated for girls. The first one was full by the time I reached, which turned out to be a good thing. The first dorm fitted about 45 girls, and the second one, only 5. So 5 of us late comers enjoyed the privacy for 5 to a dorm. There were two common bathrooms for girls, which was pretty decent. The guys dorm was just opposite the girls'. As soon as we unloaded our stuff into the hostel, we were asked to board a bus to the training area which was 3 minutes away, by bus, to have our lunch.

I heard from previous batches that the first activity after lunch was crawling and side-roll. Both which caused nausea. Thus, I limited my intake of food, and was very particular to avoid oil and spices. I had also brough medicine to prevent vomiting. However, after eating lunch, I told myself that I want to go through it like a soldier, for that is what I was there for. I would never know my limit if I never went through it without the medicine. Thus, I left the medicine behind.

True enough, the first activity was crawling (aka jalan biawak) for a 100 metres, and back to origin. That is when I obtained my first souvenirs from the army; bruised elbows, which have yet to completely heal. After crawling halfway through, i felt completely exhausted and felt that I could not go on. But as I heard my platoon mates supporting me from the finishing line, I pushed myself further, despite the pain felt in every part of my body. When I reached the finishing line, my fingers were beginning to become numb, and my head was spinning. I felt like fainting, but told myself, 'Joanna, this is just the beginning...you must not faint. No, not now! Jesus,help me.." I didn't give in..I started massaging my own fingers and kept moving. Thank God, after some minutes, I felt better.

Following this came the most feared activity of the day - side roll!!! Imagine having to roll a 100 metres side ways! As I started rolling the first five rolls, my head already began to spin. The warned us against closing our eyes as it would cause a black-out. Somewhere along the way, I began rolling towards the side instead of up-front, and my platoon was calling out my name, asking me to stop and re-allign. As I stopped, and sat up...my God, I felt that I would faint any minute! The whole field seemed to be spinning and I could not position myself, but did it somehow through their directions,and continued rolling! And rolling, and rolling! By this time, rolling became somewhat an unconscious movement, where I found myself just rolling automatically without having to push myself.
When I reached the finishing line, my facilitator was waiting. "Joanna, jump right up and look at the sky. Don't look down. Keep on jumping!" He said. It felt impossible to do, as every step taken was on a revolving world. The important thing was not to give in to our feelings...to fight it was the key! I followed the advice, and lo and behold, after a few minutes, I felt just fine. I looked around and saw many vomitting, and in a daze, but I survived without vomiting, without medicine! My faith in God and confidence increased. I was also amazed at the capabilites of the human body to go against the ordinary and adjust back to normal just fine. Simply remarkable!

Those were the highlights of day 1. At night, we had interesting lectures...


A Captain I'll Always Remember

How many times in your life have you met someone with a kindred spirit? To me, a couple of times, but this time, it think, it was one in a million! The Captain from the army, assigned to head my platoon was not only left-handed as I am, but also shared the same birthday, which I only found out on the second last day of my military days!

Actuall, since the very first day I saw my Captain, there was something inexplainable about him that caused me to like him very much. It's not like some teenage crush or anything like that..more of a 'bond' which said, i have not known you before, but something tells me we have a lot in common. I mentally guessed that he must be born in March too, and observed that he was left-handed as well, as he handled the guns. I also observed him observing me, and that made me feel that the feeling was mutual. I truly respected and admired my Captain, for the physical strenght and agility he displayed, but he was extremely strict. I feared him, but could smile when punished, because I just liked him so much. He's a Malay guy, in his mid thirties.

When we had to practice holding the M16 gun single-handedly, I struggled very hard as it was heavy. I was the smallest in my platoon, and I could see him obversing each move I made. Suddenly, he came from behind and called my name...I kind of panicked, and he asked me, "Your really lefr-handed too?"..."Yes, sir!" was my reply. Then he taught me how to hold the gun properly, and 'adjusted' my shoulders and showed me how to position my body correctly, all without a smile, but complete seriousness. I was grateful, but of course, physical strenght was my limitation. "You need to do 100 push ups every day", he said sternly..I actually smiled, ha ha...

In the jungle survival village, we had ambush during the night, where we had to keep vigil and fire when we spotted our 'enemy', which of course was our Captain in disguise. I seriously never slept a wink, being on the lookout all the time, but when it was time to fire, my gun got jammed after the very first shot. Our captain then asked us all to get out of our hiding position, because obviously we hadn't fininshed our bullets (dummy ones)...I was very scared, as he ordered I hadn't finished mine as ordered. I told him my problem with quite a shaky voice (having cough at that time too). My Captain then took the gun from me, and pretty soon realized that it was really the gun's problem, and not mine...So he fired each remaining bullet for me, as it got jammed each time after he unjammed it.

On the second last day of our military week, we had night of performance in Puteri Pan Pacific Hotel, in Johor Bahru. It was a dinner function where we 'cadets' and the 'army staff were supposed to sit together in various tables to mingle...Each of us cadets had to leave an empty seat beside us in a table of 10, for the staff of the army. Throughout the journey to the hotel, from our base, I was hoping so much in my heart that my Captain would sit at my table, so that I could at least get to know him a little better...To my excitement, I saw him being ushered by my colleague saying to him, "Here Sir, you can sit beside Joanna." I was so thankful in my heart, but of course, I reacted as if it was nothing...ha ha....

This was my chance of a lifetime! He was extremely quiet and I decided to start the ball rolling. My first question was, "How is it like being a left-handed, handling the guns and all?"...Then, I had the audacity to ask him, are you always fierce and strict, to which he smiled and replied, "This is all a show. Just pretence.."..Somehow the topic slowly evolved to birthdays, and I asked him if he was born in March, to which he replied 28 March! I got a total shock, "That's the same as me!" I said...He just smiled and said he already knew. He had read my biodata. He later turned to my friend beside him and said to her that he was a lot like me...quiet in nature and all..He even showed me his fiance's picture.... That explained everything :)

In the morning of our second last day in the army, we had an activity called 'battle inoculation". We had to crawl under barbed wire, with small rivers on our right and left, and life bullets flying over our heads while explosives exploding beside us, and the ground shaking. I was having flu and cough, and as I crawled, I don't know just how much sand and river water from the explosion that I had swallowed! Towards the end of my crawl, I felt that I could push myself no more, and my platoon mate who had already reached simply dragged me by my uniform...I have so much to share on this but I'll focus on my Captain here, as of now, due to time limitation...My Captain was observing this I suppose, and as we lined up upon completion, my Captain came in front of me and called my name again...Once again, my heart trembled...I thought that he was going to scold me for being the last to reach in my platoon, and say that I caused my platoon to lose (actually, in the end my platoon won, and although I was last, I was still earier than the last persons of the other platoons, by 3 minutes)...And guess what my Captain said..."Joanna, you've got to eat more. Do you understand?"...That statement just made my day:)....

On the last day, a pity, my Captain wasn't around, so I smsed him a thank you messge, for everything. he replied and gave me very sound advice as last words. He said that I was quiet just like him, and we tend not to make our way to the top through popularity or 'boot-licking' which is good...Just be yourself and do your work well, don't follow others, he said...Very sound advice indeed...Truly, he will be a Captain I'll always remember:)


.....TO BE CONTINUED.....