NS - Part 1

National Service or NS is about growing from Boyz To Men.

Most people have heard lots of frightfully scary stories of NS life way before their tme. The most fortunate or unfortunate must have been the very first badge in the army that were trained by the Israelis. Some hated to be in uniforms, others became animals in uniforms. Every guy who has gone in for BMT and allowed out would be talking about it non-stop with their friends.

One particular friend told us the story of a neighbour who told him that he went in quietly and ROD quietly without any fanfare which this friend found very "sud" and claimed that he would do just that. He gave me a sent off as I was enlisted first and he came along with my parents, well I am an only son if you knew what I mean. Naturally, you may think the most excited or nervous people could be your parents but I was wrong. It was this old friend of mine. When I went up the three-tonner and as it droves off, my friend suddenly ran a few steps forward and shouted to me: "Geoff, Geoff - take care!" He broke the silence and my heart. What the fish he did that for? I was cool man. This was the guy who claimed he would walk in and out quietly but barely a month later and out on a weekend, he was talking the whole night about his NS training. "Left, right, left"... the corporal shouted...blah blah blah. What did you think happened to him? He was slimed and slammed good and proper by all the whole night.

Meanwhile, back to the 3-tonner. While others go to some far away camp with names you never heard of and where birds don't even lay eggs there, I was dispatch to haha nearby Police Academy at Whitley Road. The Academy has first rate facilities. If I had wanted, I could possibly walk home. Other than the fear of having your head shaved bald, this was the fittest period of any young man's life where you wore a perfect six-pack on your bod (not the 6-pack as in beer) which by now most of us though still having the same six-pack must have lost its tension and are in completely relaxed form. Some more fearless ones have them 6-pack permanently rejoined into a lump.

Each morning, while the air is still at its freshest and the morning birds were singing, we would begin with a cross country run of 2.4km or more outside the acedemy. Some days, we did 10 rounds around two joined soccer pitches while the morning dew made your PT shoes dam. PT shoes back then were made of cheap and hard canvass attached to a flat hard plastic sole and one look at it would give one blisters let alone wearing them to run. The modern day NSman wears Reebok. After breakfast at the mess, it would be time at the Parade Square with your rifles and dropping for pumps was a common sight. If you were a Military man and you complained about lugging a AR15 rifle then, you should have stopped whining as we were issued with the SLR which weighed almost twice as much. Imagine doing the "homat senjata" with it.

Then it was back to class for law lessons not lessons lor. Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, etc. Otherwise, shooting at the range with the revolver.

It was exciting and disappointing. Exciting to shoot with it but disappointing because its recoil is quite strong and the results were not quite like what you saw in Hollywood. You took aim at the legs but you could hit the target on the head.

Poor souls who could not swim have to jump into the Olympic sized pool and only when they were left with their hands above the water like being sucked in by quicksand do the instructors dangle a long pole to reach them and pull them aside. Boxing was a key sport and it was not easy to put your hands up with those gloves on and fight for 10 minutes.

You'll find all kinds of oddballs in people there. There was a guy who would wash his underwear at the toilet in the night singing the saddest chinese songs.

We bathed in open showers in full view of one another. They said that if you drop your soap, never bend to pick it up. If you ever had time, the best place to be would be at the swimming pool by night where they have a cafeteria. But anytime you have were short as you would need to be back in the barracks to polish your boots, brush up on your law, cleaning up , etc.

By this time every sinew have been fully stretched and it was easy to sleep so that you could be up real early the next day.