www.Go To The Mountain - Musings of a Potential Guru

18 April, years ago I was enlisted and trained to kill if necessary. Many of my friends too when we were only about 18. National Service changed many of us. It is like taking medicine, you don't like it but is is good for you. Thank Dr. Goh Keng Swee for starting an Army by reading a book to where we are today. Some people still question why we need the SAF and these people just don't get it. Get hold of this book "Defending The Lion City" by Tim Huxley which I have read many years back and you will appreciate more. Sometimes you will hear that it is necessary for war in order to have peace. War can also easily start when the leadership of a country is in trouble and in order to deflect attention to their corruption, inefficiencies and failures, they create a war. Or simply when someone is bigger than you, they just wish to walk all over you. I like our country's government and military approach and doctrine - to make friends all over, joint-exercises and all, to...

If living in Toa Payoh gave me intimate knowledge of the place, serving NS Police in Bravo Division made me knew every nook and cranny at the back of my hands. That was my posting after three months of BMT. I was supposed to go to the "ang chia" (red vehicle) but it was somehow changed and well from where I lived I could walk to work. Every Lorong and block was covered. Police work can be very interesting and exciting. Attending to fights, road accidents, controlling traffic on a rainy day when the traffic lights have failed, dealing with mad man, you name it. Security duty where you have to patrol a cemetery can turn anyone into a nervous wreck. But I found the experience sobering and wanted to challenge the guts so I requested for an extension at the cemetery. It actually grew on me and I could dispel all doubts that the cemetery is a frightening place. It does look frightening at first with what you knew were lying around there but it is the most peaceful and serene ...