OCS: Oversea Venture II

JCC - Also known as Jungle Confidence Course, is a pride of Infantry Officers. Just like commandos have their rangers and airborne courses, we have to go through this confidence course in Brunei. Well... if you heard any soldiers talking about JCC, you would hear it with pride and honour, of how they went through the sufferings and hungers in the jungle. That is true. Firstly, we needed to go through a navigation test. After that, we had to survive in the jungle for 5 days and accomplished the tasks required. Last but not least, we were helivac to some ulu place and we had to find some checkpoints and got out of the jungle and crossed the famous Sungei Apoi to finish the course.

The first navigation was quite a brisk as we searched the checkpoints. The rule of thumb was to climb to the highest point as possible to navigate (also known as the ridgeline) because there were where the vegetation was the most scarce. I still could remember how nice the hammock was and how I enjoyed making the fire at night to keep myself warm. Sorry Boon for nearly burning you as a roasted pig. All of us were able to pass this test.

Next test was our famous survival test. We were dropped at different locations. My site was quite fine but some of the others were allocated a swampy place. The challenge was that we needed to make a shelter, a fireplace and some other survival structures and tools. It was really a challenge and unforgettable experience for most of us.

Day 1:
Very enthusiatic in building the shelter. Without the shelter, I would have no place to sleep. But I was still too late, it started to rain at 4pm and the sky got darker and became totally darkness by 6pm. The rain still continued and I had to hide under a small pathetic tree to seek shelter first. It was too cold for me.

Day 2:
I am determined to finish the shelter and finally finished building it. Then I began to start on other structures like fireplace. I thought the shelter was good for me already but when it was put to the punctual rain test at about 4pm again, I had to hide in whatever shelter I had in my pathetic A-Frame. It was really a pathetic feeling. At night, while it was raining, I tried to do my small equipment like spoon and fork. All these equipment do have some points to earn.

Day 3:
I got extremely hungry today. For the past few days, I still can endure but today, I am totally lethargic. I prepare most of my stuff and ready for inspection. I got some rice, a chicken wing and some fungus for my effort. I eat a little of many things and stored a little chicken wing for my traps.

Day 4:
Today is a low morale day. I have little energy and I only accomplished a little work only. I anyhow set up my traps and did my stuff. Then I rested at about 3pm and started to think of things. Of why am I here, what are we going to do, what has happened back at home... It was an emotional moment for me. Slowly, I fell asleep and luckily, it was the only night that didn't rain. Probably, the god was graceful to me that night.

Day 5:
The day when we were evacuated out and sent to our last navigation test. We congratulated one another for passing the previous test. But I was still astonished how the iguana was able to eat my chicken wing by passing through my trap.

We were high morale when we were able to taste the icy cold milo. After that, we were all distributed out to our various starting points to start our journey. We were all determined to succeed, to climb the Mt Biang and to taste the Apoi River.

We never knew that the river shown on the map meandered so much on the ground. A few cm shown on the map may take us a few km to travel. By right we were heading north, but we were actually moving to the south by following the river. The vegetation was also too dense to bash in. What a difficult terrain to navigate in.

Some of us were able to make it within the 5 days but not all were fortunate to do so. Some were standing proud when receiving the JCC badge but some were feeling sad for not able to pass the course. However, all of us lost a great deal of weight (I lost 7-8kg). We had an additional exercise and returned to singapore a few days later. I did not really want to mention of the R&R and those with me should know why. Anyway, for those who got the badge, congratulation. For those who did not, at least we went through it and had this unforgettable experience together.

JCC was an unforgettable experience. Like what my BMTC PC said before, JCC was something that I like to experience once but never want to go through it again. I still had some JCC sickness after returning back in singapore. I always complained to Rude, "Wah! All the trees in OCS are suitable for making A-Frame leh!"