OCS MSN

By demand:

Pls add me if you are from Delta Platoon 3 so that I can add your MSN contact here...

Mine: stevenpeh@hotmail.com
Rude: crd_7@hotmail.com
Willy Chang: larceniciel121@hotmail.com
Jiaxing: lee_jia_xing@hotmail.com
Willy Lim: limwilly@singnet.com.sg
Joel: netryder@hotmail.com
Boon: tbyphs11@yahoo.com.sg
Vince: vince_liew@hotmail.com
Jared: bytheblood@hotmail.com
Jerald: chillbone@hotmail.com
Dinesh: cjnesh@hotmail.com
Weifa: cyclops_84@hotmail.com
Sufian: goflyfly@hotmail.com
Joseph: josephyeo84@hotmail.com
Mingguan: miggylim@hotmail.com
Jason: waikikiblues@hotmail.com
Zong Neng: zntan84@hotmail.com
Kevin Kok: relag_xavier@hotmail.com
Kia Haw: kiahaww@hotmail.com

ORD LOH!

After the day, 9 Apr 2005, I finally got back something that was lost to me 2 years ago and now my wallet was getting a little bit heavier. I finally got back my pink IC! Well, I was very happy that I had already completed another phase of my life and I would be waiting for university study!

During this period of time, I was desperately looking for jobs, because I was JOBLESS! I was contributing to the jobless population in the MOM statistics! Hai.. Mainly, I need to work to fund myself. But luckily, with the help of JobsDB and some job agency, I got a few jobs. I did not put the names because I did not want to get myself into lawsuits. However, some of you may know which companies they are:

1. Chocolate Factory (2weeks)
   The job is a bit monotonous. Imagin you sit there just to separate contaminated white chocolate from those good one. Well, this was the first job that I did and luckily I had my companion Peter with me, or else life would be very miserable.
   
   Lesson Learnt: Just do a quick inspection and quickly move to the next batch...
   
2. Financial Agency (2weeks)
   The staff here were very friendly and helpful. Mainly, we went through transactions of sales based in other countries and did some sort of auditing stuff. Learn a great deal of accounting stuff here, which might be useful for my future studies. Who knows...
   
   Lesson Learnt: Look at the requirements and signatures. Reject those anyhow sent in one.
   
3. IT Helpdesk (2 months)
   Well... Those who were always with me, will always hear me grumble about this job.. WAH! "ORD" Loh... Haha, actually I learnt quite a great deal from this job. From how an ISP works to how to handle customers' queries and complaints. Phew.. I had a few days trainings and went to answer the calls. There were really many different types of customers and sometime I really liked to laugh, but couldn't to.
   
   "Why I signed up for unlimited plan and now I was disconnected...?"
   
   "Can you do a direct connection for me? Connect the modem directly to the phone jet... Hello, are you there...?" Call drops...
   
   "How come I cannot log on to those pornography website?"
   "You are on a filtering service..."
   "I do not need it. There are no children in my house. How do I unsubscribe?"
   "You can call sales..."
   "I cannot do it now huh...Then how do I do my research??"
   "..."
   
   These were just some examples only and I belived those seniors one would know more. Well, for those who want to connect to Internet, please buy a pc/laptop/modem/router that you know best. Also, if your connection is slow, do spyware/virus scan.
   
   Lesson Learnt: Customer is NOT always right but they cannot be blamed for their ignorance.

I took on a few language lessons also.. Like Malay and Japanese... However, until now, I only know how to speak a little... Selamat Malam, Hajime Mashite, Sumimasen, Tungu Tungu... Now still can remember a bit. If you know any of these languages, practise with me!

This is basically how I spent my time up to now. I learnt quite a lot, some from my jobs, some from my course, some from my buddy Man Chun (Thank for all your tips man!). Finally it is back to schooling time... School, Long time no see man!

Manpower without manpower!

Actually, manpower job was quite a "saikang" one. Most of the jobs like discipline, WIT, ICT, Pay, Promotion... All under manpower. Coming to the "brigade" office, my upperstudy Clement said, "Welcome to the manpower family." I did not know what it meant but slowly I realised that manpower job requires lots of patience, passion and enthusiasm.

I slowly took over the jobs as SOMP (Staff Officer Manpower) and realised that there were a lot of things that I needed to learn. From maintaining daily operation of the "brigade" to how to charge a person, all these directives we must know and they are always changing. However, I slowly learnt that oneself alone could not handle so much tasks and the only way to resolve this is to rely on the fellow men around you.

I treated all my men as my friends to the point that they requested me to be more harsh on them. Well, I believed that we should work as a team and I was only there to guide them along. After all, we were also NSFs, what for to tekan them? Hence, I adopted an open policy in the office. Fortunately, this was accordance to my boss's family policy for the office and everything went quite smoothly between us. However, occassionally, there would be some disputes and politics in the office, but fortunately we were able to overcome them with the policy.

Handling NSmen was also not an easy task and required some techniques. As they were older than me and should have more experience than me, I had to respect them. Indeed, I have learnt a lot from them, especially on the current situation in the society. One reason that I have changed my university course eventually was because of their advices. However, sometime we had to reason with them like for the common case IPPT, we need to reason with them with a strong point. By the way, IPPT/RT defaulters were big headaches for manpower jobs, all the NSmen please take your IPPT on time.

1 year of administrative training as manpower officer had prepared me very well for outside world. I got to learn a lot of human resource management, as well as handling those irritating office politics, especially those super big Tai Ji and Arrows. Well, it was really a relief when my understudy, Wenkai, came to take over me. However, I still told my guys, to look for me for gathering or if they have any problems. Anyway, we were comrades in the army afterall.

Why trainers didn't ensure...

I was posted to a reservist camp with Boon, Mao and Mingdao. Subsequently, I was appointed as a trainer and learnt how to handle reservist training. The job was quite fun initially but slowly, I found that the jobscope was quite blurred. Fortunately, I had my upperstudy Rahman and Kenneth to guide me along, through IPPT, Live Firing and Ranges.. I got to know my new buddy, Man Chun, and together with Boon and Mao, we were called the legendary Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle again. Wah!

However, after 3 months, I was told that they required a manpower officer and wished to post me there (I think more like an order). Initially, I was quite reluctant because I had adapted quite well already but after much thoughts, I accepted the job because I wanted to learn more new things.

After I had moved over to the "Brigade" as manpower officer, I still kept in contact with the fellow trainers. I stayed in with them, went out at night, to play arcades and to watch movies. They were a fun group of brothers.

Reservist training gave me an insight of how we would be going through during our NS few years later down the road. Looking at them made me more determined to keep myself fit for future training. Actually, unlike what they were saying, trainers' job was very tough. As a trainer once, I still could remember how busy we were and sometime still got blur from our roles and responsibilities. From the look, we were only assisting the NS officers to train the men but actually, there were more to it. One thing that I learnt, and one which I hated most was,

"WHY TRAINERS DIDN'T ENSURE?!!"

OCS: Commissioning Ball

A few days after our commissioning, we had our commissioning ball. It would be our last "official" gathering. We brought our dates for the dinner, took a few pictures, laughed and played about and we enjoyed ourselves a lot. However, I was still quite sad that night because all my brothers would be posted to other units.

Good bye...

Take care...

Good luck...

See ya next time...

All these farewell seems very common but they were very meaningful.

This officially marked the end of the story of Delta Platoon 3... But I was glad that I was still able to see some of them during our work on this small organisation... Farewell guys!

To kw, thank for being my date and hope you enjoy yourself that night!

OCS: To Lead, To Excel & To Overcome

We were basically waiting for the Commissioning Parade after JCC. There were some significant activities like ATP, SEOC but the one that we were really looking forward were ACPC (To get our precious sword) and Commissioning Parade. I passed my SEOC, went through ACPC and the 2 weeks of "Sufferings" on the holy Parade Square, when we were practising with our rifles and running round the parade squares to train up our physique for our parade.

On the fateful day, 28/01/2004, after we were praying for the rain to stop rainning, we were finally standing on the parade square, proud and smart. All the training had paid off and our efforts were recognised. The President was there to witness our commissioning and our parents and friends were cheering for us at the audience seats. It was even more touching to see them put on our Lieutenent Rank for us even when it was raining at the end of the parade. It was not a day to forget.

Life began to change after that day for all of us. Suddenly OCS seems to be a smaller place for us to "walk" around. I emphasize on "walk" because usually we did not have such luxury as OCT (Officer Cadets). 9 months of training symbolises the birth of becoming an officer. Wearing the rank did give us more authority and freedom, but it came with great deal of responsibilities and challenges as well. Becoming an officer is easy but to be a good one is not that simple. Sometime, you may hear stories of officers misusing their ranks but most of the time, you would hear how officers perform to uphold the spirit of OCS - "To Lead, To Excel & To Overcome".

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!"

OCS: Overseas Venture I

I did not know that I can venture this far.. All the training in Tekong, E-Shaped, Pajaur and now finally in oversea training... That was truly an eye opener and indeed an unforgettable experience. (This should be confidential and I will keep it to the minimum)

ROC - This is the oversea training I have enjoyed the most. It was near the typhoon season and the place was very windy... I still could remember some of the clothes that we hanged outside got blown away. The training was very enjoyable... High ground, training, navigation, "Highway" Runner, the seductive ninja vans and much much more. Completing the navigation in this place was a huge achievement and it seemed like Journey to the West whereby we looked and asked around to go to our checkpoints with our loads. All the villagers looked at us in awe and as if we came from Planet Mars. I enjoyed the scenery a lot too. We became fighting zombies during our last exercise Homerun where we went through several consecutive missions and we fought through our way in Finale Exercise.

The R&R is the best reward for us after the exercise as we toured around the country for 1 week. We went to the night markets, like Si Lin Night Market, Xi Men Ding and many other tourist attractions. I have never enjoyed my army days so much. But we know that we have a greater challenge ahead.... JCC.

OCS: To excel through "arrogance"

The training still carried on in the Professional Term. After some reshuffling, I was buddied with Rude (Not rude). He is a very nice guy who is a pure vegetarian. Probably he eats vegetable, he is very tall. After 3 weeks, I was finally told to retake my SOC. I was very scared at that point in time.

Rude told me that I should be more "arrogant" so that I can pass the test. I was very ambivalent but I did give it a try. At first, I told myself that I would pass the test only and when I was more bold, I told everyone in the platoon that I would pass the test! Somehow on the test date, I was able to pass the test! What a miracle! Hence, part of the reason why I can become an officer is due to my good buddy.

After this incident, I had another challenge again. This time round, I had to get a silver for my IPPT or else I would be given a CROW (warning letter). 2 CROWs and I would be OOC also. This was a warning that my PC set for me. However, I decided to use the previous tactics again, to be "arrogant". I told my PC that I would get a silver for the IPPT and pass the SEOC test (A final test for infantry officer).

After much training and effort, and much arrogance (should be assertiveness I think), I finally get a silver for my IPPT. I could get a gold if not of my running but I was quite satisfied already. Hence, arrogance(or PRIDE) did help me a lot in OCS. After this, my next obstacle is not SEOC but my adventure in ROC and JCC... This is the most enjoyable period in my OCS life!

(To be continued...)

OCS: A struggle towards excellence

I got the posting 1 week after my POP. I was quite surprised that I was chosen to enter OCS. Then a few days later, I reported to SAFTI MI OCS, which was on the opposite side of Tekong. I could still remember how sad we felt when we boarded the fast craft to Tekong, now the sadness was no longer there...

When I reported to OCS, I was surprised and excited to see Baolai was in the same platoon same section as me. What a coincidence! However, after one month, he signed on a contract in RSAF and left my platoon.

After that, I also got to know that Kia Haw was joining us as well. Kia Haw studied in AMKSS and AJC as well, but we were never in the same class before. We got to know each other as we went to school very early everyday. I was very fortunate to have him as my comrade during my national service.

As I was not very physically inclined, I struggled through all the physical activities such as IPPT, endurance run and SOC. I would usually be the last few who completed the course. Fortunately, I did have many brothers to support me and encourage me on. We went through many field camps, training, assault on Bajar for 7 times and of course our favourite 5mins drill. We laughed together, suffered together, cried together. Everyone in the platoon was indeed outstanding and bright.. However, looking at my state of patheticness, I was wondering how come I am in OCS with them sometime...

Time passed very fast in the midst of all the training. Finally, it was the end of Service Term 2. Initially, I was being posted to Logistics to train as logistics officer. However, I was not posted there because I did not pass my SOC test. I still could remember that how demoralised I was when I failed the last test in ST2. Fortunately, Jason, one of my brothers, encouraged me on. In the end, I was given a condition pass and had to retake and pass my SOC within a month, or else I will be declared OOC (Out of Course)....

(To be continued...)

Pegasus 2

Actually, I was feeling very sad when I was enlisted. I knew that it was a common phase that all male Singaporeans had to undergo but for me, I was enlisted within less than 2 weeks after my GCE 'A' Level... No time to enjoy at all!!! WAHH!!!

However, I do not regret now. I was with a bunch of fun and reliable comrades who endured the training and tekaning during BMT. It was Pegasus PL2. We celebrated our Christmas, New Year and even Chinese New Year together. As our batch is PTP, our training was more physical and tough. However, our bond was built up in the midst of these training.

I was still skeptical on our horrifying experience during BMT. Remember that we were having a scaring week when we experienced all sorts of nonsense such as having the same dreams, shoutings at night, unknown recruit walking pass our Section 3 bunk, and the unknown hello kitty towel that dropped onto our laundry line. I was almost terrified when I saw a child, sitting under a tree, in his ancient chinese costume during our SIT test. Phew... It was finally over..

One thing that I remembered very vividly is that we always had feasts inside our bunk, especially our Section 3. The food would be snatched up within 3 minutes (from our record). I still could remember that we smuggled food to camp on our last book-in and we excluded other section ppl from coming in... Haha! That's section integrity man!

During our POP (Passing Out Parade), while the VIP was giving his talk, memory of the training kept flowing to me... All the training, all the scolding, how we rushed to the toilets whenever there was water parades, grenade throwing, IPPT, SOC, BAC..... Wow, I couldn't believe that we have accomplished so much during this 16weeks of training.

I was very proud, very proud to be with Pegasus, with Platoon 2. Thank for all your help and cooperation all this while and for reporting to me when you were sick. Good luck to those who are going for oversea studies. Keep in touch!