8th Jan 2005

After going through much bureacracy and red tape, my father finally managed to coerce the officers in charge to amend my erroneous date that is much earlier, thankfully. I really hope to receive the enlistment letter, this time in joy and not in anger. I wonder who else is enlisting at the same day as me.

Had an experience of army life a year back. Went for the Camp Sapphire. Amazingly, two gungho girls also signed up as well. Most were from Nanyang poly---"prodded" by their teachers to have an "experience" of their lifetime. Was supposed to have another guy from RJ. In the end, I was the sole RJ "kia" that volunteered for this kinda stuffs.

Contrary to what people think, army life has become more humane. (at least that is the impression that the organisers want us to leave). Horror tales from our fathers probably arose because we were trained by Israeli commanders of the past, who had a very tough army regimen. For those aspiring to be cooks, I am sorry to burst your bubbles. Nowadays, army food is catered. Surprisingly, army food turned out to be at times more filling and better tasting than my mother's food. Note: Clerks are still not obselete...

Also, sergeants cannot punish people at will. They personally told us that even when meting out punishment, it had to be fair and not unreasonably out of whim. My senior ever told me once that the most no. of pumpings they can give out is 20, though I am not sure how true is that.

Finally, after sleeping three days in the army bunkers, we got to try firing live rounds on Day 4! Turned out to be a tad of a disappointment, since we were only given 3 rounds (yes three only) to fire at some targets 25 m away. Even with earplugs, it was quite deafening. I was wondering why my rifle could not shoot at first and was initially worried. Turned out that I did not pull the trigger hard enough. The recoil followed soon after.

Learnt some new stuffs about our Kevlar helmets. The army commander told us that if fired close range, the Kevlar would not be of much use. Though the bullet may not penetrate, its extremely high momentum is enough to cause a serious concussion to the victim. :S

Cannot really remember much, since it all happened a year ago.