1 month in OCS

Time really passes by so quickly and I had already spent 1 month in OCS. In OCS or other command school, we learn a lot on weapons as well as military knowledge.

Day 1
We had our SAW (Section Automatic Weapon) and SAR 21 technical handling test. Technical handling test includes stripping and assembling, theory test & Immediate Action drills. After last week lectures and practical lesson on these weapons, we are given this test to determine whether we can go for live-firing. I pass the SAR 21 technical handling test but fail my SAW technical handling test. In the army context, 75 and above is considered pass and I got 72 marks. Even though it is going to be a black spot in my report book, I managed to pass the retest to fire the SAW rifle.

Day 2
I had M203 (Grenade Launcher) technical handling test. For this weapon, it is one of the easiest weapons to learn. The Immediate Action (IA) drills and stripping and assembling of weapon is fast and require fewer steps then the previous two weapons. In the afternoon, we had live-firing on the SAR 21 and SAW weapon. For both weapons, my shots were mostly off target and none is on target for SAR 21. Haiz! Maybe I am a bit rusty when it comes to live-firing. The SAW was especially fantastic. I trigger press is equivalent to a 3 to 4 rounds being fired off. The recoil is much less than other weapon. So overall, I give SAW the thumb up.

Day 3
Nothing really special except lecture on section fire movement. The lecture was to prepare us for the field camp in Pulau Tekong next week.

Day 4
In the morning, we had 7km endurance run. Timing was not bad and managed to run the 7km without stopping. But I made a mistake when running the last part of the 7km run. I cut across the road when I am supposed to cross at the place where the cones are place. Being spotted by the instructor, I was given a defaulter parade (Marching for 1 hour) on a weekend with the rest who had also cut across the road. I am not sure whether the instructor remembers it, as he had not taken down our names. SO I hope he will forget when the next week come.

In the afternoon, I had lecture on Signals & communication. The lessons are on the characteristics and how to use theory on the signals sets used in SAF. I also learn that matrix and some other encoding stuff when communicating over the signals set to prevent enemy from understanding communication.

Day 5
Another lectures on Signals. It is more towards drills to solve jamming and voice over procedure lessons. The most important part of this lesson is how to communicate efficiently and effectively. In the afternoon, we had practical lessons on how to set up a dipole (Communication device set up in a forest that can sent signals up to 16km). This dipole is going to be used in our section field camp next week. I wondered who will be the unlucky one to carry the signal set, hopefully is not me…

Day 6
It is the day where u sees other people book out and ur wing is staying back for more lessons. A bit low morale today, maybe is due to others wings booking out earlier while we are booking out in the evening.

In the morning, I had Standard Obstacle Course (SOC) training. This time is a different location; it is located near the Pasir Leba Camp. Ran 3 times for the course today. After lunch, we had live-firing for the MATADOR and the M203. The bad news is that there is not enough ammunition for the M203 and the 18 unlucky ones are likely to burn 1 weekend just to fire MATADOR. What to do, sometimes things don’t go well according to plan. Haiz! The firing of the M203 Grenade launcher was shiok. The recoil was the strongest so far from the weapon that I had fired. It is like shooting a grenade and explodes upon hitting the ground. The impact was quite strong.

After the live-firing had ended, it is back to high morale as we are booking out. To say, I actually just book out a few hours ago which was at 8pm and tomorrow is back to camp by 8pm. No wonder people say: “I don’t want to lead an army life.”

I hope my 4 days 3 nights field camp in Tekong would be a smooth sailing one… Cya!