I’m back after 3 weeks confinement

At last, I am back home after my compulsory 3 weeks confinement in Officer Cadet School (OCS). Training was tougher than the training in Basic Military Training (BMT), at least 5 times tougher! As of now, I felt lethargic & fatigue had set upon me 1 week ago.

1st Week
Day 1
Feeling homesick. Culture shock sets in during my first day. Everybody in the school was at least a Full Lieutenant and everywhere I go, is like greeting almost everybody. Morale for me was very low. But at least I got a good buddy & roommate to keep me going. I also got my Officer Cadet Trainee Rank (One white bar) and the lanyard that protect me from guard and confinement duties. I think that was a lied. They push back the guard and confinement duties till the 3rd week. The food was good. On top of it, we also got PT kits, t-shirt and a commander bag.

Day 2 to Day 7
Slowly I start to adapt to the surrounding. Everyday, we will be running and running. Everyday we had lectures, recruitment talk and National Education. It was very boring and dozed off quite often. Physical Training was a notch higher than expected. We also did a confidence jump wearing our uniform and jump into the swimming pool from 5m. That was shiok man. Next we also had the tower run where we ran around the camp and up to the tall tower (SAFTI tower), which consists of 294 steps. Since the run was conducted in the wee hours, the view was not that fantastic.

2nd Week
More running and lectures. But the highlight of this week is the leadership field camp. 2 days 2 night camp at rambutan area. We had navigation practical lessons and learn how to navigate ourselves in the forest using the compass and the map. It consists of day and night navigation. The second day of my leadership field camp consists of navigation on our own to the respective checkpoints. It was very difficult and we spent approximate 1 hour looking for just one checkpoint. The subsequent checkpoints require us to walk up a hill with steep slope and bashing through the forest. It was challenging as well as tiring. For those 2 days, we slept in the open forest with just a groundsheet beneath us.

At the end of the 2 days leadership camp, we got a turn out where we dashed out of the forest as a stimulated enemy attack had occurred. With our field pack, helmet and SBO, we got tekang from our platoon instructors. I think I did countless number of push up and crutches. Next our instructors ask the heaviest platoon mates to act like casualties. Using a stretcher, we carry them back to the wing line. It was tough as we carry them around the camp premises. Once we reach back to wing line, we were made to carry additional 3 persons around the camp again. With my shoulders aching and breathing heavily, it was tough to get going. The weight was getting heavier with every step we took. At last, we finished the whole thing and back to wing line. I was sweating non-stop and all was drenched with sweat. It was very tough.

With the leadership field camp over, I was looking forward for my family day, where my family will be visiting me. They brought a lot of stuff especially Pi Pa Kao which was the most important in the barang barang they had pack. We took some photos and visiting my bunk. This was the time where we had total freedom.

3rd week
I called it the fatigue week. From day 1 till today of this week, we had been running non-stop. It kicks off with two 6km endurance run, Standard Obstacle course (ran 10 times for this week), Beep test, gym and so on. We also had lessons on M203, SAR 21 and Section Automatic Weapon (SAW). I was the “LUCKY” one to carry the SAW for the field camp instead of the SAR 21. We learn the technical, characterizes, technical handling and the Immediate action remedies. Last but not least book out day today. Phew.

For those in BMT, I should say they should try for command school as u will learn a lot of stuff in army even though the physical training was tough and u get a lot of scolding. I should say time is quite well spent on learning if u enters to command school. Look out for more stories to come…

P.S. OCS learning curve is steeper than normal university learning curve. I need to absorb faster than expected.

Cheers!