Friday, June 16, 2006

The next two years

Is RP going to be a blessing or a curse? Jeez. This is irony at its best when you consider all the self-made cracks about being a guard duty commander. But its the MPs who are the guard duty commanders... Mmm. Guess there's nothing left to do but be the best guard I can. Maybe the training will be interesting.

Monsieur, monsieur, you have the finest of friends. They are willing to take you seriously, so be a little more serious.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Duty, Honour, Country

Those 3 months passed by quickly enough. I'd initially planned to write down a week-by-week follow-up of all the things I'd done and experienced in Ninja Company, but the events themselves don't seem to me to be noteworthy. Field camp and bowing and getting guard duty in the first week are all worth remembering for a good laugh, but it just feels pointless to recount them again considering the number of field camp reflections and articles I've already written.

I think that the main experience worth writing about is the people and the culture that I've been privileged enough to meet and be immersed in. I got to meet so many old friends and acquaintances in Platoon 4 (Shawn, Karnjote, Yang Shen, Chris..), as well as a lot of other fun-loving and decent people. I think each and every one of us were blessed to have commanders like Lft Low, PS Shawn, Sgt Nasir, and Sgt Arwin, who really cared about our development as soldiers and treated us with respect individually, making our BMT life both meaningful and fun at the same time. The same can be said for all the other Ninja commanders and our OC.

I was kind of happy when I'd heard which unit I'd been posted to. Ninja. Sounded cool. Then I got a little scared when I started hearing all the stories about how tough Ninja was going to be from the people around me. Now, I'm just proud to have completed training in the best BMTC 2 company. Ninja is serious about what it does, and it pushes its recruits to always be better than they were yesterday.

Good luck to platoon 4, especially the guys in Section 1... I hope we'll meet again regardless of whatever units we're posted to or what we do in the future... Blessed are the soldiers...

Here's me looking at you looking at me

Those 3 months passed by quickly enough. I'd initially planned to write down a week-by-week follow-up of all the things I'd done and experienced in Ninja Company, but the events themselves don't seem to me to be noteworthy. Field camp and bowing and getting guard duty in the first week are all worth remembering for a good laugh, but it just feels pointless to recount them again considering the number of field camp reflections and articles I've already written.

I think that the main experience worth writing about is the people and the culture that I've been privileged enough to meet and be immersed in. I got to meet so many old friends and acquaintances in Platoon 4 (Shawn, Karnjote, Yang Shen, Chris..), as well as a lot of other fun-loving and decent people. I think each and every one of us were blessed to have commanders like Lft Low, PS Shawn, Sgt Nasir, and Sgt Arwin, who really cared about our development as soldiers and treated us with respect individually, making our BMT life both meaningful and fun at the same time. The same can be said for all the other Ninja commanders and our OC.

I was kind of happy when I'd heard which unit I'd been posted to. Ninja. Sounded cool. Then I got a little scared when I started hearing all the stories about how tough Ninja was going to be from the people around me. Now, I'm just proud to have completed training in the best BMTC 2 company. Ninja is serious about what it does, and it pushes its recruits to always be better than they were yesterday.

Good luck to platoon 4, especially the guys in Section 1... I hope we'll meet again regardless of whatever units we're posted to or what we do in the future... Blessed are the soldiers...