Old Birds: Share really Old Birds' Stories
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Come, come, share with us here .....
those who were 2.5G army, 2G army, or the grandfathers who wore temasek green during their NS ..... come share your stories here ....
how was it like in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s ? ....
share the tekaning, the food, the spring bed stories etc .....
inspired by an unker who ORD'd in 82 ....
oh, and begin all your stories with "In my time" please ...
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What kinda of stories you like.....you heard before the pizza hunt PT story?
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Originally posted by tarutaru:
What kinda of stories you like.....you heard before the pizza hunt PT story?
tell us about it. -
This is a story by my friend, BMT in Nee Soon Camp, one of their PTI's favourite PT is to run to touch the lamp post with the number of the pizza hut number.
Another one during my times, in Tekong, was the last platoon to the cook house have to clean the cook house. So every meal time all the platoon will rush to eat so that we do not end up the last platoon. Now only eat and put the dishes into the water, auntie will clean for you.
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in my time, cookhouse food was horrible. we were given so much tau gay (with the roots on) it feels like cow chewing on the grass and we were not allowed to throw them away
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Originally posted by SevenEleven:
in my time, cookhouse food was horrible. we were given so much tau gay (with the roots on) it feels like cow chewing on the grass and we were not allowed to throw them away
so my lunch/dinner in NS wasnt that bad afterall...
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Originally posted by GHoST_18:
so my lunch/dinner in NS wasnt that bad afterall...In fact now, the cook house now food is quite good, during my time, the always have to ask the cook to pour some gravy or soup on the rice because it's damn hard at times. Some more have to eat and wash our own eating utensils. Some metal mass tin style.....
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the only metal tray i use during NS was when im in taiwan...
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ahahaha.. if it's "food", i remember when the "beehoon" fell on the floor, it broke.. as in shattered
the "vegetable"? you could probably eat it with a straw
all washed down with coloured water
ROD: 1991
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please state when your time was too .....
so we can tell between the unkers and the ah peks ...
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Originally posted by Fatum:
please state when your time was too .....
so we can tell between the unkers and the ah peks ...
so? what's yours? 阿 乒 哥 ? -
Originally posted by GHoST_18:
the only metal tray i use during NS was when im in taiwan...
yeah i did that too. the NSmen doing ICT as cooks are badass lot. there one NSmen cook who wear a singlet, taiwanese army pants and yellow boots when walking around Meilin camp. he nearly threw a metal tray at my friend when he complain that the fish gills wasnt removed...
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Originally posted by Fatum:
please state when your time was too .....
so we can tell between the unkers and the ah peks ...
Mine times was sort of the transition period between 2.5G and 3G.......the mid 90s... still got log PTs but no more medicine ball.
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Originally posted by Fatum:
please state when your time was too .....
so we can tell between the unkers and the ah peks ...
my time is prolly yours too... -
Originally posted by SevenEleven:
so? what's yours? 阿 乒 哥 ?2000 to 2003 ... haiz ... 2.5G army, 2.5 years soldier ....
so I guess I'm not exactly a lao jiao ... but I'm not a "boy scout" either ...
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Originally posted by tarutaru:
Mine times was sort of the transition period between 2.5G and 3G.......the mid 90s... still got log PTs but no more medicine ball.
mid nineties ain't going to 3G
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Originally posted by tarutaru:
Mine times was sort of the transition period between 2.5G and 3G.......the mid 90s... still got log PTs but no more medicine ball.
mid-90s' probably between 2G and 2.5G army ....
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82....but my daughter's friend call me the "cool dad"
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Originally posted by SevenEleven:
82....but my daughter's friend call me the "cool dad"
yes you are ... you're the only father I know who brings his son to a pub to drink beer and watch football together ...
but we digress ....
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Not sure what " G" was my time... But I ROD'd in 1985. Wore Temasek Green for my first 18 months of NS --- even had the old no. 3 uniform, the one with badges and pins! Went abroad to study and came back to do ICT in the 2.5G army ( I'm guessing !).
Weapons.... seen the 60 mm mortar at the time it was phasing out. 84mm recoiless, 106mm RR, M-16 / AR-15 with bipod .... we had to strap this to our SBO and this caused a lot of cuts because some of its edges were sharp. Useful item though... because it means that when you prone during a laager, you had your weapon ready and also kept it off the muddy ground.
Tekanning... pretty standard thru' my "decades" of service. Except that when I joined BMT in 1982, some of the tekanning was bordering on torture and bullying. Escape and evasion training had no limits and the instructors could pretty much dream of stuff to do to you. This was toned down towards 1984 and after , when a number of high profile scholars became Colonels and they started to review the training programme. Emphasis was on training realism and not on discipline.
The other difference I saw as an "old" soldier was that some parts of Singapore were still not developed. For example the area around Orchid Country Club was a great area for training. Many abandoned villages and belukar areas, meant great map reading and section patrolling areas. You get a good feel of what would be like across the border ( if you know what I mean !). The area around Pasir Laba was also like this.
When I did my ICT in the 1990s, a lot of these areas were developed/ developing. Golf courses, HDB estates etc etc. I had the sense that our training grounds were getting smaller. Some areas, there were no point to use NVGs, because there will be flare in the goggles caused by the stray lighting from the housing estates. You were blinded. The other thing I noticed that went missing in the 1990s were the " Civvy Quartermaster ". These were roadside hawkers who drove a small van to sell sweets and cold drinks in the training areas. They performed a great service and I suspect they "stole" the training programmes from the camps to see which group was training where and at what time... because they always seem to turn -up at the right time and place !
I wonder how it is now in Singapore..... my last in-camp was 1995 but I demobbed in the 2000s, as I am now working overseas. I am sure the training areas are mostly gone. Don't get much realistic environment in Singapore now.
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i hate the most are chicken wings everyday eat untill sian. cookhouse food sometime not cooked
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in my time, i was posted to 42 SAR at selarang barrack, changi. This was the place used by the japanese to house the Local, English and Australian POW dugring WWII. So there are plenty of ghost stories in the camp. Anyway I haven't met one but here's a pretty famous one there.
There was an ammo dump in the centre of the camp that was surrounded by fence. During the earlier batch, 2 soldier were detailed to guard the ammo dump at night. One was to stay guarding the main gate and the other was to patrol the perimeter of the fence. After his hour patrol was up, they were to change place. The story goes that while one was patrolling, the sentry guard saw an army captain walking towards the ammo dumb. The sentry shouted the guard procedure halt that army captain. Then he requested the captain to show proof for entering the dumb. The "captain" took his head off and handed it to the sentry. When the sentry saw that, he fainted immediately. When the patrol guard came back, he saw his mate on the ground. He immediately informed his guard commander thru the tele-jay
he story spread around the camp. During my time, there were 2 patrollers and no more sentry
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Originally posted by SevenEleven:
82....but my daughter's friend call me the "cool dad"
because he's after your daughter/ with your daughter and is trying to "pat horse fart" -
Originally posted by hisoka:
because he's after your daughter/ with your daughter and is trying to "pat horse fart"
nah...they saw me reading my daughter's manga and when back class reporting to all that there was a cool uncle reading the latest manga. Then the manga's teacher who knew me told the class the cool uncle is my daughter's dad. -
pasir laba's still the same i guess ... I even saw wild boars at pasir laba in 2001 ....
orchard country club ... eng neo that area's still being used .... you'd feel weird when you stumble along the edge of the bushes and see the golf green and people teeing off in the distance ... that place's haunted anyways ...
half of the woodlands, marsiling area is gone (I know cos my grandparent's kampung was there) ... taken over by the new turf club ... and you can overlook the new woodlands housing estates from what's left ....