It all began when in recents months, many 'Honorary Majors' were awarded to some of the 'country's finest' such as Lim Chong Wei, Ncholas David and many more:
What It Takes & Makes To Be A Military Major
By ART
By tradition a potential Military Officer shall undergo a stringent selecting process before he is selected and considered qualified to be a Soldier first, his training may take from 12 to 24 months even 4 years depending which military institution he is enlisted.
If he makes the grade, that is, after physical fitness test, IQ test, medical test, leadership test, Office Quality Test (OQ) and security vetting procedures and a whole lot more other test. He must not be colour blind, not short sighted and not a GAY/LESBIAN (in Malaysia only).
Now, he starts his 1st day of training with his head been shaved bald, not for ladies, they just get a good short- crop, this is too ensure that no bugs or lice makes it their haven, it is more for health and hygiene reasons, something the Army never bother to explain all these years, they just do IT, as usual, once you enlist you lose all your rights, you are at the mercy of the trainers! This is only applicable during the 60’s & y70’s when you become a soldier, not today. Parents with great and good connections and fire and transfer trainers if they are too tough on the trainees! Those days trainees life is 10% written-off! It is an acceptable percentage for death due to training! Today, one is not tolerated, so we are becoming softies and sissies!
Well, lets’ get back to the matter arising!
The baptism of fire starts from the time you put your 10 little finger-prints onto the attestation forms/papers and take the oath of office (per-say)! You will be herded into a room and after all hair is removed, swear to god almighty to be a soldier! Never to run away from duty and run away from WAR! Never to be a coward and fight to your last drop of blood!
Before this ceremony the trainers will asked one last time who so ever who wants to QUIT may step out and leave, some does want to leave but too embarrass and shy, while some did not have the guts!
So let it be!
The next day is where the real fun starts, we all have our early morning breakfast, two eggs, some bread and butter and a mug of black local coffee! This is 0600hrs in the dead of the morning, all dressed in Blue Shorts ( which they called PT Bodoh) and the green holed t-shirt without collars, this combination is famously called PT-BODOH!
The real shocker begins – we are asked to do things we never dreamed off before! Side rolls, forward rolls, back rolls, uphill, downhill, on the tarmac road, on the saw-grass (lallang), the whole area is flatten after 234 cadets finished “rolling in the sun, just like a stream roller on a road building task!”
That is only a quarter of it, they ask you to climb, jump, duck walk, crawl on your bellies, dive, enter dark crowded holes, walk along narrow planks high above ground, walk on strings, do Tarzan swings, climb the monkey racks, the worst is the JUNAM MAUT which literally means the flight of DEATH! Many broke their legs and hands, the sure way of getting oneself discharged for good!
PT – the time where Cadets will do wonderful things, sometimes to escape the rigors of it all, they would climb into septic tanks, water towers, hide in bathrooms and toilets, the famous one is to REPORT SICK! There will be some evil and evil waiting those reporting for sick, there is this Medical Corporal who will torment anyone who wishes to report SICK, he ensures one is really sick and not malingering! MAY GOD BLESS HIS SOUL.
The classic case is cadets who come back from the CRS ( Centre Reporting Casualty) and gets a M&D (Medicine & Duty) it means you are not that SICK, all hell breaks lose again, you are deemed malingering. That was a hellish experience, of reporting sick, better make sure one is really SICK!
So this ordeal last everyday, we are supposed to be fighting fit soldiers, that is why the gruelling PT is never mild, it takes almost an hour of your life everyday, the “lompak katak masuk baris is the most classical of all…14 satu dua!”
This is Just the Pre-amble....many more to come.......
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