PART VI – MAKAN KUDA
This is surely going to get everyone’s attention, even if you do not have time to read this account, yes siapa lagi…Md Nor Koeng..bapak dia horse trainer, pada suatu hari ada seekor kuda mampus, harap sembelih lah…masa itu aku semua makan, tidak kisah lor! This Koeng is from the BOYAN CLAN, the best horse men in this country, that’s why he became a Cavalry Officer, entah dia pandai naik kuda ke tak! Yang aku tahu Fakaharuzi je yang pandai kuda-kuda dua kaki! Ooops, empat….lah!Kawan kita baik punya hati, sudah kasi makan “Satay Kuda”..hosssh banyak sedap woh! Semua orang tengok je mula mula, habis benda free sodap le hentam semua licin beb!
Tek pe lah aku apa kisah masa itu. Orang pun boleh makan pah! Sesudah siap separuh masak kutu datang dan hentam kasi habis satay monyet aku…yang duk cakap cakap banyak pulak yang hentam….lapaq beb..mana nak tahan…sudah bau sodap! Itu lah monyet punya kawan semua! Malam aku buat sop otak monyet pulak, sekali “BOOM” melutup thunder flash….JL baling siapa lagi…apa lagi siswa ”stand to” semua jerit! Aku punya sop otak monyet dalam mes-tin kena sepak kutu pulak…hancur lebuh semua terbang dan jatuh ke tanah! Hempeh….
Ini cerita makan katak lagi pak……malam sudah pi cari katak “ONG” di sungei dekat Gunung Ledang…..it’s me and 2LT Cheo Yew Hock ( Intake 33 - Sigs ), kami dapat seekor hampir 2 kgs! It is as big as our NATO helmet the Biggest ever bull-frog I have caught and eaten by 10 hungry YO’s!
Staff Gigi Blank File sudah ambil dan kata terima kasih…hancur lebuh hati aku lagi…..half an hour later I was called and given a big pot of white rice & a plate of frog meat cooked to hotel standard!
Walah we had a feast – all the china-man plus 1 Iban ( Stephen Mundaw). Sorry folks for those yang tidak pi YO Pulada dan Komando Orientasi Pegawai you all missed the good fun, masih ada banyak al-kisah seram, sedih, pahit & manis…..berlaku kepada Intake 34!
PULADA & YOUNG OFFICERS ORIENTATION COMMANDO COURSE
The YO Commando has the same module as Basic Course which entitles one to wear the Green Beret, it is such that they shorten the course from 3 months to 6 weeks for us YO-YO!So we are all considered half a ‘green beret’ for those who survived the ordeal and torture! It was funny, fascinating and hilarious at times, more often sickening that point in time!There were a few who refused to be part of it…no names mentioned, but I salute those RMAF chaps who were with us thru thick & thin in PULADA and SWTC ( virtually skinny ) would say “syabas & tahniah” to all of you.
In the Sungei Udang Camp…the welcoming words at the main guard room was not too comforting: “KAMI TIDAK MENGUNDANG, JIKA RAGU-RAGU PULANG LAH”. Imagine what we all felt deep insides our thumping hearts! MATI LAH KALI INI…KELUAR MULUT BUAYA (PULADA) MASUK NAGA PULAK…MAMPUS!
The training was so simple and simply put ‘no time table at all’ …. as and when the JL shouts we are ready to roll! The day begins at 0600hrs, during the camp phase all of us slept at “BER-TUTU INN”, its name is so friendly, but you’ll be amazed what is there, do not know whether that place still exists today, my serving Cdo friends should be able to tell us! For the benefit of those that did not go...bertutu-inn is by the beach inside kem sg udang!
The skies have been kind to us most of the time, not much rain, otherwise all hell breaks loose! The home is always on our ‘backs’, yes we carry that pack, FSMO all day & night, all the time, everywhere and every day, except during meals time!
We did not see our civilian clothes from start to finish, right till the very last day of the course it was all kept in storage. The home or house was 1 poncho as roof & 1 poncho as ground sheet, and that’s it! My buddy was Hamidi (RAMD), we shared the hootch nicely, he is a kind hearted guy till today.
Many tricks were played by our fellow skotee, the time for night sentries is about 45 minutes to an hour, every night, and guess what some smart skotee did, they turn the clock and wake up the next guy.. after only doing duty for 5 minutes..ini semua cari pasal & curi tulang beb! Siapa yang buat sendiri tahu lah!
CAMP PHASE
The first phase was camp phase. All activities inside the camp vicinity only, the minute you see the sky you bloody well run for your dear life! Only time you are allowed to walk is after meals, before meals everyone is required to do 7-8 chin-ups, 25 push-ups and 30 sit-ups at the cook-house, otherwise no FOOD! One thing we all respect them, they took great pains to provide us with the best food they can…to keep the morale high! Hope that tradition remains till this day!
One day we had our lunch, and shortly into our meal, then came the 3 ton trucks, all parked and ready to roll out! It only meant disaster to all of us watching each other, should we eat or abandon the meal? What next if NOT another gruelling 10 mile aerobic run after lunch! We thought no running after meals?!!
They wanted to test our will-power, eat and suffer or don’t eat and go hungry! This is a true story, if given a choice, in a real battle, do you hesitate to eat or run, if the enemy comes, or still worst eat and run at the same time!
In any given real life situation, what would one do…. Eat first and think later or run first and think about eating if you are still alive, which one is of priority? Bombs can drop in at any time, no matter what you are doing or any time of the day!
As I did learnt my lesson in Somalia – stray rounds from outside the camp walls almost took away my head 3 times in a single day, the first in the wee hours of the morning at 0430hrs when, Somali militiamen after a night of chewing ‘KHAT’, became “very high” - the equivalent to our local GANJA, they decided to have a gun fight at “OK CAROL”!
The incoming round - It was hardly 2 feet away from where I was heading to, back to my bunk, when I left the OP tower after watching the gunfight! Had I walked a wee bit faster, I would have been dead meat!
The second ‘stray round’ was at T-Break time, 1000hrs, this time I was walking along the tennis courts of the compound which I was stationed, it was a former Hotel in Mogadishu which we made into a Malaysian base camp! It hit the wall of the tennis court just while I was walking below the broken doorway above my head, it was also just 2 feet above me, it pays to be short-arse I guess! The plaster on the wall came crashing down, I was with an Ex-Yankee GI, who was a truck driver then, working for Brown & Root Co. Both of us dive down and counted to 3 and ran like Hussin BOLT!
The 3rd stray round was in the evenings, after finishing my normal routine round the camp checks on night sentries inside the compound ( It was called the ‘Hunters Base’ ) I stopped at the Brown & Root site to chat with the guys. As we were all chatting another salvo of stray rounds hit us! They were fighting again outside our camp grounds, this Somalis are never tired of fighting, day or night! Luckily we had huge solid metal containers all stacked up three high to block out all the in-coming, otherwise ART will not be here to tell stories anymore!
So lesson learnt from CDO training …… run like hell first… eat later!
The one thing the JL likes to do is to play games with all the SISWA, even till there is total darkness, check senjata di-malam buta, main bola sepak di-dalam gelap buta ( kicking one small tiny little stupid tennis ball in a football stadium in pitch darkness ), buat roll call di-dalam buta-buta, semua supaya jangan dapat tidor!
Yes, they wanted us to be deprived off sleep, we were allowed minimum sleep and that is commando & Special Forces training world-wide standard! We must be able to perform as normal with minimum sleep and keep moving all the time!
The JL has their time-table, they go home sleep and wake up and take turns to keep us all awake! Hiyah mau pengsang who! This kawan of ours….we were all on compass marching one night, every time take 5, semua membuta, guaranteed, letih pak! So dah bergerak, semua tidak ambil pot untuk kira cukup orang ke tidak….lepas jalan 10 minit baru sedar ada se-ekor tertinggal!
Hadoi – kena back track cari dia, membuta sahaja nombor satu….tanya apa sal…katanya aku tidak boleh buka mata…what an answer, but that was it, it was the truth, we would walk with eyes closed and hands held together, not a JOKE!
Ini belum tidor dalam sungei lagi…macma kerbau, kepala sahaja keluar, badan rendam sampai PAGI esok…ada kawan kita Din Specs “Armor” ( intake 33 ) buat lawak….ada ular didalam air….semau panic! Tetapi JL tak hairan, siapa bangkit kena “life-fire”, we had an officer instructor by the name of Lt. Hamzah 'TOYOL', this guy was a terrorist, he terrorize all of us, he would fire life rounds above our bloody heads, not a JOKE! Siapa berani pasti MATI!
The commando course written test is so simple, after running 10 miles you are all seated immediately on the parade square and given your test papers & asked to answer simple questions!
Q1. Siapa kah Commandant PLPK?
Q2. Apa Kah binatang yang Boleh dimakan?
Q3. Apakah tujuan latihan Komando?
Q4. Kenapa anda masuk askar?
Q5. Apakah cogan-kata Komando?
Q6. Apa jenis pokok yang boleh dimakan?
Q7. Apakah nama kem INI?
Q8. Siapakah nama bapak awak?
Q9. Adakah kamu suka kursus INI?
Q10. Sedia kah kamu menjadi seorang Komando?
I MUST ASK MAT "KERAPU" IF THIS SET OF QUESTIONS ARE STILL BEING USED NOW!If anyone fails, the commandant, at that time was none other than Col ‘Wak’ Borhan, that guy would swallow you alive! He shouted at all of us during the opening address inside the dewan (forgot the name), mind you ¾ of the students were dead asleep, during his address! Get out and forward roll….hiyah terus jaga semua!
stay tune for the next phase.....
APEK MAHU TITON
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