'Let me tell you a story about an infantry soldiers wife serving in Ipoh, Perak in the seventies……'

The comment below extracted from "The Story of A Soldier's wife - My first lesson in History"

"ZAINAL YAN

September 5, 2012 at 9:58 pm

So much for the story about a flyers wife. Let me tell you a story about an infantry soldiers wife serving in Ipoh, Perak in the seventies……Nuri heli are usually seen by soldiers wife during ‘resup’ (sending of rations to soldiers deployed in the jungle) when they fly out of the playing of the Ranger Battalion or the Royal Malay Battalion in Tambun. Family of soldiers usually know that every about 10 to 14 days there will be a ‘resup’. However when nuris were seen to fly into the field other than these regular timings soldiers wife at the camp would normally feel uneasy because they knew that nuri flying at these odd days are either carrying dead bodies of soldiers or terrorists or our own casualties.

The situation among the family become very tense when the families at the quarters spotted the Commanding Officer’s wife accompanied by the unit adjutant and Guru Agama and Ustazah of the Battalion getting out of the car in the vicinity of the quarters. The soldiers wives knew by then that the “rombongan” was there to inform the wife of a dead soldier about the demise of her husband. Usually as soon as the CO’s wife gave salam to the deceased wife, the deceased wife would already broke down and cry and some even collapse. I just cannot forget this scenario until today. When I “bought” myself out of the army in 1992, my wife asked me a question, ” during those agonizing days of worrying about you when you were out doing jungle operations and living those tense moment especially when the helicopters were flying in and out of the camp, you never wanted to leave the army but now in peaceful days you paid money to be able to leave the army!!!! why??” My answer was very simple, “my dear wife, during those years of doing jungle operations, I had peace of mind but during these peaceful days I didn’t have a peaceful mind” "

Wise words tuan Zainal... Our skot Ahmad has this to say :

A tribute to Almarhum Sultan Idris Shah by Col Zainal Yan (B)

Photo credit to 'Tangis Biru' and 'Sungei Besi Blues', with the article extracted from 'Sembang Kuala', many thanks.

'Zainal Bin Yan on November 16, 2010 at 10:01 AM said:

AlFatihah dihadiahkan kepada Almarhum Sultan Idris Shah. Almarhum was a very kind hearted man. My late father took care of Almarhum when Almarhum was studying in MCKK. My late father was very well known as “Pak Yan”, the “Chief House Boy” of Prep School MCKK. On many occasions Pak Yan ran errands for Almarhum. In my career as an army officer I have also the honor of standing by the side of Almarhum on many official occasions including ‘Penyampaian Watikah Tauliah’ to young commission officers at the Royal Military College and also escorting him on arrival at the Official Opening of the Hutan Lipur Tapah sometime in 1983.

I have to tell my story when I was selected to go for the Boys Wing RMC selection interview sometime in December 1964. Being from a poor family of 14 children, preparation for the trip for the interview in Sungai Besi was a financial burden. With a little bit of help from elder brother Shamsuddin Yan, all that was needed for the trip to Sungai Besi was ready except that I didn’t have a leather shoe to fit with the long-sleeve shirt with a ‘clip-on’ tie bought for me by my brother. To my surprise, My father took out from his little wardrobe in our house, a pair of brown ‘Barrete’ leather shoes. My late father instructed me to try on the shoes. It was a little bit too big for my feet but after my father put in some newspaper into the front end of the shoes all seems well!! I have a leather shoe..the first leather shoes I have ever put on. This pair of shoes was actually given to my late father by Almarhum Sultan Idris. According to my late father, he was instructed by Almarhum to take the pair of shoes to Pekan Kuala to be fitted with ‘ladam’. On the return trip from Kuala my father decided to wear the shoes. On arrival at the entrance of the Prep School gate, my late father was confronted by Almarhum. “Kamu pakai kasut aku, Yan!”. My father said ,’Ampun Tuan ku, patik hanya nak merasa pakai tuanku’. Almarhum in a harsh voice said to my father, ” Kamu tak ade kasut,?”. My father replied, “kasut ade tuanku tetapi kasut kulit tak ade tuanku”. Almarhum paused for a while and then said in soft voice, ” Ha. Ambiklah kan kamu kasut tu”. That was the shoe that I wore for the successful interview to gain entry into the Boys Wing RMC and this was the same story that I related to the interview Board. May be out of sympathy the Selection Board got me selected into the Boys Wing! Semoga Allah cucuri rahmatNya keatas Roh Almarhum Sultan Idris.

My only regret was that after wearing out the pair of shoes, I didn’t keep it as remembrance.'

Ex Cadet CO meeting former OC/Instructors..

Photo credit to Skot Mohd Akhtar with thanks. They attended Maj Gen Nik Mohd Zaaba Nik Daud son's wedding dated 16th Feb 2013.

Skot Akhtar with Brig Gen Abdul Jalil Hasbullah (B) - Syed Putra Coy Instructor

Skot Akhtar with Lt Col Zainal Yan (B) - OC Alam Shah Coy

Skot Akhtar with Brig Gen Dato Muslim Yusof (B) - OC Abdul Rahman Coy

OC , Alam Shah Coy , Lt Col (R) Hj Zainal Yan

OC COy, Alam Shah

He's passion  (guess work hhttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=4012183500535685201&postID=4760653369326256727ere , heehhehe), work  and golfing buddies 

Interesting read on his ops experience , something very rare and personal :

zainal yan said...

Nor, the incident about mishaps occuring because of the downwash of the Nuri sounds very familiar. I remember an incident when A Nuri picked me up from a Mortar Position in the Lasah area to point out the location of the casualty. The Nuri cant find the location of the Casualty who was a private Sabri from 4 Royal malay Regiment who was shot in the arm the day before. I was a company comamander C Coy 4 Royal Malay then. On reaching the casualty location the Nuri hovers and the Medical Officer then an Indian doctor was winched down. When the winch was coming up with the casualty I was surprised to see the casualty was dark skin. Initaill I thought it was the doctor who became casualty but it happened to Lt Babu Gulam Ali (now allahyarham) who became a casulaty because of the downlash from Nuri's downward thrust.

July 19, 2009 10:51 PM 

I took the excerpt from another Ex Nuri Pilot's Blog Experience, Maj (R) Nor Ibrahim ,Jottings of an xnuripilot