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Reflections on IFC

On the first day of field camp, I thought I was totally shagged out after the 8km route march, but after building the tents immediately after the march, I felt like I could die! After setting up the camp, we had field rations for lunch. It tasted quite ok actually and I enjoyed the lunch quite a lot. After that, we had lectures and practices on drills all the way till dinner time and then we slacked about quite abit. We also learnt how to powder bath and I had my first powder bath in my life! I had abrasions at my groin area and when I powdered it, it was bloody painful! At night, it was super dark and I totally couldn’t get used to it. I had to use a torchlight to find stuff and basically to do everything with. Peeing was also another experience as the whole place stank of urine and I had to pee there. Hugging the rifle to sleep was a chore too as it was damn uncomfortable to sleep and I woke up sporadically during the night to check on my rifle.

When morning came, I woke up groggily and nearly forgot I was out in the wilderness. I had biscuits and fruit bars for breakfast and we had 5bx in long four! We then had lectures and practices before and after lunch and we were allowed to cook for dinner! I had two packets of maggi noodles and then I had to take a shit. It was so dark that I couldn’t even see the hole properly. I had to use the torchlight again. Flies were buzzing all around me and they were so irritating that I finished the job as fast as I could. Then it was off to powder bath and sleep again.

By this time, all the days were beginning to seem the same and I was beginning to look forward to the day this entire field camp ended. I remember route marching at night to the Malay school and sleeping in the classrooms. I also remember the tug-of-wars that we won and the ten packets of fresh rations that were given to us for lunch. Bathing at the school was a trip to heaven and I felt so clean and refreshed after that. Fast forward to Friday and we were digging our shell scrapes from morning till late noon. Digging the shell scrape was the most exhausting experience of my life. We had to fit our whole body and our field pack inside the hole and so we had to make the hole damn long! My hands still ache as I type this due to the digging. Sleeping in the shell scrape was another experience I couldn’t forget. I nearly emptied out a bottle of prickly heat into the hole before sleeping in it, but I still felt insects crawling all over me in the middle of the night.

On the last day of field camp, we had to go through BIC, which involved leopard crawling over a distance with live rounds being shot overhead. As I have heard many horrible stories about it and I have seen the scab on my friend’s elbows, I had an ominous feeling about this course. Soon, the time came for my detail to be dispatched into the course and I felt surprise at how easy it was. Imagine crawling on sand in the blistering heat and having to occasionally back crawl to avoid the barb wires at some locations. It sounds hard but it was actually a matter of perseverance. After completing the BIC, I felt an extreme sense of ecstasy as the field camp is coming to an end! YAY!

We marched back to company line to have lunch which was combat and to clean up our rifles and webbing and field packs. After that, we had to rush as we had only a very short time to bath and pack our stuff to go home. But no one minded at all because WE WERE GOING HOME!!!

REC GOH JUNYI
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I keep forgetting to mention my birthday... It seems insignificant la... Haha...

I'M 19!!!