Lights Out!! Leo's one and only blog

I came back with an abrasion on my back, an itchy spot there too, blisters on my heels and hands and sand fly bites all over my hands... ouch! Ok, during the course of field camp we were taught on movement to overcome enemies who're firing in our direction, how to survive an artillery attack(apparently you have to lie on the ground with you over the rifle to protect your weapon so that you can use it after the artillery barrage is lifted hmmm) , tactical movement in the day and at night, how to dig a shell scrape(something you prone in when in an all round defense) and a fire trench(something you hide in when an artillery barrage hits your MLR) and finally, BIC. Not to mention, you don't bathe for 4 days then another 3 days.

The most fun part of Field camp was the reaction to enemy fire! The sergeant would light the thunder flash and then you'll hear a "BOOM!" sound then everyone prones and the IC would give commands to the men to overrun the enemy. Don't sound fun? How about when you're issued blank rounds to simulate real bullets and there are "enemies" firing at you? It was really fun giving battle cries and commands to your team mates. I was IC quite a number of times and it wasI felt very alive when giving the movement commands. But the best part is being the enemy because you are concealed in a position and you fire on your "enemies" and wait till they came over to overrun you and you can "die" in the most dramatic way possible(I did one where I was still holding my rifle and staggering to my "enemies" while shooting in the air then finally collasping to the ground). In the meantime you are issued 25-30 rounds(guess which one I chose) every turn and are expected to expand all rounds. Fun and all aside, what makes the reaction to enemy fire exercise suck is when you accidentally prone onto an ant hive. Some people were suay enough to kana then got many red ants biting them... ouch...

We were also taught on how to move to an objective. Since I was section IC I was leading my section to the objective. It was really good leading the guys through the vegetation and giving out field signals and at the same time avoiding enemy detection. The sergeant major was there to supervise and gave advice, Learnt alot from him.

One word of advice to guys going for NS, when digging the shellscrape hold the digging equipment(ET stick and blade) over your head and use the force of gravity to hack into the ground and hack into the ground then pivot out the soil so that most of it comes out and you'll have your hole out in no time. Still, there'll be some cock who'll not follow standard digging techniques... And, if you sleep earlier than usual, it's probably too good to be true. Lets just say "turn out"?

Finally, BIC! Battle Inoculation Course. It's to simulate real war situaltion and how you should move(LOW) when a GPMG(General Purpose Machine Gun) is firing overhead. We had to leopard crawl and then back crawl(under barbed wire). After the second back crawl and the route to the grenade throw area you start to feel the tireness but it's the end already and I had to really push myself to hurry up. along the way, I passed the people who were from the 2 groups infront of me and on the back crawl at the first barbed wire area, the person directly infront of me kicked the barbed wire due to fatigue and the barbed wire springed out and almost swinged into my eyes! I immediately took the loose barbed wire and tied it to another barbed wire so that another cock won't kick it and make someone blind. Thank God nothing happened and I still have my vision. So after passing 2 people who went before me, tying the barbed wire and throwing the dummy grenade and charging the "enemy"(a figure 12 target) I was still the first in my detail who finished the BIC :)

Things to get for field camp:
3x black tape
5x B M S ziploc bags
1x black big and thick trash bag
4x Arc of fire sticks
5x umbrella pins
engineering gloves
1x big prickly heat powder(trust me, you'll finish it up)
If I forgot, remind me

Lastly, take care of stuff during field camp, anything can get stolen especially your rifle!

I'm on sick leave.....