Lights Out!! Leo's one and only blog

20 over years ago my dad was there, now I'm there.....
Wow, 3 weeks down another 35 more to go! 1 bar gone, promoted to another one! Honestly speaking, the time spent at safti made me home sick because I miss home... I miss the TS too(I have a pic of us in camp leh. Team spirit!). And yes, towards the end of the second week of the 3 weeks there, thinking of my family(I'm a very family orientated person) and friends made me cry. YES I cried(I'm human OK). During one of my lectures with my wing commander, he said being an officer, a military leader means making sacrifices which is very true because you sacrifice your time spent with family and friends. Not only to the nation but to your men. You give your time to them to train them, to nuture them, to guide them and from there you also learn the value of the nation's freedom, your family, friends and not to take it for granted. That means spending the confinement period together with them and that's what he did. A true leader who leads by example!
My first day there I felt very proud because I was to be an officer cadet training to be an officer but on the second day onwards everyone got that "sian" feeling because we would be confined for 3 weeks! Although each day passed by quickly, everyone was counting the down the days to book out day and that made matters worse because it was an excruciatingly long count down!
Anyway, this is what OCS is like. Running all the time and very little personal admin time for yourself except on weekends. Lessons all the way in the lecture theatres and the training shed and the highlight for the first 3 weeks? Leadership field camp especially during both the day and night navigation exercises because you basicaly get hor-lan all the way haha. Oh and did I mention that you have to do a casevac(casualty evacuation) at the end of field camp(and that's done after a little surprise)? We also learn about heavier weapons but's that's the boring part! You heard about tear gas? I got my first taste of it during chemical defense lesson. We had to enter a room where they burn the pallet to release tear gas and the mask wasn't very effective in protecting us from the gas. The worse part was I was the first person to take out the mask(when the room was still very concentrated with the tear gas). My face was burning, eyes tearing, my mouth was dry, the throat felt like I drank vomit and nasal cavity irritated. I had to run out of the room after completing the required SOP(without the mask) in there. All in all, it was quite a fun exercise and oh it was at the old OCS camp and that's where my dad was when he was a cadet. What's even more surprising is that my dad used to be in Alpha Wing and that's where I am now albeit his camp was in pasir lebar and mine's in SAFTI MI(the new one).
Next week, SAR21 live firing! I wanna fire the M203, Matador and SAW soon!!!! Oh shucks, that reminds me, book in tomorrow and the end of my one day of "freedom". Well, in the words of my wing com: "Being an officer, a leader, you have to make sacrifices".