..:: 384. The One With Xiao Xiong 30 Initiation ::..

i cant believe i survived through the initiation. actually i can. 4 days of shit was tahan-able. booked in on tue night with so much reluctance. went back continue to pack my fieldpack till about midnight.

day1.3jan.tue

went to my company office, delta, for the first time and got introduced to the rest of the officers. sat in for a pc interview. then oc called for meeting. told us the plans for january. attended a few lectures and S1 talk. nothing much. happening is normally at night.

after our mess initiation rehearsal, we were given 5 mins to fall in FBO at the officer level drying yard. As usual, lay out everything, they checked and not up to standard they used penknife to cut open ya packs. yay. my packs were good lo. good enough for the seniors to use my pack and play and throw around. felt a bit paiseh when the seniors kept mentioning to the rest to learn from me how to pack. but the fact is just wrap? not much of technique... just need to tighten with every wrap.

after office hours, the new officers are called 'xiao xiong 30' (small bear 30). firstly, bear is the symbol for 30 SCE. secondly, no need to say why 30 right? Everytime we respond to them other than when they used xiao xiong 30, we get pumped. we were so used to answer when people call 'whole lot of u, knock it down'. or even 'guys'. so u noe how much we got pumped. they even gave 70 counts of 4 alternate leg thrusts. did all these with full battle order. Got drenched by our water bottle cos when they are not full, we have to pour them overhead. for me, i found it shiok. cooling ma.

day2.4jan.wed

it was about 12am, we thought we were safe, but we were so wrong. cos the seniors came back from some training around 11pm. When they asked us to 'whole lot fall in', we did not respond cos they did not mention xiao xiong 30. we were smart but they were pissed, so when we fall in, there was a puddle of water. first thing was to get wet immediately. somemore do the same thing. sian.

but this time we had to come up with something like a suggestion to improve the organisation. but in pumping position. we were not in the unit long enough to know what is lacking or needs to be improve, so obviously we could not think of any. then they made us camo on within 2 mins. then camo off and on again. that was not too bad. cos nothing physical. then that night we had our second change of command and i was made the IC.

day3.5jan.thur

the day was saved. we were assured that no night initiation will happen.

day4.6jan.fri

wah the day we dreaded came. the field initiation would start around 1pm so we were told to have early lunch at 1130. Before that we still had battalion run in the morning. long run man. Around 1.15pm, two seniors came up and warned us to get ready. that feeling sucks. we just waited to be tekan. then at 1.25pm, i was called up and given 5 mins to fall in everyone. first thing we fall in, i got pumped 40 during reporting strength. initially i was puzzled, mmm... didnt do anything wrong ma. on time somemore. then i realised, cos i had a symbol of command on my right hand which was a broom so when reporting strength i need to salute. (not used to saluting cos officer rarely salute to similar rank)

then i not used to calling the rest xiao xiong 30, always say guys or everybody. then got pumped. i think i had the most warm up. then the senior commanders came and had their fun too. the same set of physical 'exercise', pouring ice over me and the rest. camo on, off.

then when we went to fill water bottles, they threw our packs everywhere. so i was given 5 mins to fall in with everything. basically the whole time they were 'guai-lan-ing' with us. i wasnt even pissed. used to it liao. then one of the officer said 'wah i like your attitude man'. lol. they came up with weird things like do alternate leg thrusts 20 counts of 1. so to avoid confusion, i asked them to count using their fingers. then they purposely shout at us to confuse us. blah~

i even said 'thank you sir' when they poured ice on me for dunno how many times. then we had to dip ourselves into a pool of mud. brick-coloured kind. face, hair everything. cannot see any other colour. lol the senior commanders were quite impressed when i tied down the rest to shout something cheesy.

Me:xiao xiong 30, what is this mud?
the rest: the mud on our face is soil. our soil.

after that, there was CAT 1 (lightning). so we had to move to training shed. btw, only alpha company was in camp and they were told not to peep. while waiting for the CAT 1 to clear, LTA lee wee played 'journey to the west' with us. we had to carry lots of stores beside our fieldpack. we had to form characters and props... damn funny and horny script. but fun ended early and we had to cas-evac all the way to SOC (standard obstacle course).

Then we had to clear the obstacles till horizontal beam with FBO! After that the leopard crawl back to low wall was a killer!

after which we had to casevac again to the wet gap where we had a STB mission. we had to build the bridge and launch it within a time limit. then we have to go into the wet gap. made us pump, do leg thrusts in the muddy water. black colour with disgusting algae. It smelt like longkang water.

then we had to swim backstroke. reached an open patch, lay out our fieldpack, and ensure no pack sinked. then we had to dip our head into the water whenever they called a number. each of us was assigned a number... btw we had 3 senior officers with us so the field initiation they had to join cos they joining 30. as usual the senior officers got 'tekan' by the existing senior officers. that was the fun part seeing them suffer. called our number like 'what number to call the police?' so one of the senior officer had to 'dunk' 3 times cos his number was 9. then it was 'my handphone number,91999999' lol. we all had a great laugh.

next was to form a straight line and do 'merlion'. we had to take a big mouth of the water and spit it out like merlion but must be synchronised. almost swallowed the water. yucks.

Last thing was to climb up a ledge which was 2m above water and we are all officially declared initiated. but that was part one for us, the end for the senior officers. we had only 30 mins to wash up and fall in in smart 4 for our mess initiation. finally the 5-hour field initiation ended.

for the event, we have to move in threes and stand on a bar seat. super narrow. and introduce ourselves and answer questions from the floor which were the senior officers. Every mistake we made, our orientation officers which were our seniors had to drink one mug of tiger beer. When we could not answer the question, we had to down the mug of beer. There were 3 questions for each trio and ended with a glass of bear's cove special which was mixed with 6-7 different liquors.

and whenever we could not answer we had to say 'i, xiao xiong 30, NRIC, Rank Name, being young and green and wet behind the ears, request permission to down this mug of beer, CO sir'

i was the last guy of the last trio. Have to stand for an hour plus. sian. one of our guys puked... think never drank before. i officially hate beer! they sucked.

then we shook hands with the senior commanders and went into the mess with them, no longer xiao xiong 30. sang karaoke but spend most of the time cleaning up the stores...

i am now experiencing the aftermath. my whole body ached. i threw away my uniform and boots. mon going tekong. tue off. finally i can self service during lunch in cookhouse, no need to queue with recruits... can even get served by mess boy for breakfast and dinner.

too bad no photos. haiz.