Mark Choon

Phew! 7 weeks just flew by so quickly. Last Thursday, I just passed out from basic training, from being a recruit to becoming a private. It has been an interesting and eventful 7 weeks learning things such as rescue techniques, first aid and basic fire fighting. I’ve had the chance in being a basic rescuer, hauling dummy casualties out of ruins and handling basic rescue equipment.

Through out the 7 weeks, though short it may be, I’m glad that I’ve got to meet some very interesting people in my platoon. My platoon mates range from people with basic primary school qualifications to degree holders. Young men, from age 18 to the oldest at 27 (me!). There are a few who have lived most of their lives out of Singapore but yet, they return to serve their 2 years. So yeah my platoon was like a melting pot of people from different backgrounds. I admit it was a challenge getting everyone to work together in the space of short 7 weeks. There will always that group of people with lots of excuses to get out of doing things and being lazy and being childish. But at the end, I guess we did well enough and didn’t cause much problems to the instructors thus didn’t get pumped THAT much.

Thanks to my medical status, however, becoming a firefighter or a full fledged rescuer, is out of the question. So I guess what’s left for me, would be either being a clerk or a storeman. Ah well only another 2 years to go serving the nation.

Well I’ll definitely not miss recruit life in the short term, but I’m sure I will miss the last 7 weeks down the road. All my instructors say, “recruit life is the best!”. In the mean time, no more polishing of boots every night, no more ironing and starching of my uniform every night, no more cleaning of the bunk every few hours of the day.