combat line specialist

the Malaysian Armed Forces came aknockin recently... think it was in the news... (a visit lah! were u thinkin something else?) in both their n our efforts to strengthen the political relationship, many others suffered... these were colonels up to generals... n their visit required the best prep, best effort, n best result...

i was there... ah kang, ah yong, leo, eric were there... the combat line team of 2006, how we call ourselves, happened... set to stay in the history of 8 SAB Sig Coy...

we suffered for em tt nite... ok maybe, like i really think, it was our great Ops Officer who put us in tt shit... by delayin thru the morning before, sittin there in office, when all of us knew we had to lay line, lotsa line... by not maximisin the help we clearly needed... then showin me how much line knowledge he lacks, but worse, how reluctant n stubborn he was in lettin a seasoned Specialist run the show... n of course, his failure to protect us from a poor higher command...

DyS3 was clear... he wanted to set off smoke for the Malaysians... so this was what we have at hand... 8 lines, from the control chamber to the range butt... this is, mind u, an armored vehs range, so tt distance is more than 1 km... we've 5 guys... n we reached the range at 1930... n in 11 hours this must be ready n workin...

cold n outfield... dark n mosquitoes... we completed the job at 430... close to 50kg of line was expended tt nite... we returned, washed up, came back in smart attire, n carried on w the display for the visitors... we were literally fallin aslp while standin... n not to mention DyS3 only used 2 lines...

u can hardly respect a soldier by his rank, however he earned it... but by what he's gone thru...

e job was not done... after ensuring the PA and other comms durin the display worked, and after the visitors had left, it was Post-Ex... we went out into e sun agn, albeit with more manpower, and proceeded to retrieve e lines... it went into e late afternoon (how long has it been?)...

i duno abt my men... by e time i went to bed, i was 34 hours awake.... match tt...