151 / 409
BASIC TRAINING
135
EIGHT
stop—a forced march, in short. At the end of the first route march in ‘A’ Company, the
OC formed up the company and asked those who wanted to drop out of the course to step
forward. According to reports, nearly half the company stepped forward. This was probably
an exaggeration, but the number must have been substantial because the offer was promptly
rescinded. When ‘B’ Company did its first route march, that mistake was not made.
But, the pressure did mount. The loss of personal freedom, homesickness and in particular,
the demands of physical training discouraged many, and some were let go. Eventually, Mr.
Bogaars, the Permanent Secretary of MID had to step in and unilaterally cancel the release
agreement. He possibly only meant to discourage the waverers while privately acquiescing
with those who were determined to go.
The route marches eventually increased in length, ending in one of 10 miles; but by that
time, while they were still a hard grind, the trainees had also hardened. Safety precautions
were rudimentary: foot inspections and checks on full water bottles. But medical knowledge
on physical stress was largely based on old wives tales. The current wisdom was that soldiers
should be able to go without water for fairly long periods and so a kind of water discipline
conditioning element was introduced into the route march programme. It translated into
only one water bottle worth of water per route march. Knowing no better, the trainees
of the first intake accepted this as professional dogma, drank fully before departure and
survived without serious casualties.
VIII. ELEMENTS OF PHYSICAL FITNESS FOUR:
ROAD RUNS
Interspersed with the route marches were runs in Skeletal Battle Order (SBO) and Full Battle
Order (FBO). The former wearing only the webbing, pouches, helmet, rifle and bayonet and
the usual garnishing of water bottle, FFD and toggle rope.
2
The latter included the backpack,
ground sheet, poncho and mess tins as well. In both configurations, leather soled boots were
mandatory for conventional warfare scenarios. For jungle warfare, the tall green canvas rubber-
soled jungle boots were specified. Strictly speaking, FBO should have included the minimum
items for overnight deployment including rations, change of clothing, entrenching tool and a
contact rate of ammunition including hand grenades, a total weight of about 20 kilogrammes
with the rifle. Fortunately, the trainees were spared this exquisite reality check for the road runs.
In addition, during the final test, which was six miles in one hour and held on Boon Lay Road,
the helmet outer was excluded and this no doubt prevented many potential failures.
All the same, at the end of basic training, there were some very tough trainees in SAFTI and the
diligent, burly WO2 Kutalib and his PTIs had ceased to be the nemeses they had initially seemed.