154 / 409
BASIC TRAINING
138
EIGHT
From the beginning, there were sideshows at the range—as far as possible coaching on
trainfire—but on long mornings, they could be other subjects, or opportunities for the
Platoon Sergeant or Section Instructors to brief or interact with the trainees. Invariably, a
wisecrack or mischief would attract a minor punishment, but the instructors were careful
to avoid making trainees who were due to shoot, run around because it would affect their
shooting scores. Butt-party duties on the whole were tolerable because the breaks between
firing offered opportunities for chatting, catching up on the latest gossip, ribbing one another
and smoking. The duties included raising and lowering the 8 foot x 10 foot bulls-eye target
(a two-man task), or the Figure 11 target, indicating with an arrow-head pointer the fall of
shot or a ‘wash-out’ (the origins of the term WOWO kings, which incidentally predated the
first intake and was common in school cadet corps jargon), recording the hits and patching
the targets for the next shooter. At the end of butt-party duty, there was the march back to
the firing point and the switch of roles.
The first intake trainees also went on to advanced field firing which was represented by
firing the heavy-barrel SLR on its bipod at 400 to 500 metres, first in single shot mode and
later in bursts from a prone position. For this, the Seletar Range was used. The lessons were
essentially for familiarisation with the firing characteristics of the heavy barrel rifles, as these
were deemed Section Support Weapons.
The culmination of the trainfire was the Marksmanship Test conducted at the 300-metre
range in SAFTI. It comprised of three separate ‘practices’ of 11, 7 and 3 rounds respectively,
corresponding to the foxhole, prone, and kneeling/squatting positions. Each firer covered
two lanes in which targets would appear at 100, 200 or 300 metres. Targets would appear
randomly at the left or right lane. For the foxhole and prone positions, the targets could
appear separately at 200 metres or 300 metres or concurrently over the two lanes. The Figure
11 (standing enemy) target was the mainstay, but the Figure 12 (prone enemy) target was used
for the kneeling or squatting position. The rationale for the Marksmanship firing positions
was that the foxhole with support represented shooting from a defensive position; the prone
represented firing in a battlefield encounter; and the squatting/kneeling from behind cover
like a low parapet or a fallen tree trunk. To pass the Marksmanship Test, the minimum score
was 7; those who got 14 and above were designated Marksman Class 1. Failures received
extra coaching and had to go for re-shoots. If there were total failures, nobody knew of
them because all in the first intake passed out at the end of recruit training.
Range practices continued into section training and officer cadet training. Night firing
lessons were conducted during section training after the issue of the M16. For the night
range practices, the 100-metre range was used and a strip of white tape of several yards
length was laid on the ground in front of each firing position. Figure 11 targets, faintly lit
by ‘Yehudi’ lamps were engaged from the prone position with a combination of tracer and