One of a Kind (2nd Edition)

SECTION TRAINING

180

NINE

as Lieutenant-Colonel to take up a career as a businessman. One of the tasks assigned to him

by Dr. Goh was to translate into English the great Chinese classic,

The Water Margin

, for the

edification of MINDEF HQ.

At the end of any exercise involving defence, the trainees were a bedraggled bunch, covered

with mud, faces drawn, constipated, equipment in decrepitude and thoroughly ‘shagged’.

There still remained the unenviable task of cleaning all the stores and weapons before they

could hit the sack.

XV. SUMMARY EXERCISE

Towards the last week of section training, ‘A’ and ‘B’ companies separately deployed in the

field, each to conduct a 4-day summary exercise which was structured around patrolling

and living in the field. Three locations about five miles apart from each other—in Choa

Chu Kang, Sarimbun and Neo Tiew Road—were selected as platoon basecamps where the

trainees set up bashas (poncho shelters) in section configurations. The sites were mostly

rubber plantations and smallholdings among market gardens that were still being worked by

the farmers. There was reasonable privacy for both the locals and the troops. Shortly after

pitching bashas, each section was given missions to reconnoitre the ‘area of operations’ and

The summary exercise of jungle patrol operations meant cooking combat rations.