203 / 409
BARRACK LIFE DURING SECTION TRAINING
187
TEN
I. GROUP AFFILIATIONS
Though strong friendships were formed across sections and platoons and even the two
companies, section training was compartmentalised. Other than in area cleaning, platoon drill,
collective punishment, movement to training areas in vehicles and in terms of accountability
to the Platoon Sergeant, Platoon 2I/C (second-in-command) and Platoon Commander, there
was no compelling context for affiliation or identification with the platoon. The section
partitions in the barrack blocks effectively isolated each section and generated a section
identity. While a platoon would move out as a body to the designated training area, once
there, after any platoon level demonstration or briefing, the respective section instructors
took their charges to sub-areas directly and reconfigured again for meals of fresh rations
and transportation back to camp. Within the sections, however, close associations flourished,
some of which would last throughout their whole career. There was also a sense of co-
operation that withstood minor personality clashes and transient aggravations. This was
partly a matter of mutual survival since the training required operating as a section without
the formal hierarchical structure of a section as in an operational unit. The status within the
section depended on individual personality and/or role play as designated by each section
instructor, the least popular role being that of the Infantry Rocket Launcher (IRL) carrier.
During section training, the sense of being a platoon was at its most intense in the daily
area cleaning, when the toilets, washrooms and shower stalls of each platoon plus the areas
immediately surrounding each platoon block had to be made ready for inspection by the
BARRACK LIFE DURING SECTION TRAINING
In the early days of section training - a typical section in ‘A’ Company.