One of a Kind (2nd Edition)

DRILL AND POP REHEARSALS

296

FOURTEEN

III. RALLYING TO THE FLAG

The lessons on Foot and Arms Drill, Sword Drill and Colour Drill were oriented towards

ceremonial parades in general. They mentally prepared the cadets for the intensive rehearsals

for the passing out parade, still interminable months away. The foot and arms drill included

a good deal of slow march, a source of much sarcastic intervention by the drill instructors

and amusement among the cadets themselves. It is unnatural to keep one’s back upright,

chin up, left hand immobile and advance on the balls of one’s feet (without tiptoeing) while

keeping in time with the rest of the platoon at about half the speed of a normal step. There

were many ‘zombies’ and ‘Hermans’ (after a popular TV serial character called Herman the

Monster) lurching around the parade square during the initial lessons, but by the time the

passing out parade came about, a modicum of grace had developed.

In early 1967, there were precious few swords in the SAF and Regimental Colours were

limited to the Volunteers (by then called PDF) and the two regular battalions. But, the British

drill formats were very much alive because of a busy ceremonial calendar under British and

Malaysian administrations and the nearly wholesale adoption of British drill on both sides of

the Causeway. It had been assumed that the swords would remain the Wilkinson swords that

were then the standard issue for officers, though they were a collective pool to be signed out

from the armskote when the need arose. They were heavy and long, very substantially made

and awkward for small-framed Asian officers. But, in any case, as there weren’t enough to go

round, Tiger arranged for the SAFTI Training Aids Section run by LTA Soaidy bin Haji Ali

to produce flat sticks of approximate dimensions as substitutes. There were no scabbards

however, and the enterprising WO2 Mizah of Platoon 1 found himself suddenly facing

an apoplectic Tiger when he decided conscientiously to start the training as if the swords

were sheathed, by asking his cadets to stick the pieces of wood in their belts. Not that it

would have worked: the sheathed sword has its basket facing the rear and the first moves for

unsheathing the sword are to free the scabbard from a hook on the belt, grasp the sheath just

below the hilt with the left hand and turn the basket sideways, clockwise, so that the right

hand can grasp the hilt in preparation to draw the blade. The next step is to loop the sword

upright so that the right thumb is directly in line with the nose, before cutting the hand to the

right, elbow at right angles from the waist and sword upright parallel to the body, edge facing

forward. It was easier to draw the sword than to replace it in its scabbard while looking

straight ahead and directing the tip of the blade into the mouth of the scabbard. Fortunately,

there are few occasions when a drawn sword has to be sheathed on parade. Sword drill was

“A moth-eaten rag on a worm-eaten pole,

It does not look likely to stir a man’s soul.

‘Tis the deeds that were done ‘neath the moth-eaten rag,

When the pole was a staff and the rag was a flag.”

~ Sir Edward Hamley on seeing the old Colours of the 32

Foot in Monmouth Church ~