I did it.
24 kilometers or rocks, mud, grvel, grass, sand, and even rubble.
We marched all through the shit tekong the at us.
We did it.
Never thought i could do it.
When we first set off the only thought i had was "ooooooh shit"
The first 4 kms was rock and sand.
I nearly sprained an ankle on the rocky ground.. .
We rested, powdered, drank up and set off after 15 minutes.
45minutes later we reached the 8 km mark.
This was our first major break.
We rested for 40 minutes for dinner then set off.
The next stop was our 12 km point.
Once agin we did the necessary body maintenence and set off in 15 minutes.
All of us were DEAD tired by this time.
Morale was at an all time low.
Not to mention it was getting too dark too fast.
See, the thing is that you may think that walking at night is the same as during the day. It is but the danger kicks in when you can't see your feet and therefore where you step. Many people tripped and tripping is not fun when you are tired with 20 kgs of equipment strapped to your back.
So yeah,
Not fun.
We rested for another 30 minutes at the 16 km point.
I couldn't feel my feet by this time.
I had blisters, and abrations and inscet bites.
I was sleepy, tired and both emotionally and physically drained.
There was only one thing that kept my company and me moving.
See the last 8km is the finishing stretch.
We'd be back-tracking the way we came all the way back to camp.
In other words:
We were finally going home.
The next 4 Kms were extreamly challenging.
We were literally dying under the weight of our field packs.
Withering in pain and thats not an exageration.. .
but somehow we reached the 20km mark.
Then everything changed.
Somehow we all just revved up when we reached the rest point and heard our OC say:
"ok gentlemen, we are now at the 20 km mark. You've officially marched more than you've ever marched in your entire life. We only have another 4 klicks to go. Only FOUR! at the end of that 400,000 centimeters is your bed, your bath and most importantly your ticket out of BMT. So suck it up, grow some balls and get on your feet. Lets finish this for good"
Thats pretty much exactly what he said.
Word for word actually.
It worked.
I don;t think any of us were in the right mind to comprehend what he said when he said it...
but somehow it worked.
we were on our feet in 10 minutes, all packed up and ready to go.
and thus we set off.
Singing like there was no tomorrow.
Screaming at each other to wake up and to push on.
out of 150 men only 80 men were left by the 4km mark.
But still we made enough noise to wake the dead.
This racket just grew stronger and stronger as we neared our camp.
Somehow we were numb to the pain and exhaustion..
..and when we finally saw the parade square, our end point, nothing could stop us.
we woke up almost ALL the companies that were within 800m of the camp.
The Kestrels, the Gryphons, the Jaguars, the Dragons and even the Hawks, who were all the way in the middle of the camp grounds were woken up by us.
The Falcons were even cheering us on!
The Eagles had made it.
We had survived our 24Klick route march and were screaming and crying in joy.
Hahah.
I will never ever EVER forget that moment in my life.
The moment when our conducting officer reports strength to our OC.
" The eagles have landed sir, haha permission to continue debrief sir"
I'll never forget that moment.
The smiles on our face, sweat on our bodies and some even had tears in our eyes.Makes 6 months of confinement, PT, Field Camp, SIT Test, area cleaning, tekan sessions,
sai kang, being away from our loved ones, sacrificing our time and energy for our country, worth it.
Makes it all worth it.
So yeah, I've finished everything in BMT.
Everything i need to do to pass out.
Now all thats left are sweet and sour memmories and a couple of more days.
So yeah,
-POP LOH!
