Army and Women

This couple of weeks—or 18 days to be exact—I’ll be in camp for my yearly Incamp Training (ICT) stint. Yeah, they’re still calling back 37 year old ah peks back. I’m like one of the oldest guys around in my company.

But funnily, the other day a couple of guys with me were surprised to learn I was 37. One remarked that I look maybe 30, 31 at most.

The lot were only convinced when I got up the pull-bar bar during the Individual Physical Proficiency Test the other day and the electronic display stated in large lettering I was in “Cat Z”, or personnel who’re 35 years and older.

And the surprises for them didn’t end there. I got up the bar, went up and down 5 times, then let go from the bar sprightly. Someone said the pull-up bar’s the hardest station to clear for reservist personnel. But there I was, going up and down like nothing, and looking as though I could still do a lot more but got down because I was bored. If they only knew that for the other stations, I’m utterly hopeless haha.

In any case, this blog entry isn’t about what I’m doing in this ICT this year. Rather, it’s about a not-often-discussed aspect of serving national service i.e. you do it because it’s your duty to and not (normally) because you want to. It’s about having a girl / lady at home to go back to.

Here’s the thing. Prior to my enlistment as a full-time national serviceman in 1990 to 1992, I was in JC and there was this girl from my class I had a thing for (blogged about several times already, e.g. here). During my JC2 year I went about the school taking portrait pictures of my friends, and hers was one I took. She wrote some very beautiful and encouraging words on the back of it. In the following year when I was a full-time national serviceman, on a couple of occasions I was out of the country on overseas exercises. A lot of nights we’d be out in the field in some rural, dusty area with few signs of civilization. During those NS days, I actually had this picture of this girl in my pocket wherever I went. And during those nights when all was quiet, I’d sometimes take her picture out and gazed at her.

Sounds corny eh? But when you’re in uniform and have naught but the company of unwashed men who smell as bad as you do, all stuck in some rural area or some jungle, having a girl to remember and think about helps. I mean it. It reminds you that there’s a civilian and normal life outside the army, and something to look forward to upon your return home.

In NTU I had this friend who said that if her husband or a boyfriend had to go back for national service every year, on each time he leaves for the stint she wouldn’t feel sorry. Rather, she’d feel very protected by his discharging of his duty and sacrifice of his time. She’d feel safe.

She was a very dear friend of mine, and someone I wrote music for too. And this friend of mine wasn’t Singaporean but Malaysian. Which made what she said even the more special.

These days, I don’t know if there are still army men who carry around photos of their girls in their pockets. These days, you chuck an entire JPG album into a non-camera phone or PDA, or maybe even a PSP that I see so many young fellows carry around in camp. And when you miss your girl, you just SMS.

Times have certainly changed. But while the technology to carry those memories around has improved, that men in uniform still need their supportive girls or women behind them haven’t changed; nor do I think it’s likely to, ever.:)