the last days of a recruit

Excerpt

060305
1430hrs
Going back to school and meeting up with all my old friends and jie meis again I realise just how much I miss them. All the memories of fun and laughter with all the different people flood back, and now I feel I just have to catch up with so many people and find out how they're doing.

yingshi jolyn audrey enlin sarah

POP soon!! The anticipation is almost overwhelming... previously POP was just an event on the other side of the hill, out of sight and out of mind, but now graduation day is cresting the top of that hill it casts a greater shadow over the poor recruits struggling upwards towards it. The climb seems to just get more and more unbearable.

haiz at this point i simply miss all my darlings so much...

also hope i get posted to officer school... but hey, doesn’t most of us?!

when 24 click starts (in a few hrs!!) its going to be a dozen hours of mind-numbing walking... so I’d better write now. i guess thats how army works... to bring soldiers to a respectable fitness level some other area must compensate... a seesaw of body and mind.


070305
0900hrs
the pride in foxtrot/falcon simply grows... consider: on regular route marches charlie takes 48 mins to finish 4k. bravo takes 45. we take 40. under maggotmaster 2L bhanu we take abt 37 to 38 mins... its lightspeed compared to the pace we had to endure with charlie conducting last night. caleb said 'this 24k ah doesnt test how well we can march, it tests how well we can endure boredom...' teng kok was regretting he didnt bring his book along so at least he'd have something to read while marching, i mean, strolling.

still, despite the snail's pace 24k is still two dozen thighchafing nutbanging footdragging clicks. everyone is tired and fall in this morning brought a legion of bowlegs and limps. which is just freakin amusing... abrasions and blisters are the standard conversation, but everyone just puts on their saf shoes, pulls up their saf socks and soldiers on, still keeping in step and singing army songs. but we never expected to see the other 24K companies waddling around in slippers for breakfast while we marched to cookhouse for breakfast. they really looked pathetic! i mean, come on, sure its 24k but a company of att B excused RMJ excused footgear just looks disgustingly wussy. we snigger as hawk charlie bravo pass by...

thank goodness i didn’t get any blisters or abrasion, so maybe that explains some of my cheer and lightheartedness today. it feels like the morning after a good day of track training, the sense of having accomplished something fruitful... a nice aching afterglow i guess. pleasant :)


080305
1030hrs
the anticipation grows of course, but the troopers die a quiet death in their bunks. a melancholy just permeates the heart and mind, and drains the excitement and interest from activity and washes the day gray. could it be because of POP in a few hours time? of course it could... so tired of the straight lines and the endless roads, we wait to graduate in a few hours. for what? to return to a same old civilian life, and to wait again. POP is but our stepping stone to the next era in our armyhood. there is no end in sight.

I cant wait to be a private and earn 16 dollars more.