ROUTE MARCH


One of the core trainings in SAF when one is a trainee. What started off as just a 1.5km march soon grew to 8km, den 16km, 24km and finally 28km.


It's not just about walking and walking with full combat load. There's a whole lot of other skills one must achive before going the walk. Or suffer the consequences. Of course, first up, the most basic thing of singing of songs together, i believe this is the army's only other alternative of entertaining one self since we are not allowed to listen to MP3 while on the march.


There are just so much songs to sing. Remembering them all just makes one dizzy. It is therefore, no surprise when one got the lyrics all mixed up. Here's one example:


Booking out, see my girlfriend.
Saw her with, my CSM.
Bash him up.
Win back my girlfriend,
With my rifle, my buddy and meeeeeeeee.


Luckily, we did not sing out loud enough, i guess heads will roll along the dirt track on which we marched on.


Of course, since route march is a very strenuous exercise, we were been conducted a water parade once every 4km. This is to ensure everyone is well hydrated so that no one will get a chance to suffer from hear exhaustion. Which, i realised, gives some of us a problem of another kind.

I was marching in the middle of my platoon when i said "shit, when's it ending". The guy beside me, instinctively cheered me on with lots of encouragement. Of course, with lots of the following words of: 'endure', 'almost there', 'don't shag', 'reaching soon already'. And all those while, no one asked me what my problem was. Not long after, the guys behind me started cheering and encouraging me on. But i could endure no longer, i took a step out of my platoon, take another step out of the road and onto the grass, undo one fly button, and had a good pee. There was so much urine in me that the rear sergeant and the rear scout of my platoon stopped beside me and waited for me to finish my pee. However, there was just too much urine in my bladder. By the time i was finally done, the first men from the next platoon had already caught up with us. And the three of us had to run back to our own platoon.

With new burst of energy which i had achived after my long pee, i joined in the platoon sing along session with fresh burst of energy, strength and pride.

As i moved on to sispec, i had to do a 28km route march on the day before our POP. We started moving out late in the night, only to return back to the parade square the next morning for our parade. Being more experienced than recuits we marched on with ease. And for a long time, nothing happened. Slowly but surely, the inevitable shag start to kick in. Nearly every platoon in every company started to break up. We started to close up and march with pride not from our sergeants yelling, but at the presence of hot pretty girls jogging down the road. Amazing? yes it's true, we were marching right through NTU at that time. Then we went out ot NTU and back to the forest, and soon, the return journey. We started to march through NTU again. But by this time, every NTU student was asleep in their dorm. And because of the nature of the surroundings, we were not allowed to engage in our usual sing along sessions. One by one, we started to fall asleep and into dream land on the march. Waking up only when falling of the roadside pathway and onto the road. Or onto the drains at the other side of the roadside pathway. For me, i fell onto the road three times. As for one my friend, he managed not to fall off the roadside pathway, all throughout that sleepy stretch of the NTU route. He even managed to make a detour around the tree which he nearly crashed onto at the enterance of the campus.

Only to crash right in the middle of the medium sized, 2 pole supporting "Welcome to NTU" sign board. And fell to the ground at last of course.

Well, after that 28km route march, we had our POP, followed by breakfast, a quick rest, followed by cleaning of our rifles while the other companies was sound asleep. Of course, nearly everyone, or at least in my platoon, fell asleep along our company line with rifle parts and ferolite in our hands.