Guys, dunno why but I feel extremely nostalgic now. Thus I
thought of starting this post for all of us to reminiscence about
our BMT days. There were bad but I am sure there were a lot of good
too. So here goes: 
I did my BMT 10 years ago, in 1997, in Camp 1, Tekong Echo. I was
in the mixed batch of guys, there were diploma holders, degree
holders, and ah bengs. We lived in those old, narrow one storey
houses. It was fun as you can see almost everyone and the
interactivity was very good.
Wherever we go there was a dog that would follow us, we call him
the Echo dog. He was a fine and obedient dog in the daytime but at
night he would just stare and bark at nothing. Very weird and
eerie. I wonder if he is still alive today. I once saw a PC feed
him KFC leftovers and I asked my dad to bring KFC for the visiting
day.
Training was tough, and my company was reputed to be the most siong
in Camp 1. Tekan sessions were a norm anytime of the day. But I
think there were others who had it worse. Nonetheless, I did log
PTs, duckwalks, countless pushups and situps. Those days, we still
eat from metal eating trays and had cookhouse food from SAF cooks.
Food was really bad, and I lost a lot of weight. We also had to do
cookhouse fatigue.
A good thing was that during lunch hours, they will play Power 98
over the PA system and everyone could hear it, it was really good
as it was the only thing that connects us to the mainland.
At the back of my bunk I could see Changi Airport. Oh how I long to
go home whenever I caught sight of the airplanes touching down.
Evenings was great as the sun sets and creates a field of golden
corns on the sea.
It's a shame I lost contact with almost everyone in the platoon. I
only have the contacts of one person but I have yet to get him out.
Think I should do so real soon. The recounting gives me a warm and
fuzzy feeling. It may have been 10 years ago but it still seems
like only yesterday.
I remembered asking an older friend what he felt about BMT, he said
that it was tough but he misses it a lot, and if given a choice, he
does not mind doing it again. It felt pretty incredulous hearing
him say that, but once you have done it and went through all the
shit and good times and built a strong comaradarie with your
platoon mates, you will think differently, well at least I
did.
Short of saying that I will do BMT over again, I do miss my BMT
days to a certain extent.
