Ok, this is apparently not going anywhere. So let me share my
darkest military secrets...
I have a problem that has stuck with me till now since
enlistment. I am at my rowdiest and crudest when I'm clad in
camouflage uniform. I took my first puff shortly after BMT. I went
through the usual Rites of Passage by learning my
Foxtrot.U.Charlie.Kilo and Charlie.Hotel.Echo.Echo.Bravo.Y.Echo
well.
Then I became adventurous. Something I used to do a couple of
years back at the kopitiam, when we didn't have our nametags and
vocation sewn onto our uniform. I peeled off the velcro, had one or
two smokes over my favourite kopi C, and even mounted my boots up
on the chair. I recall one late night, when I met up an "ah beng"
friend of mine after ICT for a beer cum smoking session. I even
mounted my boots on the table throughout. Surely, I was behaving
rowdily and giving SAF a bad name, but I actually enjoyed the
astonishing looks of passerbys, who must be wondering what is up
this cool soldier's sleeves.
Well, you must be wondering if I have chanced upon any law
enforcer. MPs in plain clothes? Have never bumped into
one. For all those days when I smoked at the kopitiam in
long four, kicking back my boots on the table top. Damn
shiok!
Another confession. After our ICTs, a few kakis used to go to the
movies in our long four. I was always the first one
to hang my boots over the front seat. The rest would
follow suit. Damn comfortable. And that was when people saw a row
of military gangsters at the cinema, tarnishing the good name of
SAF. Don't be overly shocked, guys. We picked the afternoon slots
(as outprocessing was usually at 1pm) so we weren't exactly
competing with Dennis the Menace. We made sure we didn't block
anyone by taking the LAST row.
