The US armed forces is the most powerful in the world. Yet they
fled with their tails between their legs in Vietnam & again in
Somalia. And they have their hands full in Iraq. Doesn't mean you
are powerful & your soldiers very "zai" means you will win. If
China does invade Taiwan, there's no guarantee that it'll be a walk
over.
Anyway, its getting a bit OT liao from fall in standards of our
soldiers to how "good" China soldiers are. 
The way I see it, training standards have dropped due to what I
feel is the mistaken feeling that today's soldiers are smarter thus
they need less time to learn. No matter how smart one is, he still
needs time to learn & practice what he has learnt. Training has
been shortened 'cos as in MINDEF's words, the 3G soldier of today
is smarter & learns faster. But can he execute what he has
learnt?
During my BMT, we had 3 field camps. I hear nowadays its just 1. We
learnt our IFC in camp & during the 3 field camps we had to
execute what we learnt. My cousin who just finished his BMT not
long ago, says they now learn their IFC during their field camp.
Apparently everything is being shortened & crammed. The danger
of doing this is that you end up with soldiers that are not fully
prepared nor trained.
My cousin said that during his IFC lessons at field camp, they were
simply told to go camo themselves. No one taught them how to do it.
So they just smeared camo cream all over their faces & stuff
leaves all over. At the end of the lesson, they were f*cked for
doing a lousy job & that was it. They were not told how to
camo, they were not evaluated after that, neither were they
corrected & told how to improve.
BMT is the most basic thing & if our soldiers don't even know
how to camo themselves, how do they fight a war?
When I was a Autotech B, we had to go to OETI for 3 months followed
by 1 month OJT. After that it was another 2 months at OETI for
upgrading course. Now apparently its 5 months straight at OETI with
no OJT.
When I went back for my ICT last year, I remember speaking to my
former PC who was saying that this new batch who got posted in were
hopeless. Supposedly Auto Spec Tech but can't do the simplest of
tasks. I think that's a perfect e.g. of a huge flaw in our
training.
In all honesty, I feel that biggest mistake was the softening of
training during BMT. I emphasise so much on BMT 'cos that's the
beginning. If you have a lousy beginning, how do you expect a
wonderful ending? Yes, SAF has claimed that BMT has not softened
but those of us who went thru BMT in the days of ITD, SBMT or even
BTS will know the truth.
I did my BMT at 3 BTS & we got shit! Some ppl might argue that
its pointless to tekan soldiers. I beg to differ. By tekaning them
(within reason of course), it helps to make them stronger
physically & mentally. Why do you think during NDU's hell week,
the trainees are broken down physically & mentally? Its to make
them stronger.
I look at the standard of today's BMT & I laugh. Don't compared
to the days of ITD under Israeli instructors. Just compare to 2, 3
or 7 BTS & you can laugh liao.
The stuff that we went through included log PT (including crunches
& jumping jacks with the freaking log), locker PT, change
parade, defaulters parade, etc. It was tough physically &
mentally!! I still remember on our very first night of enlistement,
we were made to run around the parade square. Everytime one whistle
was blown, we had to stop & do push ups followed by crunches.
Another whistle & we continue to run.
Many of us dropped like flies from exhaustion. One such guy fell in
front of me & I helped him up. I was f*cked for my efforts. As
I continued running, I saw the instructor squat next to him &
f*cked him upside down, including vulgarities thrown at his parents
for added measure.
When you slowed down during runs, instructors didn't encourage you.
They ran next to you & f*cked you & your parents. That's
how it was in those days. Some recruits couldn't take it &
broke down in tears while running.
And don't get me started on our PT sessions! Our so called warming
up session before each PT session was in fact a tekan session.
Before the actual PT had started, we would've done on average 200
push ups, 200 sit ups & jumping jacks 200 counts of 8. And that
was BEFORE the actual PT!!
And as if this mental & physical torture was not enough, in
those days there was no catered food. It was NSF chefs & the
food sucked big time! Sometimes their portioning skils were so poor
that some of us had no veg but got meat, or no meat but got veg.
Once they even ran out of rice!!
And unlike today, we had metal trays of our own that we had to wash
ourselves with sponges that were f*cking filthy & oily. Also,
we had fatigue duty such as cleaning the cookhouse. The worst was
cleaning the storage room where rubbish carts are kept. There was
rubbish, vomit, rats, cockroaches, etc all over & we had to
clean the room. Nowadays, all this is done by contractors.
Oh & our beds that had half their springs missing & the
mattresses were thin yellow sponges. It was such that when we laid
on the bed, the whole damn thing would sag & we would wake up
with backaches.
Some might say that society has changed & that's why today's
soldiers have a good life. But they fail to understand one point.
Our NS is slowly becoming chalet liao.
My BMT was tough. I cursed & swore through it. But on
hindsight, I must admit it helped to build my mental toughness.
Look at today's recruits. Kena scold "stupid" only & they
complain to the OO & the instructor gets it. These ppl are soft
mentally.
If I had a choice, I'd bring back the tough BMT of the past. It
does help to build mentally strong soldiers. You may not be super
fit physically but if you have the mental strength you can still
make it.
