back from my misadventures in the lim chu kang area, and to think that this is the seventh month (lunar calender) and the hungry ghost festival. well i didn't get dripped which is good, but that is because i didn't see front line action. however, worse stuff happened. given i am in a vehicle which was designed in 1954 by the french as a light tank for patrol/reconnaissance duties, it's really old and breaks down quite easily. maintenance is a killer.


this is my tank, a modified amx-13

on the first day of atec it already rained which is a really bad omen. i hate outfield when it rains. ground gets muddy, which makes vehicles muddy and our boots muddy when we dismount and makes the inside of the tank muddy when we get back in. heck of a mess to clean. then we get wet too since the hatches don't seal properly, and since air circulation is through the large engine fan, night rain feels like i am taking a shower in a refrigerator.

my tank broke down as it reached the lager location. rough terrain cause the right road wheel arm to break and we had to spend the whole night replacing the arm. what made it dificult was that the track was already half thrown and out of alignment with the sprocket wheel so the teeth were just slipping on the inner part of the track. uneven ground meant the track was super tight and we could not release the track tension to break it, realign it and change the road wheel arm. so we did quite a few stunts like placing rocks between the track and sprocket wheel and reversing to use the rock to raise the track. well the rock shattered to dust. but eventually we managed to strip the track and get down to changing the arm. spent the whole night and did not get much rest before we had to wake and chop plants to camouflage the tank for the first mission.

before we even started the mission i accidentally crushed my vehicle commander's foot. well his foot was in a danger area i couldn't see so when i elevated the turret it crushed his foot. there was even this visible dent in his foot. initial diagnosis at NUH was a fracture but after the second checkup at a specialist it was found that his entire toe bone is broken. end result he is out of action till 2nd of september. can't believe this.

then the third day passed quite uneventfully, waited like 12 hours at the line for the enemy to come during the second mission. torturous wait that. and on the last day when we moved out to do the final mission, my vehicle broke down again. radiator pipe was cut by the alternator belt and all the coolant leaked out. engine overheated, smoke streamed out through the fan cover, and it was like minutes after contact with an enemy vehicle. after the recovery team came and we slave started the vehicle to move it to one side of the axis, the engine got damaged and engine oil spurted all over the engine compartment. other oils and water got mixed with the engine oil i think so the engine is now really screwed. have to change the entire engine. what made it more interesting was then we broke down at a junction, the only junction in the training area with a grave there. someone said the guy was lonely and wanted some company so he caused our tank to break down there. all i could do was sigh...

oh did i mention it rained every single day? really killed the mood man. it actually rained 3 times on the second day, and really heavily on the last day as we waited at the admin area for the ride back to camp. all our weapons were covered in mud and water making it a real bitch to clean. it's like caked in mud whereas if it didn't rain it would be just sandy. the best one was that one of my weapons jammed. had a cartridge wedged between the recoil mechanism and the body acting like a door wedge, hence i could not fire, cock or strip my weapon. we used methods ranging from sticking in a track pin to hammer the recoil mechanism out and whacking the cocking handle on the hull of the tank, but to no avail. my platoon commander insisted it was just that the firing pin was bent and kept hitting the pin from the top to "realign" it. although i said it was due to a stuck cartridge he ignored me. well my whole platoon doesn't like him. we call him "cha tau", which is blockhead in hokkien i think.

and there you have it, the summary of my (mis)adventure outfield. the last one i will ever go to in my full time NS life. next one would be when i go for reservist after i ORD. "ORD loh!" *cheers* really long update this. will have more after i go for a whole slew of outings this coming week which is mostly block leave. *cheers again* it's my 4th consecutive long weekend that starts from a wednesday or earlier yay~

Bertram awoke @ 12:07 PM with