How to survive BMTThis is from military-life.blogspot.com The blog is a good read for anyone wanting to read more about life in the SAF.
Step 1: Keep Fit
The key to surviving your first 3 months is to be physically fit. In the military, you are either combat fit or NOT. Of course, if you have rich pockets or a genuine medical condition, please gt yourself DOWNGRADED to the lowest possible so that you will either go through a modified BMT or lobo your way through BMT.
When you are fit, no matter what physical stuff the instructors throw at you, you can pretend to be huffing and puffing when in fact you are laughing at the absurdity of their punishments or physical training. Fitness will help you survive the more unpleasant things the instructors throw at you e.g. make you do 20 push-ups. make you touch the lampost about 100m away and come back (though I understand such bo-liao punishments are not officially not kosher, but hey, there can be unofficial punishments, right?)
Step 2: Keep a low profile
Either keep a low profile and not volunteer for "assignments" to be IC or the one in charge. When you are IC, if things are done well, your duty instructor gets the credit. When the section/platoon screws up, the IC is blamed as he was not able to "ENSURE" that things are supposed to be done in the way they should. I wonder if our Minister for Home Affairs could have "ENSURED" that Mas Selamat didn't escape cos I don't remember being paid $2-3million SGD a year to "ENSURE" that my platoon or section behaved during BMT.
Step 3: Obey authority
The SAF is full of petty tyrants and jerks. Not all of them are arse-holes but a number are. Obey authority, always say "Yes Sergeant/Instructor/Sir" and only clarify your orders. NEVER QUESTION or TALK BACK to commanders because you are the lowest of low as a recruit unless you are a well-connected WHITE HORSE. If you are WHITE HORSE reading this, then f*** it as you will be reasonably well insulated from the real sh** that gets dished out to the hoi-polloi.
Also, you can technically be charged for not following a law-ful order. It's no fun spending time in detention barracks at Kranji. PSPs and mp3 players are not allowed to detainees as I am told and so far I have not heard of Mas Selamat style escapes yet from DB...
Step 4: Observe safety precautions
The Training Safety Regulations or Rules are there for a reason. To keep you from being blown up by thunderflashes, grenades and being shot by your own friends during range. Be on the ball by listening very carefully to ALL SAFETY BRIEFINGS. Know your Cat 1 for lightning as well as how to apply a first-aid dressing. These are critical. Also be very careful when handling arms and ammunition. The other safety is during Individual physical proficiency tests (IPPT) and Standard Obstacle Course (SOC). Injury rates from such activities were high in my days so TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF and YOUR BUDDIES!
Step 5: Free your mind
Sometimes you will be sh** on by the instructors, superiors and what not in the chain of command. Looking back at my own NSF days as a skinny pipsqueak in Camp III Pulau Tekong under the Infantry Training Depot (ITD), I realised I could have gone through it better by being more relaxed about things. For instance, when you are punished, don't beat yourself up about WHY WHY WHY did corporal/sergeant so and so punish me. Just take it that you may or may not have screwed up, and punishment is part and parcel of the BMT experience. So just accept it on move on. The other issue is about the "unfairness" of treatment, i.e. why are some WHITE HORSES treated better or WHY you are assigned to clean the toilet (oh.. I realised they dun get BMT recruits to do that now, they use foreign workers to clean...), just ACCEPT IT and MOVE ON.
In short, BMT will be nothing like you've ever experienced before. The main thing is to make friends, keep yourself fit and realise how fortunate you are to have enjoyed mummy's cooking until 18/19 years of age. I NEVER complained about my mother's cooking since age 18+ after enlisting as a chow recruit in BMT.
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