Latihan Ketenteraan Tahun Akhir - week one KDSI

 I've waited for this day for nearly 2 barely surviving weeks. The desperate wish for needing to change environment has finally been fulfilled. All Navy and Airforce cadets are eager to go to their respective colleges, while Army cadets dressed up in camouflage anticipating for a greater challenge in KTD. We need to buck up our service knowledge before being commissioned! 

I'm gonna miss my Army and Air Force friends.

My new appointment as the Midshipmen CO will never be easy as I have seniors and juniors to handle. To take charge of seniors and juniors without putting too much pressure on them can be quite a challenge especially when we need to keep up with the standard here in KDSI.

 

All Midshipmen hop off the bus and went to our room. Within 10 minutes, they settled down and started cleaning up the room without any orders. In 2 hours' time, every single room already in layout condition! I'm honored to lead this bunch of self sufficient people, really. Coming to a new environment does change their attitude, improved punctuality, superb cleanliness, presentable turn out.  

HOWEVER, our good days ended within 24 hours when a guy riding on his motorbike chasing after us when we were marching towards the Cadet Officer's Mess. He yelled "STOP the class!!!" I was the platoon leader, out of my curiosity,  I turned back to peep because I hardly hear people shout in English! The moment I saw golden wavy stripes on his shoulder whilst he took off his helmet, immediately I brought the whole platoon to a halt, because it was a Warrant Officer shouting! As expected, we were scolded like hell. Instead of feeling down, I felt excited listening to his scolding, because he scolded us in English! Broken English, but he has abundance of confidence which made him sounds right. Later I found out from my Lt Samad that he is from the COM. Just like my father. The COM people are generally brainier than the other branches in the Navy, that's why many senior rates from COM can speak English. 

Our marching session was really productive. We're lucky to have two really professional Gunnery Instructor to teach us. Both of them understand that we're trained by the Army, our drills are mostly Army drills. They spent 4 hours drills to refresh our memory, we're able to march like a Navy after that. Instructor plays an important role in determining the quality of Officers Under Training. GI Megat took the morning session, then when GI Ahmad continued with the afternoon session. The GI already changed, now come a "fully charged" one, but we left one bar only. To be honest, I felt my legs, really damn tired. 

Men feel tired, but if given a goal or purpose, they can perform. 

During rest hours, we started imitating the way instructors talk and curse like no body's business. Everyone had fun laughing at the jokes for what happened the whole day. It is important to keep the men high in morale and cooperative. The simplest way to unite the men is by having a common enemy. But for us, not only we have a common enemy, we have a common joke too! =)

 There's so much to tell, so little time to write. Time to get some rest before the next activity.=)