I have completed 3 months of training to become an Emergency Medical Technician (Paramedic level 2) at SAF Medical Training Institute. Upon graduating in Jan, i was posted to 40th Singapore Armour Regimental to serve as a platoon medic.
Days at SMTI will forever be etched in my heart. It is the most rewarding and fun experience of national service so far. Probably because we all shared a common goal as trainees, we studied together and struggled through our combat phase. Nights out was the second best thing to happen as our camp was near Upper Thomson(somewhere popular for prata and cafes). Best thing was physical training were often canceled due to the monsoon rain. But all these came with a heavy price, we all end up gaining weight throughout the course.
My name was not in the list when i reported to Nee Soon camp on the first day. A group of us weren’t in the register list, mainly those who were posted from units. Then after waiting for all the people in the namelist to form up , one by one, a sergeant called out to us to join the platoon.
Halfway through, platoon 2 was punished for having sloppy movement and a mini “tekan” cum welcome session was taking place. I swear to heaven that i will never join platoon 2 after seeing how they were treated like dogs on the first day. I was the last guy left sitting at the vehicle shed waiting to be call. How nice, it turns out that the sergeant missed out my name from the stack of namelist and i belong to… platoon 2.
But i had no regrets, the badass commander ord-ed 2 weeks after we entered SMTI, mainly also because we performed really well academically, zero discipline issues and our spirits were high most of the time.
to be cont’d
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