CONFINEMENT 0208
How do I go about describing the past week or so? Been sleeping only about 4-5 hours everyday. What's more, my new OC loves drinking, and he never fails to grab us officers to the mess for a drink. Besides, beer in army is cheap, only $1.20 per can. We talk about life, work, relationships with the specs and many many things. Honestly, I must say that it's my honour to work with such an outstanding OC. He has so much passion and is extremely supportive of his officers, especially his 2IC (myself), since I have been dishing out so much punishments to both the Specialists and the recruits alike and yet he backs me in every punishment that I mete out, no matter how extreme it is.
About 3 days back, I made the coy run up to the bunk and then fall in downstairs again, many times, till I saw that many of them were really shagged and some were suffering from breathing difficulties due to over-exertion. They had been taking the words of the commanders too lightly, unable to meet all the timings given by us and yet having the cheek to take their own sweet time to stroll about. Although such punishments are meant to be done by the sergeants, many of them still do not take ownership or are not confident of their authority enough to punish the entire company of 200 men. About 5 days back, I gave a sergeant extra as I had warned them the previous night that no-one is allowed to return to the bunk to sleep, and yet he directly, knowingly defied my orders and went back to bunk to catch a nap. Everyone, including OC and us officers, had to wait a couple of minutes for him before he showed up at the office for the Commanders' AAR (after-action review). I questioned him for the reason, he admitted, and I immediately told CSM that he would be signing 1 extra duty for that. Punishment has to be swift to be effective. Much to my surprise, OC called me into his office after the AAR and praised me for being an effective disciplinarian. And I thought that he was going to reprimand me or something for dishing out punishment to a commander without first consulting him. Ha ha.
Since then, till now, I've been more and more impressed by the way he handles the running of the company and the way he deals with people. He's extremely sociable, friendly to commanders (especially the officers) but he is extremely firm when it comes to discipline and demands a lot from the commanders, both officers and specialists alike.
Through all the drinking sessions that we've had, the one 2 nights before was the most memorable. It was after mess initiation, where all the new officers who just joined us were tekaned and made to drink a few mugs of beer for answering wrongly the questions posed by the more senior officers. It was meant to be a tekan session and there was no way they could escape drinking as the questions posed by us were extremely random and difficult. For example, questions like the number of parachutes in the commando poster pasted on the wall of Singapore Ferry Terminal, or the number of medics in the medic poster, or the name of the commandant's daughter, etc. Even if they managed to get it right, which meant that the officer who posed the question had to drink up a mug of beer, they would keep answering questions till they drink at least 3 mugs of beer. Many of them puked eventually, which I think is freaking noob and embarrassing, especially since they're officers and can't even hold their drinks well. For my batch, only 2 guys puked, and the amount of puke wasn't much. However, for this batch, more than 10 people puked and the amount of vomit gushing out of their mouths was amazing. Ha ha.
After the initiation, OC took us to SPL again and we drank till about 2am. By then, John, one of the 2 new officers who joined our company, was struggling to stay conscious. He had puked at least 3 times and could not even walk straight to go to the washroom. Cleary's face was red as a lobster and his eyes were bloodshot. OC still looked sober but I could tell that he was beginning to get tipsy as he was starting to talk cock. At the end, he was saying, "Jia Qi, I think I need a plastic bag in my office." I knew he was not thinking straight by this time and I told him that I did not understand what he was asking. He repeated himself, " I think I need a plastic bag in my office." I gave him the WTF-are-u-talking-about look and he said, "Never mind. I'll tell you later." Ha ha, quite retarded. Chin ping and I were the only two who were still sober, and we offered to walk this other new officer back to his bunk as he too was extremely drunk and could not even walk straight. But he declined politely and we did not persist.
The next day, OC was having a hangover and told me that he would be taking a "one-hour technical break". John was looking worse than a zombie and kept dozing off at the simulated range. Me, Cleary and Chin Ping were very tired too, and we refrained from sitting down for too long for fear of falling asleep. After the day was over, I retired to the bunk and fell asleep at 1945h.
Anyway, to sum it up, though shag, it's been a really really fun and engaging week+ and I look forward to the days ahead with my new Officer Commanding, who has earned my respect not by his rank, but through his actions.