I am an ordinary guy who spends most of my time in Malaysia and I just got to know about Steemit in a Youth Entrepreneurship Programme (YEP) in Malaysia, and credits to this awesome guy Maverick Foo for introducing this platform to everyone in this YEP. Thank you Mav!
So where shall I start?
Well, I am someone who has gone through extraordinary experiences and events that life has given me. I am the kind of person who can tell lots and lots of lame/cold jokes all day long. I am not sure where exactly I should start off, so I think I will start off my introduction by sharing from my army days.
Like any other Singaporean men, I served my 2 years of National Service with the Singapore Armed Forces. I started off as a PES C soldier, a Non-combat fit soldier (Due to a condition in my knees known as OSD, Osgood Schlatter Disease), I was sent off to join a vehicle maintenance battalion. All I know about vehicles at that time was about cars, jeeps, and trucks. Unexpectedly I was dispatched to a new unit at that time (now it is no longer a new unit) to work with this vehicle known as Terrex.
Here's some glimpse of what it looks like.
Terrex featured on Cyberpioneer
Some other photos of Terrex in action I found on the internet
Here's another I got from the internet
Spending most of my time in a maintenance platoon is like operating a big automobile workshop. Not only did I learnt about technical knowledge of how cars/vehicles works, I also did learn about managing a team of people in running the workshop, managing schedules, manpower, and day to day planning and operations. It is a work experience comparable to jobs outside of the army.
To my fellow countrymen, women and friends who served (yet to or about to serve) National Service your time is never wasted. Do not put down your experience and the time spent in uniform as irrelevant to professional work out there, no time is wasted, validate yourself, as this is still considered as work experience.
As I reached about 1.5 years of my service, I decided to pursue my childhood dream of becoming a combat pilot with the Airforce. Knowing that I am a Non-combat fit soldier, I have to get certified by a medical doctor that my condition is safe enough for me to up my PES status to a combat fit status, known as PES B1 L1 (they actually have a lot of PES grade status until to the extent where I also don't really know what it means). That process took me about a month, and after I became a PES B soldier, the next thing I need to do is to pass my Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT). In the end, I managed to get a Silver award for the IPPT and I was so close to getting a Gold award. After getting the award, I quickly went to apply with the Airforce.
Soon after I passed my IPPT, not long later, I got promoted to a 3rd Sergeant.
Here's an image I got from the internet
About a few weeks later, the Airforce called up and asked me to head over to the Recruitment Centre for a pilot's aptitude test. It's a test that I won't say is easy, the whole test took me about 4 hours straight! Fortunately, I passed the test and I managed to proceed to the next phase which is the medical check-up.
About 4 months before the last day of my service, there was an opportunity to go over to Australia for a 2-week military exercise, to quench my thirst for an adventure I volunteered to go!
It was an opportunity that nobody in my platoon took up or volunteered because there is a package of chores that come along for this trip... IT'S THE PREPARATION!
Before any country can send any military vehicles over to Australia, there is this one big thing that they have to do. Which is clean up the vehicle! Not just the vehicles, that includes tools, equipment and personal stuff too! The Australian government will have their representatives to inspect everything that we will be sending over, they want to make sure they are clean and pest free.
The area we are heading to in Australia is the kind of place where it is hot, sunny, dusty, and freezing cold at night.
The type of Terrain:
I was told to expect some kangaroos and Emus (a kind of big bird that looks like Ostrich).
Emus (Images taken from pixabay):
Kangaroos (Images from pixabay):
Sometimes while walking on foot, I could see them standing still among the trees staring at us like this:
Or they will suddenly stand up from the bushes that I just walked past:
Or sometimes when we walked into the vegetation or the wrong direction, we get into this situation:
It's kind of different when you get to see these wild animals while driving on the dirt track in the plains and while walking on foot. I don't get this kind of view in Singapore or in any city streets, it is a new experience for me.
Apart from seeing Emus and Kangaroos, we get to experience Possums running among our legs underneath the table during dinner.
We drove around from place to place and we get to witness forest fire too. At night we can see the glow of the fire from afar, and during the day, we have to cross the fire area. When we crossed the area, most of the vegetation has turned black and the land filled with ashes. As we drive past the area, we can feel the heat from the ground surfacing up to our faces.
After the fire:
So this is where Part I ends!
In Part II, I will share more photos of my adventure (I left a lot of my photos on the other computer), my life experiences, and my learnings from the military.
So stay tune! =)
Thank you for reading and the support!