The Start of Professional Term - With Courage We Fight As One! (Infantry)

 Oh god, how the heck did I get here.

The Realisation

Recently, I finished up EX Sergeant Rocky at Pasir Laba Camp, including a 12 km route march with activities to do in-between (Tripflare, Claymore, Mystery Box e.t.c). After returning to the Chevrons square, grabbing our refreshments, we returned to the coyline to finally assemble for our rank presentation, where we would receive our third diagonal line that signifies our transition from a Junior Specialist Cadet, to a Senior Specialist Cadet. 

As I donned the Senior SCT (Specialist Cadet) rank, my PC (Platoon Commander) said "See you tomorrow". As I was incredibly exhausted and sleepless from the exercise, I thought nothing of his comment. This has got to be one of the biggest mistakes of my life. We started packing up everything and I was hopefully that I would be posted out to a separate camp to engage in my professional term training to eventually pass out as a Sergeant; oh how wrong I was.

Towards the start of the morning, our OC called everyone down to the coyline parade square, where we sat in half-section level and waited with bated breath for our pro term postings. They would announce those going to reconnaissance (School of Army Intelligence Recce course) and Infantry Professional Term (Those remaining in PLC), name after name was called, 3 close calls later, I thought I was out of the woods.


"Specialist Cadet NepNero"


My mind blanked out, I couldn't think, I was just in shock of what happened. Returning to reality just moments later, I sucked up my sorrow and replied "Yes, Encik!", Standing up and falling in with the rest of my fellow infanteers at the side, where our PC gave us a motivational talk and told us not to fret about our posting, as they would take good care of us. I just sat there, stoned, as I refused to accept my fate as an Infantry Specialist. This couldn't have been further from my interests. I was someone who worked with machines and computers, not crawling in the jungle and attacking objectives.

Eventually, we all packed up our equipment and left it in our Platoon Annex Room, booking out at 11 AM in the morning for the first time since joining SCS. Having my parents drive me back home from PLC Gate, I sat quietly in the backseat, contemplating whether or not I should just OOC to save myself the trouble of suffering through the next 12 weeks of Pro Term. Upon reaching my room, I began crying myself a river, wallowing in self-pity for being an unlucky person to be called to Infantry.

It's hard to say what brought me out of that state. Perhaps it was hunger, or maybe I was just sick of being miserable. I simply came to terms with my situation and accepted the fact that I would have to go through the infantry pro term. It also helped that my new section was quite welcoming and everyone quickly formed new bonds with each other fairly well. By the end of the first week, all of us were able to laugh off our misery as a section, and were ready to tackle the challenges ahead of us.


I look forward to these next 12 weeks of my Journey.


With Pride We Lead! - Specialists!

- NepNero

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