MIP' 07

Ok this blog very stagnant. gerard overseas, shun cheng overseas, chinny got trish and i'm freaking bloody busy. dunno what the rest doing. havn't even had a rest yet. then work and NS coming up soon. shit. havn't even gone to friends' hse like i planned b4 A levels.

oh well, anyway, i was completely swamped for two days right after prom, and anyone trying to contact me would have had a hard time. WHY? cuz i was at MINDEF, in some classified area where they simply disallowed all forms of image capturing device. That includes camera phones. So i gave my phone to them for the first day, and just simply didn't bring it along for the second day. total of 21 missed calls and 6 smses to my phone. lol i didn't know i was so popular. haha. actually they were all mainly from MOM and my job agency one, to chase me to sign a contract for the job.

Anyway, on to the MIP. It stands for MINDEF Internship Programme. and it just ROCKS. yes, big time man. cuz it was actually more of a scholar recruitment drive than an internship. which is true. The head of infantry division said at the end of the programme that yes, they're trying very hard to get us to sign up for the SAF Overseas Scholarship, and that they make no secret out of it. pretty much explains why abt 65% of people there are from RJC, 30% of people there are from hwa chong, and 5% from other JCs. lol. so yup, and they did a great job. superb man. let me wow you all.

So the first day was abit sian to me, cuz i had to rush home from prom, arrived home at 3, throw everything down and went to slp. woke at 6, showered, and rushed off for boon lay mrt where i'm supposed to be there at 7.30. ended up there early, while a few RJ ppl were late(can tell y), so we had to wait. knn. shldn't have rushed. so after that, we boarded a bus which brought us to SAFTI(Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute). Basically, that's where OCS is located, and where most of the guys probably want to get into. so they gave us two coolio shirts, and a personalised MIP cap. then we sat in the ocs auditorium, where we watched a few of the army tv commercials, those that u sometimes see on tv one. some qte cool, some abit rubbish. then sat through 2 talks where it was damn funny, cuz some RJ guy(name withdrawn to protect identity) fell completely aslp, and then he SNORED! it was damn funny. and kinda embarrassing. actually i was aslp too, but i woke up because of that snore. then we had refreshments, sat through some Q and A, then went for lunch. where we ate the same food as the OCS cadets. not bad lah the food, except that they were damn overly sweetened. drink tasted like sugar water, and food was like the chef accidentally dropped a whole bag of sugar in. Met some seniors who were in OCS, as well as saw 1 girl. girl in ocs. in uniform. coolio, 1 more female officer coming up.

so after lunch, we headed off to 201 squadron, part of the air force. where it was raining damn heavily, so the trip became a bore where we would sit and wait for 30 mins a time, for them to come up with something. cuz their original plan was that they've already requested airspace and wanted to fly their F-16s for a scrambling demo and a live engagement demo. so we ended up seeing abit of their surface to air missiles, of which one of them, the RBS 70, is portable. means u can bring the missile anywhere to search for lz and shoot him down. cool right? till you hear what they mean by portable. to operate it requires three men. one, the gunner, the other 2, i forgot what they do. so to make it portable, the RBS 70 can be taken apar6t into 3 parts, each person carry one part. and... ... the weights are...

missile head and firing barrel - 26kg

stand - 24kg

other parts(decoder, firing trigger, laser etc) - 34kg

gd luck to anyone who becomes an RBS 70 crew. train hard. knn, 20 kg of rice i nearly cldn't lug it home le. those other shit will just kill me.

then, we headed off to tengah air base. anyway, the air force is damn cool. they have radar surveillance over singapore 24/7, and they monitor everything coming close to and into singapore, and check whether they are clear to fly in or out anot. they brought us to their head command operations headquarters, where it's like those u see in the movies, dark rooms and stuff. and there on the screen they have the ID of every plane in the vicinity of singapore. so while we were in there and explaining how they operate to us, i observed SIA 527 coming into sg and landing at changi, and SIA 928 taking off and leaving sg, many other planes around too, but too many for me to monitor. the air force monitors them all. and they have abt 8 anti air guns located around singapore to shoot planes down. wooh. I-HAWK(40 km max range(yay shoot msia)), Rapier(6.8 km max range), RBS 70(5km max range), Mistral(5 km max range), IGLA(5 km max range).

and now, to the dinner. It OWNS big time. like 10 times better than prom lah. catered from shangri-la hotel, we had lobster rice, scallops, mussels, chicken kebab, har kao, dumplings, many diff types of sushi, laksa, mutton, vegetables, many diff kinds of cakes, fruit punch, cocktail with slight bit of alcohol and more. i cannot rmb all le, got too much. and they were all damn gd. after that, a few of us, koped their lounge for kbox and pool. lol. and then when we left, they gave us a goodie bag, which had this glass thingy that's damn nice. shun cheng saw it when he came my house. damn rocking man. so after that they dismissed us at choa chu kang! wooh right beside my house! but MINDEF is fair apparently. one day in the west, so i die the next day. meet at tanah merah at 7am, dismiss at pasir ris at abt 10pm. ggxx.

ok so that was end of day 1, reached home fairly early at abt 9 and started to settle my MOM stuff. then went to slp. so yah, day 2 now.


I woke up damn early to get to stupid tanah merah at the other side of the island, where we were given more freebies upon arrival. we were given this navy cap, which i realised soon after that they were the exact same cap that the navy personnel wear. wooh so i'm kinda part of the navy, i hav part of their uniform now. lol. from tanah merah, we then headed for changi naval base. where we saw some navy tv commercials in their auditorium, including one new one which has not been released for public viewing yet. so yah, that one was abit, how shld i put it, corny and cool lah. watch out for it some time later. some building thingy. yup. after that, we had refreshments, which was better than prom as well. from 4 seasons hotel. wth, REFRESHMENTS better than PROM food? army budget goes to food man. we were right, xy. haha. after which we went on board the navy's newest formidable class frigate. yup, their newest and most powerful warship, with its stealth capabilities and anti-submarine, anti-surface and anti-air abilities. their weaponry on board are damn zai. they have 6 of them, and i sailed aboard one of them, which is kinda cool. when they sail out with that huge gun and missiles pointing, they signal a horn blast and the ships in the straits move aside. lol. basically, the navy has damn good life and damn gd food if u get posted on board the frigate. It's huge, it's spacious, they send their chefs to hotels to learn how to cook gd food, they have recreation rooms, and stuff. yah. and i came upon this door thingy that had this three letters on it. WTH . yup wth? i asked one of the navy personnel, and it turned out to be Water Tight Hatch. lol. ok cool short form.

so after that, we came back, and they served us lunch, which as expected, was catered by a hotel and better than prom food. four seasons hotel again, and rocks once again. after which, we left the navy. they also gave us some goodie bag. and then headed for the army. and they brought us to the commandos. which gave us the most exciting and enjoyable part of the whole programme. they took us to see their weaponry, as well as let us take a joy ride on their LSVs(light-strike vehicle).very cool experience, cuz their LSV, unlike a car, does not have a windscreen. so going at high speeds is damn shuang, when u really feel the wind on your face. And we saw their guns too. and rmb the AWP from counter strike? yup i picked up an AWMP sniper rifle, thinking it was damn cool. but freaking hell. It was damn heavy lah. yeah i'm strong enough to hold it, take aim, and fire. but holding it steady is a different story. lol. anyway, the scope is damn cool, everything becomes very clear. tried to pick up an even bigger sniper rifle and gged. cldn't even hold it up properly. omg i need to start training. so i picked up the SAR 21, the normal Singapore Assault Rifle which every soldier will be using, luckily, it turned out to be quite light. 5 kg only. that stupid sniper rifle must be like 15 kg lah.

so after that, we were brought to take a joy ride on the commandos RIBs(Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats), which is the best ride of my life man. and i can tell you smthing. RAIN HURTS. yes, rain is very very painful. cuz it started drizzling lightly, and then the RIB started choinging at abt 45 knots(80 km per hr). My eyes and face died lah. One friend of mine tio a nosebleed lor. The rain felt like very very sharp needles on your face. and there is a lot a lot of rain. so erm fag. anyway, the RIB is cool. they took us on manoevres where the boat was tilted at more than 45 degrees, and it didn't capsize. thankfully. lol. Fun and painful ride.

Went to visit the infantry after this, where we were given the chance to battle soldiers from the 3rd SIR(Singapore Infantry Regiment) in a skirmish using real SAR 21 rifles with blanks. And we WON! shit aren't we good? we have no training and we beat soldiers who have training! we are damn zai. I shall just don't mention that we were 28 guys vs 7 soldiers. woohoo. lol.

after the skirmish, where we were actually given more refreshments and a free shirt, we went to visit infantry's weaponry, where they showed us how they are trying to integrate technology onto every soldier as a 3rd gen saf thingy. they all have this handset(inspired by nokia, the engineer said, lol) which is connected to this tablet pc they carry, which marks their position with GPS, and they can do lotsa stuff on the comp. they also placed cams onto the SAR 21 rifles, so that the soldiers can see round corners without looking out. just have to stick the gun out and shoot. cool.

so after all those things, we went for dinner. which once again, was overly good. almost as good as first day's dinner, with pineapple rice, bbqed stingray, bbqed mutton, bbqed chicken wings, chicken kebab, and a super big buffet with lots of nice stuff. can't rmb them le, got too much also. haiyo, the food really dan good lah. wish we can get that for NS. lol. after dinner, we went into the auditorium for the end of the programme, to get our certs and badges. and it is here that i heard the best speech ever made in my life.

The head of infantry, BG(Brigadier General) Chan, gave us a very powerful speech. On why the SAF tries so hard to get us to sign up with the SAF. He said that the SAF is trying very hard to get us(those who went for the programme) to sign up with the SAF, and they make no secret about it. but why is that so? I'm not a tape recorder, so all i can is to give you is excerpts from the speech, which he made without a script. 佩服

"Why do we try so hard? Can anyone tell me why we try so hard?"
(on the saf getting people to join them)

"How confident are you that Singapore will still be here in 2050? How many of you are confident? Why are you confident? What if I tell you that i'm not confident that Singapore will be here in 2050?"

"If you do not know why Singapore will still be here in 2050, then you'll never know why we try so hard."

"There have been 7 countries in Southeast asia with similar racial composition as Singapore. 6 have been subsumed under the tide of history. The last one is relatively young, called Singapore. What makes you think it will not follow suit?"

"Why is a country's sovereignty so important? Why is the SAF important?"

"Why do you think Malaysia asked us to talk in the ICJ(International Court of Justice) over the Pedra Blanca issue? Because they are nice people? because of international laws? Or is it because they're scared of the SAF?"

"Let me tell you that international laws are useless, and countries will not talk, unless you have a strong deterrent force. Let me give you an example. Brunei had a dispute at this place called Mischief Reef, which was this oil patch in the middle of the ocean. A neighbour had claimed it to be theirs. The next morning, that particular neighbour moved their forces in. And brunei lost Mischief Reef. Just like that. Did the neighbour bring Brunei to the ICJ? Did they even asked to talk? No. They took it just like that. And Brunei couldn't do anything."

"Let me give you another example. Recently, a country discovered an oil field. A neighbour came, and said that half of it was theirs. They stared the country in the eyes, and the next day, that country lost half the oil field. Anyone knows what that country is? East Timor. Anyone brought them to ICJ? No."

"So do you really think Malaysia chose to talk to us at the ICJ because of international laws? Let me tell you, Malaysia brought us to the ICJ because they're scared of the us. The SAF. The army known as the best in the Southeast Asian region. Every day, 24/7, we have ships, surveillance radar, soldiers, watching over Pedra Blanca."

"But why can't we run to bigger countries for help? Why can't we be the 14th state of Malaysia? or the 39th province of Indonesia? or if you think those countries are not good enough, even better, the 51st state of the USA?

"Why is it that the SAF is already the best in the region, and yet we choose to continue to try to develop? Why is there a need to spend 1 third of the government budget, 5% of GDP on defence?"

"Because, if you want your identity, your sovereignty, your family to sleep peacefully at night, your loved ones to stay safe and sound, then you have to have a strong SAF. We are a small country, and to survive, we need a strong SAF."

"In history, it has always been that big countries will gobble up small nations. especially small nations surrounded by big countries. My mother said that in her lifetime, she has learned 4 national anthems. The British, the Japanese, the Malaysians, and Singapore's. Do we want to learn a 5th one? Do we want to be the 7th nation to be subsumed under the tide of history? The choice is up to you."


Ok those were smal excerpts which i can remember, word for word. The full speech is just PURE OWNAGE, ask any RJC guy who was there. gives a whole new perspective to serving NS. lol. so after that, we got our certs, they pinned our badges for us, we got more goodie bags, and then went home. pasir ris at 9.45, reach home at the other side of the island damn late le. but it was a fruitful day, and a great experience. so to sum up, some random things that can be taken away from this trip:

NS has heavy loads to carry man. if you dun wanna train your running, at least train your arm and back strength, you'll need it.
The SAF is damn cool, their weaponry is damn far ahead of malaysia at least. For example, we have 5 submarines, they just got one.
The SAF short forms can be quite cock.

WTH(Navy): Water tight hatch
OOTW(the SAF in general): Operations other than War
VSV(the commandos): Very Standard Vessel (lol)
I-HAWK(the air force, anti-air missile): Improved - Homing All the Way Killer (LOL)

The SAF gives a lot of freebies. I got 2 towels, 1 pair of sunglasses, 2 bottles, 1 pouch, 3 notebooks, 1 pencil case, 1 case of badges, 1 multi-purpose knife, 1 laser and torch, 1 glass globe and 1 bag. wooh.

ok that's all. I had a hell lot of fun and food, but now my fingers cannot take it liao. so that's all!

yong sheng