neutralz
08-29-2003, 07:27 AM
Whee. finally promoted to a 3rd Sergeant rank after a load of training.
ZZzz.
Just last week, somebody died and my friend was a witness of it. thank god i didnt have to go through such a course, unlike advanced elements of the army.
This was what my friend wrote about his experience.
__________________________________________________
For the ill-informed I went for the 80th Combat Survival Training held by the commandos over at ******. The advance element, namely scouts, snipers & recce troopers, of various units and commandos attended this course. Lasting around 2 weeks, basic survival skills as well as pow (prisoner of war) behavior was taught. These knowledge were then put to use in a 1-week ****** survival phase.
The first 3 days at ****** comprised of jungle survival in groups of 10 for external units and 3 for commandos. Simply put it was just like a scaled-down version of Jungle Confidence Course. It was bearable living with minimal food and inadequate shelter for those 3 days. At the end of the 3rd day, we were tasked to navigate our way to a different spot as a form of transition into the pow phase of our training.
We were 'captured' so as to speak before 1st light on the 4th day. With our hands bound behind our backs with nylon rope and blindfolded, we were frog-marched to another unknown area. Over there we were labelled numerically. Subsequently over the course of the day the interrogations began.
To make us spill the beans our bodies were thrust into a large water tank, blindfolds & handcuffs intact of course, and held underwater by a few commando rangers. This is known as the infamous "water treatment", where pows are nearly drowned in order to extract information. This submergence into water is not done once, mind you, but 4 times on average.
After we have drank our fill of swamp water in the tank there were other forms of torturing such as leg raises, jerry-can physical training, worm crawling in mud and singing communist songs.
Of the 130-odd pows 'captured' around 30 commandos escaped, and 6 were hospitalised for water in the lungs. I managed to survive this incident unscathed. However a 2nd sergeant from **** was not so fortunate.
He passed away that day at about 1817. He was also the one mentioned somewhat briefly in the papers.
It is astounding how the death of a 19-year old NSF can be glazed over with such brevity without even letting the cause of his departure come to light. Although I do not know him personally, I know for certain he was someone's son, and could have been someone's brother, boyfriend, comrade or close friend. I know he could have had a bright future ahead of him after finishing his national service.. I know there could have been great things he would have done.
Yet an insignificant article in the papers have brought an end to all that.
He had done no wrong. He was, after all, following what the course required him to do. He was just following a simulated scenario. What had he done to warrant the end of his life when the line between fantasy and reality was meaninglessly breached?
Being part of the chaos & mayhem that day I shudder to think how any one of us could have been him.
__________________________________________________
The Geneva convention protects POWS, and prevent them from suffering ill treatment during war time.
But in times of peace, training had failed to consider safety, and the convention.
As quoted from one of our generals last time, "Do not die for your country, give the enemy a chance to die for theirs instead"
I think it would have been really sad, if somebody had to knock on a parent's door, handing over a piece of identity disc, telling him that his son had "died for the country".
Countless deaths have resulted from peace time trainings.
Were these deaths necessary? And were these deaths well explained? Unfortunately no. I m sure the parents of the 19yr old second sergeant didnt know how their son was tortured, and how he died in pain. They just knew their son "died for the country", when an officer went down to their home to break the news to them.
Died for the country. Honorably? or due to ill treatment? Human errors? stupid mistakes?
Dulce et decorum est. Pro patria mori.
ZZzz.
Just last week, somebody died and my friend was a witness of it. thank god i didnt have to go through such a course, unlike advanced elements of the army.
This was what my friend wrote about his experience.
__________________________________________________
For the ill-informed I went for the 80th Combat Survival Training held by the commandos over at ******. The advance element, namely scouts, snipers & recce troopers, of various units and commandos attended this course. Lasting around 2 weeks, basic survival skills as well as pow (prisoner of war) behavior was taught. These knowledge were then put to use in a 1-week ****** survival phase.
The first 3 days at ****** comprised of jungle survival in groups of 10 for external units and 3 for commandos. Simply put it was just like a scaled-down version of Jungle Confidence Course. It was bearable living with minimal food and inadequate shelter for those 3 days. At the end of the 3rd day, we were tasked to navigate our way to a different spot as a form of transition into the pow phase of our training.
We were 'captured' so as to speak before 1st light on the 4th day. With our hands bound behind our backs with nylon rope and blindfolded, we were frog-marched to another unknown area. Over there we were labelled numerically. Subsequently over the course of the day the interrogations began.
To make us spill the beans our bodies were thrust into a large water tank, blindfolds & handcuffs intact of course, and held underwater by a few commando rangers. This is known as the infamous "water treatment", where pows are nearly drowned in order to extract information. This submergence into water is not done once, mind you, but 4 times on average.
After we have drank our fill of swamp water in the tank there were other forms of torturing such as leg raises, jerry-can physical training, worm crawling in mud and singing communist songs.
Of the 130-odd pows 'captured' around 30 commandos escaped, and 6 were hospitalised for water in the lungs. I managed to survive this incident unscathed. However a 2nd sergeant from **** was not so fortunate.
He passed away that day at about 1817. He was also the one mentioned somewhat briefly in the papers.
It is astounding how the death of a 19-year old NSF can be glazed over with such brevity without even letting the cause of his departure come to light. Although I do not know him personally, I know for certain he was someone's son, and could have been someone's brother, boyfriend, comrade or close friend. I know he could have had a bright future ahead of him after finishing his national service.. I know there could have been great things he would have done.
Yet an insignificant article in the papers have brought an end to all that.
He had done no wrong. He was, after all, following what the course required him to do. He was just following a simulated scenario. What had he done to warrant the end of his life when the line between fantasy and reality was meaninglessly breached?
Being part of the chaos & mayhem that day I shudder to think how any one of us could have been him.
__________________________________________________
The Geneva convention protects POWS, and prevent them from suffering ill treatment during war time.
But in times of peace, training had failed to consider safety, and the convention.
As quoted from one of our generals last time, "Do not die for your country, give the enemy a chance to die for theirs instead"
I think it would have been really sad, if somebody had to knock on a parent's door, handing over a piece of identity disc, telling him that his son had "died for the country".
Countless deaths have resulted from peace time trainings.
Were these deaths necessary? And were these deaths well explained? Unfortunately no. I m sure the parents of the 19yr old second sergeant didnt know how their son was tortured, and how he died in pain. They just knew their son "died for the country", when an officer went down to their home to break the news to them.
Died for the country. Honorably? or due to ill treatment? Human errors? stupid mistakes?
Dulce et decorum est. Pro patria mori.