Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
When I was the Officer Commanding the Weapons Wing in the Territorial Army Training Centre, part and parcel of weapons training was teaching young Officers commissioned from the ROTU (Reserve Officers Training Unit) training program, the intricacies and mysteries of the various assault and support weapons. Left : Conducting a grenade throw at the North Brigade Grenade Throwing Range in Ulu Kinta of the Royal Malaysian Police. It's a live grenade being hurled. Click on image to enlarge.
I had a whole bunch of very professional other rank instructors. These Senior NCO's were the backbone of my wing, all of them were from the Royal Malay Regiment with the exception of my Sergeant Major, WO 2 Abu Hassanwho also, like me, was from 7th Rangers. It was a first for a Ranger Officer to command the Wing. The time this happened was when the Commandant was Colonel Abdul Shukor bin Hj Abdullah from the Royal Malay Regiment
The young men and women were not the normal regular guys, they still had alot of civillian in them. We had to rinse that off. To train a normal Infantry Officer would take a full 3 years, whereas these people were playing at soldiers. To give an example one ROTU unit in the North, left a general purpose machine gun's tripod stand in the live firing range of Gurun in Kedah. We recovered it when we discovered it in a bush fire. At first we thought it was from the wing, when we checked the serial numbers on it, it was not part of our inventory. Things like that are serious offences. The Officers in the ROTU , who were instructors became complacent in managing these young men and women.
When the day it came to throwing live hand grenades, I prayed and made it a point to inform my wife. When conducting grenade throws it's obligatory that an Officer is present and all the other Instructors have attended an advanced weapons course. More often than not, grenades used to bounce of the protective wall. You lived on the edge. Of course we did unspeakable things to this wannabe Officers for just doing that. Well, we had a job to turn them into managers of death and destruction. There was no gentler way to go about it.
Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew"). Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew! PLUCK YEW!"
Since "pluck yew" is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative F, and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird." And yew thought yew knew everything.The source....
I have a daughter, I am very proud of. That is like, all the fathers the world over. She has a grand Uncle, who holds the Pingat Gagah Beraniand a father, me, who served the country faithfully, leaving the service after 26 years. My daughter did her SPM in 2003, where she obtained 8A's, she applied to all the Public Universities and asked for everything available, which was of interest to her. She got nothing......but she saw her friends with lower grades get all that were handed on a silver platter. She was disheartened, I told her not to worry and that life was not a bed of roses. She got over it with the support of her mum, her sibling, uncles, aunts, cousins and of course me. She went into Form 6 for two years, you know the classes that equate Matriculation programs to it. Matriculation which is a one year sail through course, for you know those "special people", what I mean is not the handicapped ones which people normally equate with the word "special".
Well, in her second year of slogging through her Form 6, she saw mediocre former classmates getting into Universities pursuing medicine and other nice courses served on a platter, you know those "high merit achievers in Matriculation" who did the one year course culminating in a class assessment. Well, she slogged and sat for her exam, whilst her "meritorious friends" were already first year University students. Her results came in this year where she got, not all that wonderful results an A, a B+, a C+ and a C. The people in power in our much vaunted higher academic selection committees decided that she was not good enough for what she had as first choice, second choice or whatever the choice only the 8th choice! You see, most of the matriculation and SPM students had already filled up the choice niches in higher education. The majority of STPM students being the "not so special people" end up with the left overs. Food and Community Nutrition, that was what she was offered. An amazing and wonderful opportunity to move up in life. Guess there may be more left overs, worst than that.
The majority of them did not get their first choice. Do not believe anything that the authorities tell you, telling about extra curricular activities, go check those students who went into Unis via matriculation they do not give a shit or rat's ass, all that is a load of crock about extra curricular activities. Okay my daughter, I know this is boring you, she was active in Tae Kwan Do, she has the first dan, a black belt, participated in numerous competitions all over Malaysia, suffering numerous injuries. She was the Malaysian Remaja gold medalist when younger.She represented the state of Perak for the SUKMA games in 2003, whilst Captaining the Perak State's Women Tae Kwan Do Team.If that is not extra curricular, I wonder what is ? Here is at least some semblance of the truth.
Well, thank you for making my daugher who is still full of promises, despair for her future. No amount of National Service would ever instill love for this country, when despair sets in the the hearts of promising young Malaysians. I guess she will be going somewhere else....and I have to sell something. Oh yes...this is what happens to all when meritrocracy is bastardised through matriculation.
The latest...Yearly, the pro-BN media publishes statistics of successful applicants into the ‘crucial courses’ of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, engineering and law, broken down into bumiputeras, Chinese and Indians. These numbers are first of all, false. Read on to the source...
Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world — more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. Three companies have been chosen to lead the way. Test drilling has already begun.
Five months ago, the U.S. Energy Department announced the results of a land survey…It was conducted to determine the official amount of oil a thousand feet deep in the Rocky Mountains…They reported this stunning news:We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:
8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia 18-times as much oil as Iraq 21-times as much oil as Kuwait 22-times as much oil as Iran 500-times as much oil as YemenThe source....
So will the Middle Easterners start eating their sand and start drinking their oil ? Here is more on Shale oil. On one small test plot about 20 feet by 35 feet, on land Shell owns, they started heating the rock in early 2004. "Product" - about one-third natural gas, two-thirds light crude - began to appear in September 2004. They turned the heaters off about a month ago, after harvesting about 1,500 barrels of oil.The source in full....
Year in year out, we hear the same thing, the cry of our young, marginalised, top performing students of minorities.
Here is a reminder of my experience. I wish all the best to the these students who are appealing. A parent can only wish for the best outcome, it is the defining moment in one's life. Life will never be the same after this.
Your vision of your country will become all the more clearer. You decide. I have decided. Pakatan wants scholarships for all top scorers, which is only wishful thinking and will not materialise. Wanna bet?
I have a daughter, I am very proud of. That is like, all the fathers the world over. She has a grand Uncle, who holds the Pingat Gagah Beraniand a father, me, who served the country faithfully, leaving the service after 26 years. My daughter did her SPM in 2003, where she obtained 8A's, she applied to all the Public Universities and asked for everything available, which was of interest to her. She got nothing......but she saw her friends with lower grades get all that were handed on a silver platter. She was disheartened, I told her not to worry and that life was not a bed of roses. She got over it with the support of her mum, her sibling, uncles, aunts, cousins and of course me. She went into Form 6 for two years, you know the classes that equate Matriculation programs to it. Matriculation which is a one year sail through course, for you know those "special people", what I mean is not the handicapped ones which people normally equate with the word "special".
Well, in her second year of slogging through her Form 6, she saw mediocre former classmates getting into Universities pursuing medicine and other nice courses served on a platter, you know those "high merit achievers in Matriculation" who did the one year course culminating in a class assessment. Well, she slogged and sat for her exam, whilst her "meritorious friends" were already first year University students. Her results came in this year where she got, not all that wonderful results an A, a B+, a C+ and a C. The people in power in our much vaunted higher academic selection committees decided that she was not good enough for what she had as first choice, second choice or whatever the choice only the 8th choice! You see, most of the matriculation and SPM students had already filled up the choice niches in higher education. The majority of STPM students being the "not so special people" end up with the left overs. Food and Community Nutrition, that was what she was offered. An amazing and wonderful opportunity to move up in life. Guess there may be more left overs, worst than that.
Those who did very well in their STPM and picked out all 8 choice courses would probably not have got them.STPM is the toughest exam in the Malaysian Education System, period !
The stoogestry and spin this through their propaganda mouthpiece...The Star.(*Placed in 7th Rangers Articles for posterity)
The majority of them did not get their first choice. Do not believe anything that the authorities tell you, telling about extra curricular activities, go check those students who went into Unis via matriculation they do not give a shit or rat's ass, all that is a load of crock about extra curricular activities. Okay my daughter, I know this is boring you, she was active in Tae Kwan Do, she has the first dan, a black belt, participated in numerous competitions all over Malaysia, suffering numerous injuries. She was the Malaysian Remaja gold medalist when younger.She represented the state of Perak for the SUKMA games in 2003, whilst Captaining the Perak State's Women Tae Kwan Do Team.If that is not extra curricular, I wonder what is ?
Here is at least some semblance of the truth.
Well, thank you for making my daugher who is still full of promises, despair for her future. No amount of National Service would ever instill love for this country, when despair sets in the the hearts of promising young Malaysians. I guess she will be going somewhere else....and I have to sell something. Oh yes...this is what happens to all when meritrocracy is bastardised through matriculation.The latest...Yearly, the pro-BN media publishes statistics of successful applicants into the ‘crucial courses’ of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, engineering and law, broken down into bumiputeras, Chinese and Indians.
This hero is family, my wife's uncle. He lives in Taiping, Perak.
Left: The stove with an hexamine tablet.
As the section was looking for a good spot to be covered from view, Lance Corporal Choo took cover behind the trunk of a banana tree. A little moment after that at approximately 1815 hrs, suddenly, a person appeared before him. Lance Corporal Choo tried to signal the Platoon Sergeant, Sgt. Ismail who was nearby. The Sergeant failed to see Lance Corporal Choo who was frantically signaling him.
Left: Scout Car on escort duties.
It never crossed the mind of LCpl Choo that the person in front of him was a Communist Terrorist. His first thought was that the person was an “Orang Asli” (aborigine), as the person was not wearing a shirt or a hat and was wearing long pants which had been cut off at the legs, just below the knees.
Sergeant Choo Woh Soon PGB
Apart from that he was carrying a salt container which was normally used by the aborigines. Continued here.....
A few days late, but never mind, I want to see which woman is going to follow these rules ... Extremely important rules for wives, girlfriends, fiancées, mothers, sisters, daughters, etc. (to all women in general) to abide by. These rules are to be communicated to all females prior to the World Cup in June/July this year... FAILURE TO ADHERE TO THESE RULES (STIPULATED BELOW) WILL RESULT IN SEVERE REPERCUSSIONS.
List Of Rules:
1. From 9 June to 9 July 2006, you (all females) must read the sports section of the newspaper so that you are up-to-date with what is going on with regard to the World Cup, and in keeping yourselves informed will be able to join in in conversations. If you fail to do this, then you will be looked upon in bad light and you will be ignored completely. DO NOT complain about not receiving any attention.
2. During the World Cup, the television is mine, at all times, no exceptions. If you even glimpse at the remote control, you will lose it (your eye).
3. If you have to pass by in front of the TV during a game, I don't mind, for as long as you do it crawling on the floor and without distracting me. If you decide to stand nude in front of the TV, make sure you put clothes on right after because if you catch a cold, I won't have time to take you to the doctor or look after you during the World Cup month. Continued here......
Officers Mess of the 6th Royal Australian Regiment. I can recognise and remember some of the Officers here.Major Andrew Wilkie is seated beside me on the floor, he is the guy with the Victoria Beer bottle on the floor. On the left of him is me, Captain Brian Stadler is on the left of me. Right behind Major Andrew Wilkie, wearing the tan bush jacket is Lt Col Mark Evans, who I believe is now a Major General, he was the son of a British Police Officer and was born in Kluang during the Emergency. On the right of Mark Evans is Major Abdul Razak, on his left is the 2IC of 6th RAR. To the right of Andrew Wilkie is Captain Nasrul Edgar,Lt Hamudin Tarinchang and Captain Strutt. Beside Major Razak is Major Andrew Mackiness. Well, the rest of the guys I can remember being there are Lt Craig, Lt Struan, Lt Abdul El Youseff, 2Lt Bakar and John Ryan
KUALA LUMPUR: Lt. Colonel (Rtd) Cyril Antonio (Tony) Loone (picture) died yesterday, a soldier to the end (30th May 2006). The 71-year-old had been battling cancer over the past seven months.
His wife Josephine and his children were at his side. A condolence message from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin, was among the first received.
The Raja of Perlis has traditionally been Colonel-in-Chief of the Rangers, the army corps Loone served for most of his 30-year career, which included being Commanding Officer, 7th and 8th Ranger Battalions.
Yusof Razak, his one-time company commander who retired as half Colonel, perhaps spoke for all Rangers in saying: "He was the best CO (commanding officer) I ever had."
Loone, who had stints as Malaysian Defence Attache in New Zealand and Commandant of the Territorial Army training centre in Ipoh, belonged to the first batch of Royal Military College cadets who graduated as officers in 1958 and was the Sword of Honour winner that year.
Loone will be cremated at the Cheras Crematorium on Friday. The cortege leaves No 40 Jalan SG2/4, Taman Seri Gombak at 8.45am on the 2nd June 2006 (Friday). The source.....
"The late Tony Loone was an icon. He was a brilliant officer having won the coveted sword of honour from the Class of 57. He was with Regular Intake 1 and was commissioned into the Federation Regiment as a subaltern in 1957. He was transferred into the Rangers in the mid-60s and commanded a few Ranger Battalions during his tenure in the Corps.
A very able commanding officer he was instrumental in getting the Communist Terrorists in and around Jalong and Sg Siput areas moving when the Malayan Communist Party decided to make a comeback in the mid-70s. Tony was the Brigadier's (Commander 2nd Bde) most trusted subordinate at that time, the Generals who were his juniors were quite dependent on him. He used to advise them with his brilliant ideas.
A tragedy occurred when a 7th Ranger's convoy was ambushed. After 7th Rangers lost 15 men in this ambush by Communist Terrorists, when Lt Col Hussein Ali Piah was commanding. He took over command from Lt Col Low Lye Fook. He worked very hard to boost the morale of 7th Rangers. He brilliantly and quickly transformed the unit into a mean fighting machine.
He spent alot of time with his soldiers being away from home for long periods of time. He motivated his Officers and Men to be the best that they could be. He was with 7th Rangers from 17th April 1975 - 18th May 1977. He was given a very fond farewell. Today 7th Rangers has evolved into an experienced combat seasoned unit, whether in the jungles of Malaysia or the semi arid deserts of Somalia, partly due to his sacrifices and contributions.
My condolences to the bereaved family. I will update this post at a later date".
I met the Colonel about 6 weeks ago in his home in Gombak. He was the 5th Commanding Officer of 7th Rangers. The duration of his command was from 17th April 1975 - 18th May 1977. He did also command 8th Rangers. May the Lord watch over him. Rest in peace, sir.
Marines survive Malaysian jungle during exercise - Capt. Christopher M. Perrine
Friday, June 02, 2006
When the Marines and Sailors stepped off the helicopter, they stepped into a different world in the Lembing River National Reserve Forest, deep in the Malaysian jungle. They were met near the landing zone by Major. Ivan Lee (original 7th Rangers Mech), an operations officer with Malaysia’s 8th Royal Ranger Regiment.“I intend to keep you very busy, push you very hard,” Lee said. “I want you to get the experience necessary to survive in the jungle.”
Above : Lance Cpl. Jason L. Stevens waits as a Malaysian soldier from the 8th Royal Ranger Regiment cuts wild fruit during jungle survival training in the Lembing River National Forest, Malaysia. The Baltimore native, assigned to Combined Anti-Armor Team, L Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division is deployed to Malaysia as part of Landing Force Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training, III Marine Expeditionary Force. After surviving night one in the jungle, the five Marine groups moved to Jungle Survival Village, known as Camp MOG. Maj. Lee began survival classes by explaining the importance of training in the jungle.
“Seventy percent of Malaysia is jungle; we will fight there,” Lee said. “Survival starts with an attitude. You must be able to live off the jungle. It will provide food, water and medicine.”
“It was an experience,” said Cpl. Jonathan W. Piel, team leader, 1st squad, 1st platoon, 3rd battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment. “I’ve got to say they were definitely one of the best forces that we’ve trained with since we’ve been on CARAT. They were very professional; they know what they’re doing.” Continued here....
