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."
L to R : First guy probably Azmi, Tahar, Razak and Firdaus. In cams the instructor, not the person mentioned in this incident. This is a representative image of our life in Officer Cadet School.
One of the Cadets had a brainwave, who suggested looking at the map which had roads, “why not we take a bus?”
We agreed, unanimously. We still had money, we walked along the rubber plantation fringe where there was a metal road, soon, a bus came into sight, the driver looked at us, stopped a distance away. We all ran and boarded the bus as quickly as we could. The passengers in the bus wrinkled their noses, we apparently stank of something.
The conductor in the bus did not collect any money from us, we seated ourselves in the middle of the aisle between the seats, so as not to be seen by anyone of our “enemies”. The leader of our group was up front squatting he was peering out, if there was any threat of us being caught, after the bus had covered about 15 kilometers, our leader asked the driver to stop. We quickly disembarked from the bus, yelling out our thanks to the driver and the passengers, who were smiling at us, stinking ones.
We quickly moved into the bushes at the left hand side of the road, huddled around the map to find out our location, the best, quickest and safest way to the checkpoint. We stopped about 1 kilometer from the checkpoint, to rest we had a good 7 hours of time on our hands.
If we reached too early the instructors will know we used vehicles. So we lazed around, until it was time, We trudged to the checkpoint “wearily”, with our sad faces. This time the next checkpoint was about another 20 kilometers away too.
We moved off, we trudged on, soon we were tired, that’s normal when you have females in your group, yes I was still a male chauvinist pig, still am, that’s what my future wife refers to me as such. Anyway, one of the guys herding the women got tired and approached me and said that at the rate we are moving we will not make it, I asked him how we will make it, he said we climb aboard any commercial vehicles.
Part of my intake
Soon enough my great friend, hailed a huge 20 wheeler with sides at 10 feet high, we quickly clambered aboard as he had discussed the details with the driver of that lorry. After climbing aboard we had a sense of exhilaration, for a short, while thinking that with the high sides no one would be able to spot us. Barely 10 minutes in that vehicle we heard a shot ring out the lorry was actually speeding, braking to a screeching halt. I saw the driver of the lorry kneeling down very fast putting his hands over his head, I yelled to run to the rest of my mates.
I started at full sprint, the rest of my people following me, I heard another shot, it actually whistled past my ears, a voice rang out, “ The next round will be through your arse”! The voice was very familiar, Captain Samad, a crazy instructor. I froze, I knew him, when I was injured during the Cadet orientation, he had no sympathy for anyone.
Years later he and I were on the same team shooting for the Division, he was from the Artillery Regiment.
He was one crazy MoFo, when I was injured and in the sick bay, we had to share the washrooms with the Officer instructors, whilst I was limping into the washroom which was a common area with a huge bath tub, not like the western ones, virtually a pond.
He and I were face to face, he looked at me and asked me why was I in the bathroom, I explained away that this was also a medical facility, to which he responded by slapping my face with his slippers, which he yanked out of his feet.. I will never forget that bastard.
Anyways, we froze. We were gathered, awaited for shit to follow. He whipped out a pair of scissors. Started cutting off our shirt sleeves and making holes and ripping our pants. We were made to do push ups, when I asked how many. The instructor said, “until you drop dead”. Well we did not drop dead, we were released. We were given a final destination.
After many exercises and challenges we crossed the 1 year threshold.
