What a gathering!

One of the grandest and perhaps final HQ cohesion for me and my former colleagues at BMTC 1.

Time flies, soldiers ORD, life goes on...

Finally, the last of HQ cohesion I will ever attend. My former NSf colleagues and peers have already left or are in the midst of clearing their annual leaves. The regulars are pending posting out or are ceasing service within this few months. The very people that made national svc memorable, are packing my memories along with them.

Something peculiar though, the person who used to F#$%^& me with vocab i never knew, in front of all my peers, superiors, subordinates, recruits and even external contractors, to the extend that even the warrant officer corps expressed concern over this young 2LT; this very person actually came up and joked with me, wanting my name card and was all smiles. A warmth kinda seeped through my body, i smiled back, sincerely.

There are people who are made to serve the nation. Their strength lies in their innate abilities to manipulate people at will, by love or by force, to achieve the goals that's for the overall good of the army. Often seen as slave drivers by the subs, these are the very people we need to mobilise(note: not motivate) the inert men in green.

i kinda respected and hated him then.. But now, it kinda struck me that he was who he was because of his appointment, the devil in the people management hierarchy, the 2nd-in-Command. My PS was an ass when i was a recruit, my APC was a slave driver in OCS, my Sch 2IC, this multi-faceted soldier, was a well... monster, IMHO.

I am glad I've moved on, but i look forward to seeing these people again, someday perhaps, at some informal gathering when fear is not what that brings us together, but brotherly love.

Loving the men in green
Weijian