The roasting effect induced by the sun's rays, coupled with the already dehydrated state I was in yesterday, inspired me to write this entry. I've yet to write about or share my experience of fasting whilst serving the nation. So here goes...
I was in the Singapore Armed Forces for 1 year and 10 months, enlisting in July 06 and ORDing in May 08. The most bittersweet memories of physical endurance and pushing to the limits was during my days at SISPEC. SISPEC isn't exactly one of the toughest courses in the SAF, but it still was one of a kind. heheh.
So, it was the Basic Section Leader's Course. And the Standard Obstacle Course was one of my OC's favourite training programme. He made us do the SOC with clean fatigue + pull-ups everyday before lunch. It didn't help the situation too that I was in Hotel Company and the SOC grounds were just behind our building.
I remembered fondly one of the occasions when the Chief PTI took us for SOC. He made us do one complete SOC, and when we thought it was over, he marched us to the low wall, and made us do several reps. Thrice in SBO and twice with rifle only. I tell you... It was hell. Your hands are trembling, you don't sweat because there's no more fluid in your body, and you can feel your forehead boiling. It was hot hot hot! I'm not too sure if it was intentional, but it was 1800 hours and he was still pushing us hard. That day, we had a late break fast.
There were the odd occasions when I had to prematurely break fast. One of those days was when we had the compass course. The terrain was steep and hilly and as you would predict, we lost a lot of fluid through sweat.
It all started when I felt that my lips were drying up and my hands were trembling. These symptoms were rather normal before and I start to get used to it a few days into the fasting month. But what came next was rather surprising. My breathing became irregular, I had difficulty catching my breath, the grass turned purple, and my legs turned jelly. The most significant occurence was I lost my sense of hearing temporarily. I couldn't hear the shouts from my buddy to hurry up, and all I could hear was my own breathing. My shallow breaths, clamouring for whatever oxygen there is in the air. I knew I was going to faint, and held myself up long enough to sit down.
I tried to focus, but still couldn't. Mind over body? Nah... It isn't possible if you don't even have a working mind! Hahaha... I immediately gulped down water from my bottle, ate 2 packets of candy bars, and felt as if I had wings. lolx! The recovery period was near instant, and I completed the compass course with much ease.
I think I had half a dozen premature breakfasts during the course of my training.
So anyways, serving the nation while fasting isn't always about premature breaking fast. There are some moments where you break fast at odd moments. I was the section's heavy gunner, and I carried a SAW in section movements. Most of the time, I was the last man, providing cover fire to the rest of my buddies.
We were waiting for orders to charge at that time. Everyone formed up in a line, and gearing up for the charge. Whilst the rest were busy counting down to the charge, I was counting down the seconds to breaking fast. hahaha. My right finger was at the trigger, while my left was holding up my bottle. heheh. The shitty thing was, the command CHARGE was given at the moment of break fast. lolx. I had to gulp down some water, and dropped my bottle. At the end of it, I lay prone, opened up a packet of candy bar, and had some much needed carbohydrates. Even had the cheek to rip open a packet of Noodles while waiting for the next charge. lolx.
Fasting in the army isn't that bad. See it as a positive once in a lifetime experience, and you'll laugh at all these when you've ORDed. Like ME! :>
Selamat Berbuka my Muslim Friends!
I was in the Singapore Armed Forces for 1 year and 10 months, enlisting in July 06 and ORDing in May 08. The most bittersweet memories of physical endurance and pushing to the limits was during my days at SISPEC. SISPEC isn't exactly one of the toughest courses in the SAF, but it still was one of a kind. heheh.
So, it was the Basic Section Leader's Course. And the Standard Obstacle Course was one of my OC's favourite training programme. He made us do the SOC with clean fatigue + pull-ups everyday before lunch. It didn't help the situation too that I was in Hotel Company and the SOC grounds were just behind our building.
I remembered fondly one of the occasions when the Chief PTI took us for SOC. He made us do one complete SOC, and when we thought it was over, he marched us to the low wall, and made us do several reps. Thrice in SBO and twice with rifle only. I tell you... It was hell. Your hands are trembling, you don't sweat because there's no more fluid in your body, and you can feel your forehead boiling. It was hot hot hot! I'm not too sure if it was intentional, but it was 1800 hours and he was still pushing us hard. That day, we had a late break fast.
There were the odd occasions when I had to prematurely break fast. One of those days was when we had the compass course. The terrain was steep and hilly and as you would predict, we lost a lot of fluid through sweat.
It all started when I felt that my lips were drying up and my hands were trembling. These symptoms were rather normal before and I start to get used to it a few days into the fasting month. But what came next was rather surprising. My breathing became irregular, I had difficulty catching my breath, the grass turned purple, and my legs turned jelly. The most significant occurence was I lost my sense of hearing temporarily. I couldn't hear the shouts from my buddy to hurry up, and all I could hear was my own breathing. My shallow breaths, clamouring for whatever oxygen there is in the air. I knew I was going to faint, and held myself up long enough to sit down.
I tried to focus, but still couldn't. Mind over body? Nah... It isn't possible if you don't even have a working mind! Hahaha... I immediately gulped down water from my bottle, ate 2 packets of candy bars, and felt as if I had wings. lolx! The recovery period was near instant, and I completed the compass course with much ease.
I think I had half a dozen premature breakfasts during the course of my training.
So anyways, serving the nation while fasting isn't always about premature breaking fast. There are some moments where you break fast at odd moments. I was the section's heavy gunner, and I carried a SAW in section movements. Most of the time, I was the last man, providing cover fire to the rest of my buddies.
We were waiting for orders to charge at that time. Everyone formed up in a line, and gearing up for the charge. Whilst the rest were busy counting down to the charge, I was counting down the seconds to breaking fast. hahaha. My right finger was at the trigger, while my left was holding up my bottle. heheh. The shitty thing was, the command CHARGE was given at the moment of break fast. lolx. I had to gulp down some water, and dropped my bottle. At the end of it, I lay prone, opened up a packet of candy bar, and had some much needed carbohydrates. Even had the cheek to rip open a packet of Noodles while waiting for the next charge. lolx.
Fasting in the army isn't that bad. See it as a positive once in a lifetime experience, and you'll laugh at all these when you've ORDed. Like ME! :>
Selamat Berbuka my Muslim Friends!
3 comments:
When I was in SAFINCOS, the then specs training school, way back. We had to clear SOC, run up PengKang Hill, that steep hill next to the obstacle course and repeat numerous times. That hill broke many a soldier's legs n arms, the routine was banned just after I finish my course. So it ain't that bad now. This is part of what was allowed, there's still the unstated training.
I enlisted in 1986 and ROD'ed in 1988. As a non-Muslim, I was amazed at the resilience and stamina of my Muslim fellow recruits during BMT at what was then known as Infantry Training Depot (ITD) in P. Tekong.
None of them gave in no matter what training we had. To this day, I still don't know how they managed.
Hello buddy! haha... I still remembered the days at Hotel.. I didn't noe that u breakfast during one of the "charge" exercise. Haha.. Anyway, fasting during that training days is really really tough.
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