The Magic in Reservist
I just returned from an amazingly long 12-day reservist. It was told to us that the exercise we were going for was going to be 8 days long, one of the longest out field exercises SAF has seen in 10 years. This particular exercise wasn’t very exciting for me. My battle scars included an eczema outbreak, heat rash, flu and a really sore back. But it was meaningful in the sense that I got to spend an incredible amount of time with fellow reservists – ordinary men who like me, held secular jobs and for 10 days a year, gear up and bear the toils of army life - sweating under the sun, sleeping on the hard ground, keeping awake through the night, getting all itchy and sneezy from the dust and sand particles whipped up by the constant rolling of camouflaged vehicles.
Having gone for my 3rd in-camp training, I’ve found that reservist is always about one thing – BONDING. Never mind the technicalities of the exercise – the blue/red force, the complex defence plan, the laborious battle procedures, the crucial co-ordinating instructions. Reservist, when stripped of its military facade, is truly a place where old friendships are rekindled and new friendships forged.
We all wore green and I guess we all didn’t quite like the fact that we were just letting time slip by. We found meaning through conversations of all kinds - life stories, career advice, car talk, marriage woes, triathlons (guess who), war heroes, lame jokes, and more lame jokes. It’s interesting to note how our conversations always went beyond the superficial from the very start, as if it was stripped of all its pretenses. I don’t think holding a conversation in any other setting would achieve that. Reservist provides that magic.
I got to know a good deal of reservist blokes who came from all walks of life – a lawyer-turned-Land Rover salesman, 2 fine government scholars who were extremely down-to-earth, a physics teacher, an army ex-regular, an insurance agent, a HR trainer and an entrepreneur.
As much as all of us men complain about going back to serve the nation, I have found for myself that this seemingly ‘torturous’ period is but so startlingly, human. I have come to enjoy and be thankful for these simple moments of life.
Fishmonger
Having gone for my 3rd in-camp training, I’ve found that reservist is always about one thing – BONDING. Never mind the technicalities of the exercise – the blue/red force, the complex defence plan, the laborious battle procedures, the crucial co-ordinating instructions. Reservist, when stripped of its military facade, is truly a place where old friendships are rekindled and new friendships forged.
We all wore green and I guess we all didn’t quite like the fact that we were just letting time slip by. We found meaning through conversations of all kinds - life stories, career advice, car talk, marriage woes, triathlons (guess who), war heroes, lame jokes, and more lame jokes. It’s interesting to note how our conversations always went beyond the superficial from the very start, as if it was stripped of all its pretenses. I don’t think holding a conversation in any other setting would achieve that. Reservist provides that magic.
I got to know a good deal of reservist blokes who came from all walks of life – a lawyer-turned-Land Rover salesman, 2 fine government scholars who were extremely down-to-earth, a physics teacher, an army ex-regular, an insurance agent, a HR trainer and an entrepreneur.
As much as all of us men complain about going back to serve the nation, I have found for myself that this seemingly ‘torturous’ period is but so startlingly, human. I have come to enjoy and be thankful for these simple moments of life.
Fishmonger
posted by Fishmonger at 5:38 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home