The above is the pre-amber and officer creed that every soldier must recite and sink in their hearts. Nevertheless, when training turns hard n pressurizing, this is what we have to inspire us onwards as officers to be.

It is my second week into Officer Cadet School. Many changes, feelings and mood. Many a times, i ask myself wad on earth haf i gotten myself into...where was e passion i once had for army and where's e fire that once blazed?

Like many, i'm searching for answers. If i can ever find my direct purpose and wad e Lord is trying to do in my life that can i ever counter the 'funny' feeling. haha..well, its not a sad thing tho'..its juz alot of being lost. Every morning when our world was lying back in peace of sweet dreams, a bunch of soldiers already woke up n train. Not fair ritez? haha..why so?

I forced myself for answers. The reason to why i expressed interest and tried so hard to be an officer. E Lord brought me back to childhood days where i told myself i would be an military officer one fine dae. All e environment would haf changed my mind, thinking and decision. Perhaps, all i needed was assurance?haha..

Finally, i found purpose. Thank God for 'lao jiao'(old n experienced) officers. When i was up at some hill for lunch with my family for lunch after family dae visit, i saw the land of Singapore where there was Jurong Island, HDB flats and how neat everything was on ground from an aerial view...

Surprisingly, i told da this,"'if we never did haf an army, all these that we see will never be like this...without a fighting force to deter any form of enemy agression, our land would probably be long evaded and what we're left with is nothing more than a piece of ruined land..."..

Da cleverly replied, "why must there be a first army force?if the idea of having an army is not there, we wun need an army"..haha..smart..if the very first person did suggest an army, then we wouldn't haf to keep raising one generation after next from countries to countries for protection. Then i realized thru his answer tt humans have a natural instinct for self-defense and being self-fish. In order to protect myself, i would haf taken every measure to make sure no one touches my possession and e self. (of course, there was Jesus who was selfless..im talkin bout humans havin to war against another...)

We have officers training in officer cadet school, sergeants in school of infantry specialist, men to learn all e necessary from the unit, soldiers from all vocations and so many more courses to attend and better their skill as an all rounded soldier. The training will be tough, physically demanding and mentally draining. If we dun find our purpose quick to havin to do all these, we would haf given up long ago...

Many would haf booed and not even bothered to look at soldiers who work so hard to protect and make sure tt a large community of civillians and whom not to sleep peacefully at night without raid siren to go and ammunition fired unexpectedly. We train hard, sweat, tear and support one another to make sure tt what we're doing is totally worth it. We never want our family and loved ones to suffer under any kind of intrusion. it may be unbelievable cos we enjoy our peace and security as of now, but when anything happens, could any of our soldiers bear to see their loved ones being compromised of our nation's freedom? Allowing them to go thru all e kinds of mental pressure of a warring state and suffering from it?

I can't. My parents are old, they cannot arm themselves, fight and protect themselves, would i not fire my enemies when they're compromised? My friends whom i had so much fun with, would i bear to see them being captured? if i had my girlfriend, would i not do what i could to protect and make sure she is well and fine at home with her family? n for the many other citizens, it is my moral responsibility to guard them as well...

See, its easy to talk. We can sae everything for all we like, add in all e ingredients to spice up our purpose. Bt i can tell u, if there is no hard and harsh training to push us all, our soldiers would nv be able to find courage and e right purpose to believing what they're going thru is worth it. Why does kenneth gotta 'suffer' so much in commandos? Why greg haf to commit so much time to army than to join us for recreation? why shihan haf to report to camp for duty on time n leave us early frequently to be ready? how come da frequently not ard chr becos he haf to prepare his stuff earlier back home n rest to prepare himself for e week ahead's training? ill not talk bout myself, will pai seh...

yar, so when u ask all these qns, think again. all these peeps are human like u n making their own sacrifices to a common cause. I used to tink soldiers haf nothing better to do(its a conflict anyway cos i dunno why i wanted to be a military officer when i was a child...haha..), and their kind of life is kindly 'wu liao'(boring n lifeless). In fact, there is much more to learn from inside, n i guess not everyone could understand wads it all about...

i haf 36 weeks ahead of me. A long long way to go...Pray for me and many others who are serving National Service cos we may be so worn in many ways tt we could not express(we're all armified n forgot how to be civillian)...lol...

Another incident happened. Well, i can't sae what it is, bt havin to keep it in my heart is quite unbearable. wadever it is, i hope things will turn good.

On a high note, i haf to mention to you how good God is, n how He was evident in my army life. When i was 'lost' because i misunderstood the instructions and did my day compass course, i prayed and He proved faithful to helping me find my directions in e jungle. Then i had simple faith n trusted entirely on Him for the night compass course and completed it rather quickly. When e ground was all muddy, dirty, slippery and potentially hazardous, the Lord delivered me.
We weren't allowed to use our torchlight in e night jungle compass course. Just as i tried to look at the ground, i came to a part where i stopped cos i couldn't at all visualize a path before me. I prayed n ask e Lord if i should turn on the light instead. i hesitated cos i wanted to challenge myself. in e end, e spirit prompted me to turn on n guess wad? it was a 2m edge cliff at my next step! how possible could e Lord be more right to stop and show me e way?!? e very next step i take could end me up in 'jia lat jia lat' serious injury and probably getting out of course. Manz! if i didn't seek e Lord at e moment n trusted in my own ways, i would haf taken e step w/o e light!

Moral of e incident: The Lord is there when you seek Him, and when you do, He will not fail you...always.