Even up till Ex Wallaby, I've always felt that training in the SAF Commandos may have be tough, but we were always given some welfare and treated decently. Guess I was wrong. Silly me. NSFs are nothing more than pawns for regulars to manipulate so that they can get bigger, fatter paychecks. Don't ever believe otherwise. Nothing about an NSF is important, unless they can help the regulars further their careers. Nevermind that my company was the first company to complete Ex Wallaby in 7 years without a single major accident. Nevermind that we did this despite the fact that our exercise involved the largest number of vehicles in Wallaby ever. You are still unimportant.
Last year, we had to forfeit our leave from our 1st year of service because our ex-OC screwed up and told us our leave could be carried forward for 2 years. We were told in end November 2004 that our leave from 2003 had to be cleared by the end of the year. And in the very same breath we were told that we couldn't take this leave because we had to do standby over Christmas, among other things. We were promised that we would be given days off in lieu of the leave we forfeited. But it isn't the same. If you're given 10 days off, you can't go overseas because you need overseas leave to do that. And at the beginning of this year, we were told that how many days off we would be given depended on our IPPT results.
So this is how it works: You make your men forfeit leave which is rightfully theirs and promise to give them days off in return. You even "personally guarantee" it. Then you tell them there are strings attached. And that is not enough. You then tell them that they have to come back to serve duties during their leave/off. Wow. That is a good deal. To pacify your men, you then tell them "nevermind lah, you all already have your leave/off". Sound logic this.
I want a job in the SAF too. Man, all I have to do is make empty promises and come up with fuzzy logic to explain why my promises were broken. I just need the mental capacities of a 6 year old to do that. To be honest, all I'd have to do is lie. And I'd get paid good money for it.
Here is where I give a big, big SIGH... I didn't want to leave feeling so bitter, and I still don't. I have had some truly memorable times during my time as an NSF. My memories aren't all pleasant, we had to go through quite a lot as trainees. But I never felt bitter as a trainee. I can't quite put my finger on why, but I just didn't feel bitter.
Now, I can honestly say I hate my unit. I don't give a fuck what happens in the upcoming ATEC evaluation, and I'd probably be secretly pleased if they fuck it up. They look very capable of doing just that right now. After all, in their preparation exercises, they've had a US Special Forces-trained OC fall asleep during a tactical halt en route to the objective, thus arriving for their pre-dawn raid at 1400hrs. Another company managed to outdo that in a subsequent exercise. They were supposed to capture a bridge by attacking it from both sides. But they got so hopelessly lost they didn't turn up till after the other attacking element finished the entire firefight. The "pride of the Army". They must be feeling real proud of themselves for being so adept at screwing up.
Those who know me well enough will know that I am seldom bitter about things. I may be unhappy about things, and I'll complain loads about it, but I won't be bitter. Except in this case. The only light at the end of the tunnel? I get my pink IC back in less than a month.
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