Tuesday, February 08, 2005
"The jungle is an antidote to the rush of modern life and the rush of trivia that seems so indispensible to our discomfort; it is an ideal place for a man to come to terms with himself and it is also excellent in teaching young commanders what command and leadership really entails." -Unknown
Well okay, so i overcame it. One of OCS' greatest challenges at that too. With a little bit of skill, a little bit of luck, a lot of endurance, and a whole lot of help from God. Admittedly, it wasnt as tough as i thought it'd be, but it was difficult nevertheless. Im starting to think that i live for moments like these, when i can look back at my achievements and gloat. Dont we all?
the JCC course
Exercise Nomad: a 3 day 2 night navigation exercise, which was a veto factor for jcc. Carrying a maximum of 10 points, teams require a minimum of 1 point to continue on with jcc. It was remarkably unremarkable after all the hoo-hah over it. As usual, my trusted companions and i of navex group Bravo 02 have proved ourselves by coming in first yet again. The celebration, however, was cut short when a bloody insect flew into my ear and died there. Shall elaborate later..
Exercise Chillhermit: a 5 day and 5 night survival exercise, where i was required to build an A-frame shelter, monitor lizard and bird traps, a fire place, smoke teepee, a spear, a fishing rod, carve utensils and weave a rope, all using materials found in the jungle. We also had to identify food and water sources, slaughter, skin and cook a quail. All this without food and (supposedly) in total isolation.
Taken from my journal entry "this one's for the blog", written out of total boredom:
"Chillhermit was depressing. It was depressing from the moment Ian and I clambered up the muddy slope of that sad little island in the middle of the murky milo-brown river which we were required to drink from. It was depressing to have your feel sink into the ground up to your ankles 24 hours a day. It was depressing to see swarms of insects. After the initial enthusiastic (and tiring) spurt of chopping down trees and building my A-frame, both my energy and morale were totally sapped. Perhaps it was the first time EVER when i know i was tasked to do other important things and simply did NOTHING about them.
What a depressing feeling.
To have your stomach growl at least 8 times a day. This was the total amount of food i received: 3rd day (reward day) - 1 sweet potato, 1 tapioca, a few ferns and a live quail
5th day - 1 sweet potato
Killing the quail was surprisingly easy. Didnt give myself time to think twice and simply twisted its head off the moment picked it up from the instructors. (Criteria for skinning: 2.5 pts for your confidence level in killing it, and 2.5 pts for identifying the gall bladder) Skinning it was a little harder. The thing was still flapping its wings even with its head off. The intestines were mushy, slimy and stinky.. but i managed to find the gall bladder after a bit of poking around. It was depressing to look at my blood-stained hands and realise that i was a quail killer. Vowed that i shall never kill anything again unless i really have to.
It was even more depressing not being able to start a fire after getting all that food. Really. I am HOPELESS at maintaing a fire. Starting it is no problem, but it never lasts for more than 5 minutes. After numerous unsuccessful attempts, (and 1.5 boxes of matches) I managed to come up with a minute fire which lasted long enough for me to half-boil my quail. Half-boiled quail isnt bad really, but its not something i'd wolf down if i wasnt starving. The quail smell remained in my clothes for the next 2 days till i left the island. Was so glad to leave that pathetic little island on the 6th morning. I doubt i left enough materials and vines for the next batch to use. Good luck to Echo Wing then.."
Exercise Chillbone: a 4 day navigation exercise where teams are required to reach the end point in 44 daylight hours. (you're not allowed to move from 6 in the evening to 6 in the morning) It was my first truly frustrating navigation exercise. Im seriously not used to the feeling of getting majorly lost during navex, but that's what happened. Part of it was due to the split of my dream team Bravo 02 in an attempt to mix the teams up, thus i ended up in a group where the majority was made of people whom ive never navigated with before.
I grew pissed and irritable, sometimes angry even, surprising myself at how bitter i was capable of feeling. Still, you dont get anywhere by staying angry, so i managed to push myself to work with my new team. We didnt move as fast as i would've liked, but we still managed to stagger back afer 38 hours, which was a relief. The hunger was killing me, since we were given only 1.5 days worth of rations for 4 days. Not the successful quick navex as i'd planned, but i guess everyone's gotta learn how to deal with hardship sometime..
buzzin
Lets talk about the insect in the ear thing. It sounds funny, but i assure you its not funny if you're the one affected. Heh. Was sitting contentedly by the warm fire, basking in the warmth and the triumph bring the 1st group to complete Ex Nomad. A big black insect kept buzzing around and irritating me. The buzzing approached my left ear and grew louder and louder till i feel a flutter of wings on my outer ear. Was suddenly engulfed by the sudden DISGUSTING feeling of crawly legs inside my ear. Sound turned muffled as the struggling insect went deeper and deeper. Irritation turned into pain and i felt the damn thing touching my ear drum. Screamed in pain every time the insect moved. My friends, laughing over themselves initially, grew concerned when the pain didnt stop. Finally, they poured water into my ear, which must have drowned the bloody thing cause it stopped moving afer that. But it just refused to get out.
Everyone from my teammate, to the officer at the end point, to the Medical Officer back in camp the next day tried everything, but couldnt get it out. Henry even bravely put his mouth to my ear and tried to suck it out. But it was just too damn deep in, and hurt whenever people tried to remove it. Finally, they sent me to the city's general hospital to see a specialist, who extracted it by using this scary looking suction gun which hurt like crazy. But it was a huge relief when it came out. Thankfully, my ear drum was still intact.
All in all, i do NOT recommend anyone to put any live thing whatsoever into your ear. Its a VERY unpleasant experience. :)
the results
Almost my entire Wing managed to pass JCC in the end, less four guys who fell out due to medical reasons. So we achieved a 97.something % pass rate, as compared to last batch Delta-Foxtrot which only had 55%. The weather played a big role, admittedly, i was blessed with lovely sunshine for most of the 12 days outfield.
So as they say in "Gone in 60 Seconds." Now that's over. Done. Finished.
7 more weeks till Commissioning...
he rocked the party at 1:29 AM |
