Saving Private Gallagher

     What is adjustment week? Well, its the generous term that is used to describe the two to three week period that you first spend on Tekong before you're allowed to book out. It's different for everyone who enlists as the duration of your adjustment week is dependent on the day you enlist, because its meant to cover two weekends. If you enlisted on a Monday, you're looking at a 20 day 'adjustment week'. That is hell on Earth, because all you want to do is sleep in your air conditioned room on your own bed, eat some good food and not have to take orders. Now if you're lucky I was, it's a little bit shorter than that. But basically adjustment week is designed to help recruits adjust to military lives from their civilian lives, which makes sense. You need to get used to eating shit food, only sleeping seven hours a night and waking up before the sun comes out.       In the SAF they're very focused on safety as I've mentioned in previous entries, so m

      A bright and early start to day two, so much so that the sun wasn't even up. That quickly becomes a familiar sight. You proceed to march to the cookhouse for a lacklustre breakfast, ensuring that you're walking in step as well as swinging your arms at 90 and 45 degrees respectively. Well, at 6am neither your Sergeants nor you nor anyone else on the island really gives a fuck as long as it isn't too obvious that you're slacking. Selective discipline was a major takeaway from BMT for me. You're taught numerous drills, all of which place a heavy emphasis on synchronisation. The turn, the lifting of your leg to 90 degrees, the stomp of your boot, the swinging of your arms, everything is meant to be in sync. But you can get away with a lot when no one is looking. Be it your sergeants turning a blind eye or you just being sneaky, pretty much anything is possible. The drills in question are a key part of the BMT experience, and if your drills are shit, you'll pra

      I was meant to start my national service journey on the 2nd of July 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic that has taken the world by storm postponed that date till the 15th. When I received the postponement letter I had mixed feelings. I had left Hong Kong early, leaving my girlfriend, my friends, and my parents behind. I also missed my graduation. Weird fact for anyone that cares: I have not attended or had a single formal graduation since Kindergarten (4 years old). So yeah...I was kind of bummed. Being stuck in a hotel here for 2 weeks as part of Singapore's quarantine measurements didn't exactly help my mental state either. I tried to make the most of my time in quarantine, watching countless hours of Netflix and Youtube everyday and squeezing a little home workout in if I was really feeling adventurous. As enlistment day drew closer more and more resentment came, I constantly questioned the need to serve the army, whether it was too late to just run and just generally why

       Hi everyone, as some of you know I'm in the army! It is depressing to know that whilst almost all my friends are partying and enjoying their new lives in the UK or US, I'm stuck here 'serving my country'. That may be a bit harsh towards national service, but in all honesty I do see the point in it, as Singapore is a country that fought hard for its independence and has been walked all over by the British, Japanese etc. National Service (what I'm doing) is meant to bring security to our country, and although I don't think most of us will ever actually be able to effectively protect our country if there was a war, its purpose still stands. Through various entries on this blog I guess I'll be talking about all sorts of things if I'm honest, most of which will probably pertain to my army life, but also the interactions I make with my fellow NSFs (people serving NS). There are an innumerable amount of differences between the guys around me, be it age (