going back to camp tonight. sigh.. anyways.. here's the unedited version of my reflection assignment. lame i know.. but hey.. this is pretty good considering i did it at a state of blur and sleepiness.. haha..
Oct Chia Chi Yu
Delta Platoon 1 Section 3
Ex Starlight Reflections
Prior to our embarkation to Heng Chun for Ex Starlight, I felt much apprehension. These mixed feelings of hesitation and excitement were probably the direct result of words passed down by our seniors, combined with personal expectations and perception of things that were to come. I spoke much regarding Ex Starlight with seniors and fellow course mates and came to the conclusion that we should just make the best out of out trip to Taiwan and take the experience in our strides.
Upon our arrival at Heng Chun camp, total mayhem and chaos began to set in. This was due to the many administrative issues that we had to attend to, together with the foreign environment and confusion. This, for me settled rather quickly as I got used to the surroundings and situation fast. It was even fun at certain points of time as the platoon worked together to accomplish certain tasks as quickly as we could. This flurry of activities had pretty much been anticipated since prior experience told us that before the start of any major activity or exercise involves much preparation.
The first of our package in Taiwan was Ex Comet, a terrain visualization trip around our area of operations. Throughout the journey, we were taught terrain to map visualization and recognition, which was a very important skill for navigation. For me, this task was a rather simple one as during my academic term in school, I studied geography at advanced level, which also involves a fair amount of map reading and relief recognition. Ex Comet was indeed an eye opener as the features, which we saw were something that we could never see, back home in Singapore. This was also an important lesson, which would prove to be valuable during Ex Green Beret and Ex Red Beret, which was to come.
Our next major exercise was Ex Libra, a 2 per team day navigation exercise. Just prior to Ex Libra, I fell ill but headed for the exercise anyway. My buddy and I managed to clear the exercise within the allocated timing despite me vomiting throughout the exercise, which was much of a nuisance for the both of us. This exercise was a very trying one for me personally as despite feeling unwell, the hot weather didn’t help at all. It took me much effort to push through the entire exercise.
Ex Green Beret was another major test for me. Despite still being ill, I went on with the navigation exercise anyway as I felt well enough to walk through it. As expected, I puked from the start to the end of the exercise. The fact that we were attacked by 2 swarms of wasps didn’t help much of the situation as well. Ex Green Beret was an enriching exercise nonetheless as it gave us an insight of how Taiwanese terrain and vegetation is like which was important for our Ex Red Beret.
Ex Red Beret was one of the most memorable phases of the Starlight package. As my team embarked of Red Beret, we were confident that we were able to accomplish the navigation exercise rather easily. As I was feeling much better, and that our Ex Green Beret went rather smoothly, we started the navex at good speed. The first setback we faced was at our first checkpoint. We could not find the checkpoint despite being exactly at the MGR given to us. After 4 hours of searching, I discovered a small route within the thick vegetation. This turned out to be the road that we were supposed to be on but it was reflected differently on the map due to the passage of time in which the map was produced. The yellow tree and iron picket were found but there was no stamp on it. We later confirmed that this was supposed to be the checkpoint but the stamp was not planted. We were instead given another additional checkpoint to seek. This, we all felt was not fair as this would mean that we had one checkpoint more than the other teams. We decided to carry on with our navex and up the tempo slightly to make up for lost time. The rest of the exercise was rather smooth and indeed taught us much. The night bashing was hard to forget as despite it being a treacherous event, we learnt and honed our skills of bashing with minimal visibility and to keep our bearing in the dark. This, for me was put into practice when I was the CRT during Ex Finale 1. Eventually, we completed the navex with a good passing grade. This was in a sense quite an achievement personally as despite having the urge to fall out due to my feet being infected and hurting badly, I persevered and completed the course.
The dawn of Ex Homerun was another great hurdle for me. Trying hard to recover from the previous week, we now had a new set of challenges to deal with. Homerun allowed me to test how far I could push myself. I learnt that as long as I have a goal (which was not to fall out and to do the best I can throughout the exercise.) and pushed hard for it, it is most possible to achieve it. I suppose this is the most important lesson I have taken away from the whole of Starlight. Being the exercise platoon sergeant for Ex Homerun 4, a defense mission, I learnt that if one were to lead by example, the others would be encouraged and would naturally do a better job then if the leader were to do a lackadaisical job. This was another important lesson that I’ve taken away from Ex Starlight.
One of the most valuable events that have occurred was how the platoon had bonded together. This is something that I personally am very proud of. I could see how from being rather shy about one another, we became comfortable about being around one another. This was also an important time in which the Sierra and Tango crossovers became familiar with the Delta system, cadets, support staff and instructors.
“If you put a bunch of men together, suffering in a confined area, they will naturally bond.” This, is true, but still a slight understatement. It is more then bonding that happens. They become brothers.
chiyu
