lololol after lengthy posts, one after the other, i've finally reached 3DA. back in signals institute, i made friends with peeps from the air force. They were returning back to unit, while i was going to be joining them! So it was quite an eye opener when i first stepped into chong pang camp. The thing that shocked me was how the whole place doesnt really look like a camp? i guess that's also because of my past experience in 30SCE, that everything seems to run down so GREEN whereas in camp it's nice and clean and all.

Yes we don't have to wash the toilets, so hurray!! you know how sometimes people wash the toilet like shit? like how it can somehow seem dirtier with the dirt spreaded out and all? Well thankfully we have cleaners to help us sweep the floors, clean the toilets, sweep up the dead leaves. I will never forget that annoying leaf-blower machine that the guy uses every morning. It's like the rooster. Life really seemed like a chalet there, we had people bringing in xbox, ps3, of course TVs too, disc players, etc etc. Of course we did lots of havoc stuff in camp during the night, since we are stay in personnel. A few of them of course would love to ninja off in the night and ninja back in the wee hours of the morning. Shan't post all the havoc stuff online, verbal wise, i would tell ya of all the fun stuff we did in camp! after hearing "stay in" then one would be wondering how about night's out? well I was a signaller. For battery line, it's two nights out per night, of which that regulation....isnt quite regulated since the higher ups are all sign on so... you get my drift. HQ wise, its supposed to be once per week. As what we would always say in camp, be tactical. Of course you got to be street smart enough to not always stubbornly run out of camp, but rather look at the situation day to day and access, provided you want to ninja. -.- But these are the times, that really made my NS experience extra unique! from the times of physiotherapy in 30SCE to the ninjas. have i been spotted while trying to ninja before, YES. I got spotted a couple of times. Once, within the week, monday i ninja and got caught by officer A, tuesday got caught by officer B. Both are the platoon commanders (PC) in my battery. For the record, i was in 3DA, alpha battery. But because we have been through countless outfields together, and always been in contact since we are all in office, (though most of the time i try to run off) they simply closed one eye. The closest superior i worked with has got to be incek. Of course he did spot me a couple of times for ninja-ing off for the night but he just waved a goodbye to me. I guess the commanders already know that such a thing happens in camp.. some of course know who are the ones who stay out though they're stay-in personnel, but of course we don't go round stabbing each other in the back. Unless a person's mistake/wrongdoing causes a harm unto others, then yes it should be highlighted.

Battery line signaller
As a battery line signaller, i saw lotsa lotsa outfields. On my end, i'm perfectly fine with outfields, i guess i just love outdoors and all -.- so it doesnt quite concern me, but its a way better choice than camping in office all day/month(s). Like when friends and family begin to ask you what you do when in army, that's when all the stories can start coming out, about those outfield instances, like once, i actually had to freaking build a makeshift antenna because i coudln't receive any coverage for my radio set! sometimes i wonder hehe if we just tap into our mobile phones coverage...eases things so so much! but of course those are unprotected and in an event of a war....bleah. FEA is what we signallers call it. probably some would have already forgotten what it is or how to construct one. I actually had to find out what length to cut the D10 cable according to the frequency...such a pain. But it is really these instances that makes your NS experience extra special! So a big shoutout of thanks to my beloved wire cutter!! Yeap it's still in my iLBV, along with two sets of spanners. They come in REALLY handy at times. So if there is anyone passing out as a signaller going to unit, grabbing a pair of spanners from daiso at a $4 total is worth it.


I keep these 3 items with me in my rightmost ammo pouch in my iLBV, so just in case, i know exactly where to find it. ad hoc line repairing, driving my PC's car to sentosa to buy tickets for our cohesion although following the GPS we ended up in NUS, i did all sorts of stuff and errands during the weekdays in camp. It was pretty interesting especially during outfield, we outfield in civilian clothes and since we deploy in the night, it becomes so annoying having to depend on your torchlight! once, i had to use the tactical filter, meaning the one you did in BMT, having a small hole for the light to pass through. and working with that small torchlight whilst manning comms and recording stuff down was such a pain in the ass! let alone having to search the SOI and all for all the coded keywords. tskkkkk but that's the fun part about being a battery line signaller, you get to go outfield and see how it is like defending singapore. Afterall outfields are simulated with real aircraft so it's even cooler! Having to code messages really fast, continued exposure to outfields really improved my voice procedure (VP) we call it. Long message decoding, matrix codes, normal standard coding of keywords in the SOI, all these were used in my outfields and we had to be pretty fast with it! Since if you have a plane flying at ya, one "hullo" and the plane is gone overhead lmao.

M16
Going over to the airforce, we do not use the Sar21, instead, we use the m16! It's actually lighter than the Sar21, but because of weight distribution, it actually feels a lot lot heavier than the latter. It's quite a pain when you have to bring it outfield....extra equipment lolol but at least it's kept in the vehicle most of the time! oh yes we use the v200, being a battery line signaller, it becomes your best friend, your bed during outfield.
That's the vehicle, for signaller, you'll be manning comms until later in the night when the next comms check timing is given. If it's those sort of 6am comms check and its 1am, obviously, head to "bed". Either become a signal platoon signaller or become a battery line signaller. Of course, battery line ones see a lot more outfield, but a lot more paperwork too since we have to settle all the dailt paperwork. Sometimes i wonder why do we not have clerks for battery line... like all these are clerical work, but we dont get extra pay as dual vocations but we just do the work... Going back to the m16, yes we have to use it for combat shoot and all! it is A TOTAL PAIN. i like the idea of using iron sights since its easy to use, but if you want that precision shot, the sar21 scope owns it all man. especially when you have time to look down the scope and wait for the target to pop out. hence day time, it's fun to use the m16, but night time, NO JOKE. sometimes you find yourself trying to look for that teeny back iron sight. I ended up using the bigger aperture to hit the night targets. Afterall i couldnt adjust the aperture any more to the right i think? so i had to just place my shots at a certain spot off the iron point in front.

Office
There are two parts of being a battery line signaller for me, one is the outfield side, the other one is the office. of which at the beginning i dont have a choice but to camp in office and do my work. Luckily we have i-net, although it's supposed to be used for army related stuff only, we are allowed to use it as leisure, so i stayed in office, answered emails and phone calls while doing the daily work that needs to be sent. Later on as clockwork kicked in, work got done a whole lot faster and more efficient and soon, it became like this.
7.15am: my wake up time. it's up to you. just be there for first parade in proper attire
8am-9am: First parade, then straight to canteen for breakfast.
10am-11am: this is when i chiong the day's work and clear them within the hour. sometimes i dont.
11.30am: Lunch break!! until 1.30pm lololol what happens between 11 to 11.30? either work or i-net.
1.30pm: show face in office sometimes. Other times i might have equipments to draw out and all.
That pretty much wraps up my day! so....office work, yes! but that doesnt mean you'll be stuck in office throughout. the later half of the day, after lunch break, is exercise time! you know how fat you can get when just sitting there and doing nothing in camp....so take the free time to continue to work out and get fitter or for me, to try and keep whatever weight i lost in bmt outta my body. i was super afraid to gain weight! Moreover after training, i improved pull ups from 14 to 20! but i still cant run cuz of the busted knee. It sucks really badly and my stamina obviously dropped a lot.

RBS-70
I am a signaller, so i dont operate the missile! but because we always have standby force checks (because we are a quick response unit or something lolol forgot) thats why i got to try out on how to set up the missile set and all! haha learn some extra stuffs, although i know i will never be doing such stuffs in the future or my job LOL only know how to operate it to a certain extent, but it's interesting to learn! Good thing is that i've always been working so closely with the operators, and sometimes i have some free hands to spare, so why not help em out! afterall, during other times when i need help, like the moving of signal sets, there are always there to help out. So from my experience, outfield has never really been oh it's my equipment, it's your equipment. when it comes to carrying and all, we just help one another out. when it comes to operating, of course we use operate only our own. here is a pic of us standing together, at the Singapore Airshow 2014!
The thing is, in this photo, there are 3 signallers, 3 operators, 1 driver. So there isn't really much segregation and all, we are one big family since we operate together. The separation only comes when it is between batteries like Alpha/Bravo/HQ exception for drivers since they join us outfield. So even for events like these, you actually see us bonding together as a whole group here and there! :) that is, the RBS-70 and me on it!
The first photo of the day for Singapore Airshow, there's Leon as a weapons operator in the middle and me and kai jie, both signallers at his sides. :) I'm really glad to have been in 3DA, that really its no longer about just your own work, but rather everyone helping each other whenever there's a part to help, hence causing these bonds to form between us despite our vocation and job scope differences. We have quite a fair bit of trainings and all and timing's really important? I've learnt a lot through outfield, especially when my comms are done and i have to rectify it? such a pain especially when you don't know what's wrong. but after ironing out everything and knowing all the right settings/configurations to do, things became a whole lot east.

Radio sets
i've been using 900 series sets most of the time, though we do have 77 series sets as backup which is....pointless. Also, since the army and all is progressing, army has their BMS, battle management system, so does the air force. hence we have to have signal sets that can transmit a nice amount of data, the legendary 900A sets! what i love about them is that they're extremely small and lightweight, and yet still able to ramp to high power. Also if signal store had enough radio sets, i would use them as voice radio sets instead, hence saving up a lot of weight! its more than 2x weight reduction? madnessss! Also with lots of new stuffs, i got to help the ST people with their testings, of which i found a great excuse to escape office and also providing them with feedback on how exactly does the stuffs work out when outfield! :) that's when they can get to hear on the hands-on experience that the sets go through and solve any problems if there are. lol there's actually quite some bits of problems so that's when we explain to them what went wrong and the shortcomings that we face! :) toward a better and more advanced defence force!
At the singapore airshow, i got to test out the new RBS system!! so of course some of the operators were there to try this new equipment out and boy is it so easy to use! even i could use it and shot down a couple of planes in the simulation. hehe it's pretty fun to play around with all these new equipments and all! so so coooool, even the new signallers coming in are learning of configurations that i dont know, guess it really shows how fast the army and all are advancing! We were discussing, some day, all they need is for us to bring the equipment up and set them up, while all the shooting would be automatic, thus not needing the gunners anymore! It's pretty crazy how technology has advanced for these weapons, making them so much lighter too, not to mention integrating new features and all inside this box!

Well i clearly enjoyed myself for my time of national service, and i guess everyone would experience it in a different way, but i am glad that it's been a positive experience for me. It indeed gave me lots of stories to tell to my friends, of all of those crazy times, or those outfields, what we actually do outfield. But really thank God that i got posted to 3DA instead of having to go back to 30SCE, if not my national service experience would probably be a very negative one.


On my iLBV currently sit's 3 formation badges, from top to bottom, Participation Command or GBAD, Signals with the usual two flags vocation tab on our collar, and the 3rd division badge from 30sce. The participation command badge is always on my uniform, but since i've kept the uniform i  put it here. while the other two formation badges have always remained on my iLBV. haha i have people saying that the two badges look really nice when put together on my iLBV! Indeed i've been jumping around units, with 3DA being the third unit, but really it's by far the best unit of the three. So thankful to now be part of the air force, the majority of my NS life has been spent in the air force and experiencing all the welfare that they have to offer.... it's really awesome man :)) It is also after going through 30SCE did i know how blissful it is to be in a nice unit surrounded by nice people. It makes your whole NS experience less of a drag and more appreciative of the good times.

A big thank you shout-out to LTA Jereld, thank you for always being so friendly and so appreciative of my work! to all my fellow signallers like Kai Jie, Chin Ping, Oxy, Cheng Hong, have fun with your NS, thanks for supporting me and clearing all the shitty work, esp Kai Jie during AAO, all the amount of work that we have to clear and late night chionging out of documents and all!

I Still remember that one instance, it was around 9.40pm in the night, with me and Kai Jie busily rushing out work for the audit period, making sure that everything is in order. The office lights are off as the operators are watching dota2 gameplays on youtube using the i-net, everyone is in their pt kit or whatever combo they wear when it's past working hours. My combo, personal favourite: air force blue admin tee and butterfly cut pt shorts, comfort! (y) along with my colourful pt shoes. office door is number-pad locked so we heard the typing of numbers and CO entered the office LOLOLOL. boy were we shocked alright! Of course neighbouring office had the officers also busy mugging it out clearing paperwork. Some operators who night's out offered to buy food back for us. Audit period is a really tough period because of the insane workload and all the last minute bombs people suddenly "uncover". but CO walked in while i had a milo straw in my mouth while furiously typing away and he said a thank you for staying up so late and helping out! of course he did ask for the lights to be turned back on so that we could work properly. I have this thing for milo packets in camp, camp doesnt sell so i bring em in, and am always drinking a milo packet. Tend to always be biting on the straw with it poked into the packet. standard pose somehow -.- okay fine! packet milo sigh.