Hallo ihr alle da draussen...so finally, i am back from BATTLE KING! No pictures for you all yet but i have to tell you that it was an absolutely fantastic and wild time over there in CRESCENDO. Okay, so it was freezing in the morning and pre-dawn hours. Okay, so we all got coated in dust during R&S phase. But in the mean time, it was crazy crazy fun!
Let's see. I kicked off BATTLE KING at the meteo side...basically we got more acquainted with the meteo system, did some live soundings (our very first!) in camp before moving outfield for 2 days of hectic frantic sounding. What's sounding? Basically, you blow up this huge balloon with helium gas and then tie a radiosonde to it. Once you have the right weight and everything's ready to go...(check: GPS stations, telemetry, bla bla...) you release it into the atmosphere, watch it race upwards and disappear into the deep blue azure skies. It's really therapeutic (psychologically, at least: read the entry made for EX EAGLE.) Also fooled around with the helium tanks and tried to sing the OCS song helium style...trying not to die of laughter, clutching at your lungs (helium makes them ache...ooooh....)
And also the visitors! The MO, ma'am Celine...so many people dropped by to hold a balloon, smile and release it into the sky. Took quite a few fotos myself too. See how they come out...because no one's sent them to me yet...haha...
Then, we went to the TPQ! Sleeping in the shelter....where it can become a sauna in the day...suffering man...bleargh...the highlight probably was getting my far stake stolen.....and also the night movement! First time i had to do it...and i managed it! -proud beam- hahaha.
Then it was the killer...R&S...Stands for Recce & Survey, for the uninitiated... But we mainly just did recce. Recced for grounds...got ostracized by the BnROs and BROs....got quite pissed at them too, but at least for one deployment, we went out and found grounds and they actually bought it. Now that, my friends, is an accomplishment...the other teams didn't manage to do that...ROs do their work with pride, i am proud to say...haha...But it also means a lot of map navigation, running the risk of getting lost in someone's plantation with the darkness closing in on you, frantically referring to your GPS, compass and map and trying to piece things together at the same time...it's stressful, to say the least.
The good part? The Thai drivers. Granted that we had to learn rudimentary Thai to communicate with them to turn left/right, straight ahead, reverse, wait, stop, U-turn, etc etc...but we also made some quite good friends with them. Johnny got to eat a fried red ants' nest....For me? Barbecued snake! And they do it good, gentlemen and ladies...think KFC without the oil...hwah.....To think it was roadkill. -.-
We also got to go up to the OPs and observe the rounds impact on the target area. You can hear the guns fire and the rounds whizzing above you...it's kinda unnerving at the OP already...wonder what if you were on the receiving end? whizz....white-hot pain...oblivion. Huh. Kinda sucky way to die, by artillery fire...
Also went to the guns to fire them! If a bullet is a head surrounded by a cartridge full of gunpowder, then artillery works the same, except that everything comes seperate. And that's no rifle too. Staring down the bore of the barrel, watching the smooth grooves cut into the inner bore...and when you pull the firing lever there's this earth-shaking concussion, the gun rocks back and one round shot away!
But from what i saw, the gunners spent a lot of time sleeping. Sigh. When we are working ourselves dead out there with R&S! sigh...
Oh, and the admin! Who could forget the wild buying at the canteen? Everything cheap everything good...haha...snagged some good deals meself. There's also this very interesting personality named Jenny...he/she sells food at the Sai Yok canteen...Go find out for yourselves!
BATTLE KING....apart from the xiong training...i never had so much fun since...i don't know! But it was fun and interesting...not just learning all the equipment and finding out how they performed live...but also, the many different facets of life in another land. Like...having herds of cattle walk right across your deployment ground. Little children waving at you in your Land Rover as you drive past. Driving along cultivated padi fields which are so wide open you can look left and right and not see where the field ends. Gazing into the night sky counting shooting stars. Struggling with Thai. These are experiences you will never find in Singapore...experiences which have enriched and made the BATTLE KING experience that much more enjoyable and memorable.
I think i'm eyeballed to go to meteo. I don't mind...if i don't go to CRESCENDO all the time, that is...
Sigh...BATTLE KING is over.
COMMISSIONING!
Also found out who my buddies were. You can really count on them to do stuff...pity to say that i couldn't really trust my group members that much...sigh...wonder if this should ever apply:
Though i walk the valley of death
I shall fear no evil
For thou art with me...
posted by quatscherei @ 09:21
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home