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Alright in case you were wondering that was for, its cos our wallpaper always eats up the first part of our post... So... here goes...

I am shocked... Bar Squad 3'06, we have the blog which has been kept alive for a respectable amount of time... Just that does anyone still come here? No one came here to whoop
about Zone Comp... Everyone was doing it on their own blogs now... haha..

Alright, funny that I should mention Squad 3 '06. On friday they just got tekan-ed upside down inside out by a bunch of seniors (which included me, admittedly), but while physical activity mainly was restricted to ensuring that no one got hurt (cos I came late, and so was not involved from the start), mental activity went towards composing the next blog post. Most of the ideas here was intended for my own blog... just that blogspot chose to have a seizure and wipe out my post as I hit the "publish" button.

Just a random comment: Notice the word on your promotion cert (which in fact we usually do not get cos HQ loses it. If HQ doesn't lose it, the school will lose it. If the school doesn't lose it, someone forgets to give it to us. I think I will get my cert for my promotion to corporal after I come out of NS or something) "HONOUR". Honour for myself is an important aspect of being a leader, thus said, I made sure that it was included in the speech on friday.

It can be defined as a strong sense of what is right or wrong. While I am not saying that a leader has to be rigid and adherent to rules (there are times when you HAVE to duplicate the proverbial key), responsibility and the sense of duty to yourself and your squadmates does fall under this category.

A leader cannot be simply a total choleric who can control and direct. Lets put it this way. You cannot expect your juniors to put in effort for you unless you put in your full effort for them. So, all team instructors, make sure you plan your training before hand! Morale for N-comp depends on it!

Ok, so lets get back to the tekan session. While carrying maybe a hypothesized 60-70 kg of water around the school is no laughing matter (not counting the weight of the bags and stretchers) and while I do empathize with them, let us just leave it that it is a sort of rite of passage that all NCOs-to-be have to go through. Moreover, this is the stuff of memories.

I can remember COS IC-ing the handover tekan on, if I remember correctly, Wednesday 11th June 2003. Triage was chaotic, everything seemed to be working towards making the lives of my squadmates and myself a misery, and the actual TOC session... well, the first 5 minutes was chaotic hell until everything had settled down, each casualty had its cadre of first aiders, and the flags and bottles were in the safe hands of a couple of squad 1 nursings (if I remember right, Yuanling and Pinru).

But at the end of the whole thing, after the camp, we could laugh about it and say that the tekan session was the most fun part of the entire camp. Yet why? It was hot, it was damaging to the body (having asphalt searing through your hands ain't no laughing matter).. nothing points to it being remotely "fun".

But it comes down to this. When it comes to the crunch, you are able to accomplish almost anything so long as you have your squadmates with you. Firstly, you've known them ever since you've stepped into St. john. You know their qualities and how far they can be pushed. You know that they will be supporting you (part of the support stems from the bit that "heng, at least I'm not the COS IC" =D)

Most importantly, they will not let you down, quit easily, or fall out easily. Cos for one person to fall out is to decrease the total overall strength of the squad. There would be that much more burden on a single person.

I remember one year on in 2004 when we were getting promoted to corporal, when I found Melvin who had been kidnapped by the seniors, he was saying "Sorry OC! I'm so sorry". Such is the sense of duty of one member to the others that many would rather be the ones being tekan-ed with the rest, than to be in the minority that get to "sit out" the session.

Hence, we have a sense of total trust in the rest of our friends as we get pushed to our limits. And I believe it is this same trust and squad spirit that made Squad 3 "o-KAY" and "al-RIGHT" last friday.

Time to wrap up... its getting late... Anyway in conclusion, just to say that I hope Squad 3 didn't take the sentence of "being pushed to and through your limit" lightly, for it is a very real thing. Next time when we look back on our past experiences, say, maybe when we guys are in Tekong getting our stuff shaken out of our bunks during an inspection, we'll be able to think "Hey, I survived Camp 2001's bunk check, I can survive this". We'll be able to joke about stuff like "Hey do you remember me whacking you with the flag during Camp '03" (sorry melvin!!)

Promotion is not just about adding those stripes to your epaulette. But the events that lead up to the promotion, as well as the tekan of the actual day... They leave you thinking

"Wow. I did that?"

Jonathan bEf0rE**AfT3R