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| I'll be so happy if you could sign my guestbook.Thank you very much. |
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| Commando Interview - How a frail, skinny, colour-blind boy with a fractured arm got into a commando unit. |
| Our Red Beret Presentation, which officially made me a commando |
| Unarmed Combat - "Kill Kill Kill!" we yelled as we fought |
| Parachuting - An assortment of airborne stories |
| Water Miracle - "God, I am dehydrated. I need water badly. HELP." |
| Heat Exhaustion deep in the hot and humid tropical jungle. |
| A Mountain After Another - We had just finished scaling a gigantic mountain. Could anything worse be waiting for us? |
| My Tribute to a Fallen Lieutenant - He did something which made others bitter but made me appreciate and respect him even more. I miss him. Farewell, Lieutenant Sir. |
| Quest for the Black Belt - As part of the exam, I had to fight a seasoned Black Belt fighter called "The Bull." Could I overcome him? |
| Army Memories - An assortment of short stories. |
| Five Days Without Sleep - and a 35 km march to round up a week of torture, to earn our corporal stripes. |
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| Commando's Prayer - Very meaningful prayer. Reveals the spirit of the commando. |
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| Favorite Military Links - includes the Singapore Commandos and other Special Forces. |
| Barracks Haunting - The old commando barracks where we lived are reputed to be haunted. They were used as a POW prison during World War Two. Many prisoners died. Here are the stories as reported by the Singapore Paranormal Investigators. Click on "Haunted Changi" and scroll down to "Commando Barracks" |
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| Tae Kwon Do |
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| How I had stitches without anasthetics |
| Blood During our Tae Kwon Do examination, blood gushed out of me for the first time in my life. To add to the surreal situation, I laughed while still bleeding and before I received proper medical treatment. What happened? Did the sight of my own blood drive me insane? Before the exam, I had no reason to think about such things. What most concerned me was passing the coming exam to advance to the next training stage. Those who passed the test would have their belts upgraded to the next color (for example, from yellow to blue, blue to green, brown to black). David vs. Goliath An important test station involved sparing with another candidate. In this sparing, we could kick anywhere but were not allowed to punch the head. I was paired with a huge muscular eighty-five kg guy who was the company boxer. I was only about sixty kg, so he was much bigger and stronger than me. A David-and-Goliath fight ensued. Beneath Goliath's quiet and serene exterior, something was simmering inside. I didn't know what was that "something," but it was there, like a volcano about to erupt. Once, he punched a section mate in the mouth. Goliath must have lost his temper. But nobody was surprised because the victim was known to be arrogant and insensitive. I didn�t know if our trainers were aware of this incident. Punching a fellow soldier was an offence. As far as I knew, Goliath escaped punishment. But one thing was sure, don�t mess with Goliath or else . . . The Punch and the Collapse But I had no choice. I had to fight Goliath or fail the test. When the dreaded command came to spar, we traded blows. The fighting became more intense and for a moment, he must have thought he was in a boxing ring instead of taking a TKD test. He punched me square in the mouth. The force of the blow brought me flat on the floor. It happened so fast that I didn�t recall any pain. |
| The White Belt signifies that I am a beginner. I eventually earned the Brown I Belt which is one level below the Black Belt. 1985. |
| One of our sergeants, in a gi (TKD uniform), rushed to me. I got up, breathing heavily from the intensity of the fight. Blood spurted out my mouth and splattered unto the sergeant's clean white gi. He was soaked red with blood! I felt bad because I had ruined his attire. My own gi was also splattered with blood.
He ordered me to leave the arena for treatment. I bowed at the examiners and left. The duty medic stuffed lots of cotton wool into my mouth to try stamping the blood flow. Yet, blood still trickled from my mouth. Look of Sheer Horror Alone I walked to the army medical center. I entered the waiting room where a few new bald recruits were sitting. I must have been quite a sight: mouth bloated (full of cotton wool), unable to speak, blood on my chin, gi covered with blood. All eyes turned to me. At once their eyes widened; their jaws dropped. They were most likely thinking: Is this what�s gonna happen to me? Is the training here that terrible? Looking at their terrified faces, I felt a powerful urge to laugh but I couldn�t. My mouth was still stuffed with a million pieces of bloody cotton wool. If I were to laugh out loud, I would spit the cotton wool and blood onto the floor, presenting an even more horrifying sight to the green recruits. I�d rather spare them more horror, so I restrained myself, though it was hard. I had to be content with a restrained chuckling. The Medical Officer was a thin, nerdy-looking young man with very short hair and thick black glasses. �What was this stupid medic trying to do, stuffing so much cotton wool into your mouth?" he asked as he looked into my mouth. "He should have used a bandage instead. Now I have to take these pieces out of your mouth bit by bit." While he did that, I waited patiently. Now that the excitement had died down, the reality of the situation sunk into me. My mouth was still bleeding profusely. For the first time since the punch, I felt the unpleasant taste of blood. Because of the amount of blood, I had to swallow some to breathe more easily. I became a vampire. Sewing Up Time "I have to stitch your lip," he said after examining my wound. "But since it requires only two stitches, we can do without anesthetic. Is that all right with you?" Of course, Medical Officer Sir, easy for YOU to say WE can do without anesthetic. After all, YOU are the one sewing while I am the piece of cloth. But being a commando, I murmured stoically, "Yeah." He placed a clean white cloth over my face, with a gap exposing my mouth. Mercifully, the cloth covered my eyes, so I couldn't see the needle while the doctor sewed. But feel it I certainly could, unfortunately. Was it painful? Yes! But it hurt for only a split second each time he inserted the needle into my left upper lip. In (ouch!) . . . out . . . in (ouch!) . . . out . . . in (ouch!) . . . out . . . . I was a Tae Kwon Do fighter. Then I became a vampire, and now I am a torn messed-up piece of cloth. What glorious transformation. Souvenir After being sewn, I returned to camp to rest (I was given two days of medical leave by the doctor). While lying on my bunk bed, a platoon mate walked in and said, �Raymond, I am sorry, but you failed the exam." Though disappointed, I had expected it. After all, I did not even finish the sparring section of the test. He then said, "I was just kidding." He grinned. "You passed!� The examiners must have allowed sympathy to affect their better judgement, but I was happy. A few days later, as ordered by the doctor, I visited the dentist. Fortunately, all my teeth were fine. How I could be punched with such force, with the resulting loss of so much blood, without any damage to my teeth was beyond me. But I was relieved. What happened that day is still vivid in my mind. I have a physical reminder of it too. My left upper lip is permanently swollen and slightly larger than the other side. Thus, I am even more ugly than I already was. |
| My Other Army Stories: |
| Showing Off our TKD skills during a public demonstration. I am arrowed.1986. |
| Meaning of the Brown Belt
I earned the Brown One Belt in TKD. According to our ranking system, this color belt is one level before the Black Belt (similar to the Red Belt in some other rankings). (The Brown One belt is one level above the Brown Two belt). Unfortunately, I failed the Black Belt test. But I am still grateful for the Brown Belt. "Brown is the color of autumn. Before the time of refrigerators and grocery stores, people had to work hard to prepare themselves for the winter. As a brown belt, you can now deal with hardships in your training and your everyday life. This helps to prepare you for your black belt. It is only at the brown belt level that you are able to use your martial arts to truly defend yourself on the street." |
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| My Tribute to RSM Sam Choo - He was a much respected commando. |
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| My Army Picture Album (a separate website I created for pictures) |
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| P.S. - Video clip of a TKD sparring taken from an international TKD competition. |
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| The more comfort the less courage there is.
-- Field Marshal Prince Aleksandr V. Suvorov, Published in "Soviet Military Review" 1979 |
| Pain nourishes courage. You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you. -- Mary Tyler Moore |
| My Army Picture Slideshow at youtube. |
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