So I've finally completed the final week of local pro term, now all that's left is the daunting Taiwan trip and then I would have earned the 3SG rank, leading with pride as a specialist :)
The final week was not an easy one, as we had to go through the arduous 32km CSB March of Infantry Pride in order to earn the Combat Skills Badge. I was alright for the first 24km of the march, which was quite surprising because usually I struggle at the start. The weapons technical handling and ACES test was also easy. I think I managed to strive on because I already bought the badge the day before to motivate myself and at the same time I kept mindfucking myself that I have marched 24 km before, so I should not be struggling at all at the start. This sort of worked, for the first 24km at least lol. After that the next 6km to the river crossing site was just screwed up for me cause I was straggling behind quite badly. I felt bad because they took the CSB timing based on the last man of the company. I wasn't the last man of course, but during that 6km I was one of the last few lol. After the river crossing at the 30km mark which only served to add extra water weight to our already heavy as hell field pack, we marched the last 2km like a bunch of retarded penguins to the range for our live shoot. I was quite ahead at the last 2km because I was really motivated by then to complete the march. Anyway, nobody would be crazy enough to fall out by then since you've already been that far. The live shoot was fucked up because my weapon always shot too high from where I aimed, so I had to reshoot a second time to get the passing score. For the reshoot, I just waited for my targets to appear, aimed at it, lowered the scope so that I can't even see the target in my scope, and then shoot. And it actually hits -.- so in the end I managed to pass, which concludes the end of the CSB march. And since I fulfilled all the requirements for CSB, I earned the right to don it on:
Felt really proud of myself for earning this badge. It was not as easy as I thought it would be, cause it seems like almost every sergeant has it. Overall, quite a number of people fell out of the march which was wasted cause they qualified for it and there's gonna be a re route march this weekend I think :/
The only badges I lack now is marksman and the 3SG rank. But considering i'm quite a bobo shooter with the SAR21 (i love using the SAW though), I doubt i'll ever get the marksman badge. Maybe aiming for ippt gold seems more realistic... As for the formation badge, who knows what it's gonna be? There are just so many possibilities. 3rd Division? 6th Division? 9th? Or the best one: Ready to Strike. LOL.
Anyway I'm feeling half hearted about going to Taiwan next week. Not looking forward to the 9 day outfield intense training. 3 days navigation exercise should be ok since we're on our own :P also not looking forward to leaving my friends and family behind for so long. 22 days... I've never been that long away from home before. What I'm definitely looking forward to is the 3 days R&R. Not only is it going to be fun exploring Taiwan's food and entertainment, the R&R also signifies that we have completed pro term and we're on our way to the graduation parade :)
but enough about army life. These few days were really good because of the 5 day break that I had cause Lima is paying us back all the Off in Lieus from burning of our weekends in the past for live firing. So I booked out on Thursday and I'm booking in on Monday night again. That's 5 days off. FIVE. never felt so good before :) Thursday was great :) Friday I just lazed around at home doing nothing, which was also good. Went out with most of the climbers today for lunch at some Korean BBQ buffet restaurant that's apparently ran by Chinese people LOL. It was nice meeting up with all of them again. I feel like my usual self when I'm around them, not the serious guy I am in army... Wish the Indian and yip could have been there though. After that some of us left and the rest went to hang around before heading to play LAN. We played L4D2 and CS which I suck at cause I'm an infanteer and I'm destined to die in a shoot out whether it is a virtual one or an actual war. But jokes aside, I feel kinda sad that that's my role as an infantry soldier. It may not be as glorified/important as the other vocations, but it definitely is one of the toughest.
Falling asleep again to the army body clock. Time to crash. Meeting up with my foundation term section mates tmr for lunch:)