A duty that i will miss doing...

**Note: Information below is meant to be for reading ONLY.**

Waking up on tuesday morning at 11am was shiok... (How many of you guys get to do it like me? Jealous aren't you??) I was thinking: "I've got another beautiful day before booking in tonite, and I can do some blogging..."

Then came the dreaded call...

Officer: "Can you book in at 4pm today, then take over the duty today?"
Me: "Huh? But my eye still red leh?" (Trying to keng with my MC covering until that nite)
Officer: "You go and consider about it first, then let me noe again... Coz if you dun do, then the poor guy will be doing 4 nights straight in a row..."

As I'm still new in the company and dun wan to be 'marked' by them in future, I agreed, knowing that MC is wasted...

Me: "Ok lor... Then I'll book in at 4..."

So there I am, after 6 straight days of staying away from camp... I was so reluctant to go back.. And I was only given like 4 to 5 hours of notice in advance, throwing aside all my beautiful plans for the day... Sucks...

I was tasked to do a Protection of Installation (POI) duty at a particular fuel refinery plant in the west from 6th Sept to 8 Sept... (The name of the plant is kept secret to you so as to protect the plant... It's a national security issue... I'm a man in green you know...)

Upon reaching the plant, I had to start work immediately, at a lost with the environment and what is expected of me to do...

1600 to 1900 hrs:
Got into a Light Patrol Vehicle(LPV) as a vehicle commander... The LPV is a Nissan pick-up, with a machine gun (MG) mounted at the rear of the vehicle... It allows 3 troopers to be seated at the rear when patroling... Apparently, with the dates drawing closer to the anniversary of Sept 11, there is an increase in the security level... An MG has to be set up at the entrance of the plant during peak hours as a show of force... So for the 3 hours straight, I was juz sitting in the vehicle, together with my driver, looking at cars and, if we're lucky, pretty girls leaving home from work...

2200 to 0600 hrs
I was assigned to the graveyard shift for my first patrolling... Actually as a vehicle commander role, it was rather simple... I had to assign my men to take up various positions surronding the perimeter of the plant, then for every 2 hours, use the vehicle to pick them up and change their positions so that they do not get bored... The positions that the troopers had to take up were observation towers, main gates and 1 trooper mounting on the rear of my vehicle... In between the changing of shifts, I will continue to patrol around in the vehicle... And if we're bored and tired, we will drive to the infamous secret hideout and twang* there... Especially during this shift, we wil tend to go there and catch our uncomforatble and often interrupted beauty sleep...
*Twang: To eat snake...

0700 to 0900 hrs
After 8 hours of shift, I thought that I can finally catch my beauty sleep until my next shift at 1400 hrs... But with the current increase in security, we have to set up our MG post again at the entrance... And during the stint, both the driver and I were sleeping in the vehicle, with the air-con on......

0900 to 1400 hrs
It's my sleeping time finally... Managed to sleep for another 3 hours and some lunch before my shift again at 1400 hrs..

1400 to 2200 hrs
Back to my duty again... Picking my troopers up, dropping them at various locations, patrolling around and twang-ing at our favourite spot...

2200 to 0600 hrs
Beauty sleep... ZZzzz...

0600 to 1400 hrs
Back to my duty again... And finally at 1400 hrs, we handed over to the next platoon to take over the duty and head back to camp...

Looking back, it was actually a fun thing to do... Coz it's a new environment out of camp and we seems to be like in the action at all times... If any suspicious people or vehicle is lurking around, we will be comms by the walkie talkie and our vehicle will be mobilised to go check it out... Besides that, the facilities available for rest and recreation were much better than in camp... Air-conditioned sleeping environment for commanders, large area at the multi-purpose hall as bunks for the troopers, Starbucks chairs and tables for meal times, refrigerator, hot-water flask for cup noodles, 2 29 inch tv with sofa set, dvd players and X-box game sets, and good ration food from SAFTI cookhouse, which serves meals for the officer cadets... The nightsnack provided were heavenly... Chicken pie and never ending flow of cup noodles... Since when were nightsnacks so delicious, compared to the sponge cakes or peanut butter sandwiches that we normally had back in camp? Once having meals, I overheard one fellow saying: "If Gedong (Sungei Gedong) food were as nice..."

I was a bit sad to leave the place, leaving behind my newly made friend - my driver, with whom I talked cock and twang with... I gave him a good handshake, wished him well and bade goodbye to him... Goodbye to my refinery plant too...