  It's another week of leave for me. Time to get some old chores cleared up. Will also be intensifying the training over the next 10 days. Hopefully I can train more often. I was watching the show Glory on HBO this morning. It's basically about the first black infantry regiment that was formed during the American Civil War (North vs South).
I realised a lot of things that our current NSF are taking for granted. Back then, they were despised so they weren't issue guns, uniforms and weapons for training till much much later. Now, the moment we enter BMT, we get our standard issue items almost immediately. Each one of us just put on the uniform like any piece of clothing. Some don't even bother to make themselves neat and tidy in uniform. Just 2 days back, I was on the morning MRT to camp and I saw a PTE wearing his no.
4 camo uniform but instead of having his boots on, he had his PT shoes! He looked like a stupid clown. It was a disgrace to the uniform and himself. Naturally he looks like he might've gotten some medical excuse for his foot so he needn't put on boots. But c'mon man, everyone know that you can't wear this outside of camp regardless of medical excuse. He should jolly well change out of his uniform and slipped into more comfortable footwear instead.
I was really pissed when I saw it. Really. Felt like asking him which unit he belonged to and lodging a formal complaint thru Mindef. But I also thought, this is prob one of those psycho people in NS who has the wierdest thinking. Signing extra duties will hardly change them. It'll only make them more resentful of their NS life.
The black soldiers trained in their normal shoes (for those who had them) until their foot were cuts and badly bruised. When the South heard that the North were recruiting slaves into service, they passed a law saying any black soldier in uniform who got caught will be punished and the commander, put to death. This was something like psychological warfare to stop the blacks from enlisting. The Commander was expecting most of the current no. of blacks in camp to leave service but not one of them did. How many NSF today have the kind of, or even any, commitment to country?
They only see it more as what NS can give to them rather than vice versa. Didn't John F. Kennedy say the famous words "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for you country. " These are just empty shells to the average Singaporean. When push comes to shove, not many will choose to stay on by choice. It's quite heartbreaking really. 
