<Credits: NUS Whispers>
During a discussion with my relatives, my uncle wife and my aunt were talking about my cousin's vocation. He was an officer. My uncle wife was very impressed. When she asked my mum what my vocation was I said I'm a Man. My uncle wife gave an oh ok look.
To substantiate her opinion of my vocation and prevent anymore indirect criticisms, I added ya we do nothing not like officers train very hard. I turned away and rolled my eyes.
Sure when I was in bmt (ptp btw) I didn't really know what I wanted to be. All I know is I wanted to get out of that place and go to some unit where I can learn other things. That time there wasn't a jack neo movie to tell us what to expect of training or whatever, naturally my mindset was to want to end the training. I opted for commander in some mandatory survey, but in the end I was sent to a unit to become a Man.
What my uncle wife doesn't know is, Man run the army. Without us who listen to instructions of officers? Who help clean toilets? Who fire the armour and artillery tanks? Who mann the comms? Who help them bring jerry cans of water? Imagine an army with just officers. Who to take their instructions?
I decided not to refute my uncle wife because I would be speaking to a wall. No matter how hard we tried to talk sense into people, the majority of them will still think that a 3 chevrons or a chocolate bar is more prestigious than a chevron with a curve. To them, officers are the ones who think while we are the ones who do. Truth to be told, a lot of my friends who are Man turn out to be more successful than some officers.
I admit officers been through more shit than us. Cambodia, Thailand, more outfield, route marches and all. I salute you. Yet I still don't get why people judge Mann based on the training we received. So should we go for more outfields in similar places to prove that we can be like them? Should we go for some tests to show that we can think like them? I don't know. If there's one, maybe I'll sign up?
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