Got up early at 0520. 4hrs sleep. Drew arms after breakfast. The weather was good, so four Chinooks airlifted us into the training area in pairs. My team, team Alpha was to take the western part of a section of the town, and team Bravo was to take the eastern. We were given the latest update about the mission in a shelter covered in camo netting. Radio transmitters were distributed to our team ICs, and each of us were given 2 magazines with 25 rounds of blanks in each. A convoy consisting of (in order from front to back) a communications car, two armored caterpillar track vehicles, four 5 ton personnel trucks and another communications car picked us up to approach the Murai town. By then, we were in full battle order (Load Bearing Vest, i.e. LBV with all the stuff in it, and the SAR21 rifle) minus the soldier's camo uniform.
About 100-200m from the town, we dismounted and trekked some 100m through some foilage before calling for simulated artillery fire just out of sight of our intended foothold building. Our team commander then radioed for the chopper which brought in a team of commandos who roped down to secure first building just like C & C Generals. Once that was done, the action started. It's no joke assualting. SAR21 + vest with magazine, water bottle, rain coat together is freaking heavy. I even had a fibre optic scope specially carried to look around walls, behind doors, etc. It wasn't heavy, but damn bulky. Everyone was frantically moving under fire as fast as we could, but probably only at jogging pace. We were playing by a laser tag system, but we had blanks. That's probably the closest you'd get to a real gunfight. Most of us died at least once, and those who died probably died on the way to the building. Once inside, it was much easier. We had smoke grenedes to give us cover though, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Analysis of the battle, probably some other time, since it lasted about a whole hour. It was damn tiring and we were drenched in sweat by the time it was over, not to mention dirty from kneeling on the ground. It was real exciting and fun though, especially when you shaft the magazine in to the rifle with a nice click, and then cock the rifle. Feels damn good! Oh, one thing, a gunfight stinks. Literally. I thought that by now technology would be good enough for odourless efficient gunpowder, but the battlefield stank of sulphur dioxide during the gunfight.
We had a debrief before lunch in a lecture theatre where they presented us with a slideshow of the 3 days we spent in the MIP. I hope I can obtain those pictures. Lunch was provided by the army's outfield "kitchen", which was actually just a large container of containers containing food. As much as they said that this was all army food, I'm very sure they don't eat Sphaghetti Bolognese with brocolli, carrots, potato wedges, sausages, baked potato with butter and bacon bits, black pepper chicken and baked beans all in one meal while drinking orange cordial. (I heard that they do have sphaghetti with meatballs and some cream soup on some days though) I think they wanted to show the variety they had, and only had one meal to do so so they probably had no choice but to overwhelm us with all that.
Everything after that pales in comparison. First a dialogue session with the Chief of Army, quite insightful. I saw the pride that he had in Singapore as he recounted how we built up the army and tackled various challenges and why we spend so much on defence. Made me feel proud too to be a Singaporean and soon to be serving the country in 62 days. More dialogue with our Permanent Secretary Dr Tan Kim Siew, presentation of participation certs, and then dinner. Dinner was pretty awesome still, with Ice Kachang, Satay, Laksa, Sushi, and the usual buffet spread. This was likely because the Chief of Army was there, along with the Perm Sec. So the whole MIP finally ended after dinner. A jammed pack 3 day programme on the whole. Really nice tour, and I enjoyed it very much. Thank you Singapore!