Claymore

As I was packing up my room, I came across my ‘diary’ of Claymore. Yes I wrote down my thoughts at the end of the day to help with the countdown. It’s been more then a year since I came back from Claymore. Let’s put this up electronically to make things easier. Here goes nothing.

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31 Aug 2010, Day 1: 0050 Flight but everyone is gathered at 2130 crowding the airport. Everyone is simply talking. Quite stupid to meet so early though. Not really looking forward to this trip. Plane trip was only 2 hours. Bus trip took over 4 hours. Was trying to catch some sleep. Arrived at SYC, started with breakfast and parade. Tired. Can’t wait for it all to be over. Everything is still rather messy. Prep Rig, fire drill. Food is kind of bad. Bunks are like old chalets, which is rather OK, but the toilet still has no running water. Driving tomorrow. 15 more days. Cookhouse is freaking far!!

01 Sep 2010, Day 2: Driving the whole day. Had a look at the terrain. Barely slept. Not enough sleep. The mental stress is starting. 4 days training and 4 days exercise. 14 more days. I need to sleep. I need to control my spending. 14.

02 Sep 2010, Day 3: Today was awful again. Preparation while others slept. Got a vehicle which had quite a number of problems which had to be sorted out. Not enough sleep! Still no running water which is shit. Component training soon. 4 days of training. Shag. Hope I come out alive. 13 days left.

05 Sep 2010, Day 6: Been too busy to update the past 2 days. Component training. Weather has been crazy. Sun shining followed by rain. Hot and wet. I’m now writing this on the rig while waiting to launch. No time to write liao. 2 more days of component training. I think I can finally see the end. Hopefully I get my off’s and not get sent to Bravo.

06 Sep 2010, Day 7: One more week to the end of Claymore. Time here has been shit. Especially the past few days. Training in bad weather. Hot sun, sudden rain. Late nights, greasing. Finally got a short break. Wednesday moving out for XCM. It will be over soon. Just have to hang in there. Have to thank Charis when I get back. For texting me words of encouragement. I will survive. ORD

07 Sep 2010, Day 8: Tomorrow exercise. 4 days without proper sleep. Including the driving. I’m actually rather worried. Morale isn’t exactly high now. But then again I suppose it’s normal. 4 days to the end. 1 more week before I see home. I need to block out all the negativity. Even if some other people screw my plans up. It’s just 4 days. Endure.

08, 09 Sep 2010, Day 9 & 10: XCM has finally started. Deployment is still ongoing. Lousy feeling. But it’s the last time! Barely 1 day into XCM and I’m feeling tired. Perhaps it’s due to the lack of rest for the past week. But in exactly one week, I would be home. TG8182, 2135, 15 Sep. I can’t wait for all this to be over.

10, 11, 12 Sep 2010, Day 11-13: Busy past few days. Deployment weather has been lousy. Hot. Rafting was no better. Feeling drained right now. It’s 1010, 0910. Bridge was supposed to be up at 0600 and upstake at 0800. No idea what happened. Driving has been tiring. X-country terrain is stupid. now waiting for one vehicle to be recovered. I’ve lost 2 mirrors. This is bad. How many more hours?

13 Sep 2010, Day 14: 2 more nights. Finally, Claymore is over! Bridge up. Load test. Big relief. Now packing. Can’t wait to go back. Huge relief. ORD loh. 4 more months. I can finally see the ending.

14 Sep 2010,, Day 15: Today is the 14th of Sept. 17 months after enlistment. 5 more months to go. Can’t wait to ORD. Tomorrow flying back to Singapore. Back to civilisation. Last day still full of shit. Lousy planning lousy people. Shall not talk about it. Can’t wait to get home.

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There you go. Don’t judge my inconsistencies and my lousy language. I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be writing essays and poems.