Saturday, September 22, 2007

AETC

The SwingFor those whose unit or reservist is at Sungei Gedong, surely you would know about the long stretch of road leading far into AETC(Armour engineer training center). It is definitely a bane for guard duty personnels who have to pass by that route in total darkness, no times no less! Well here goes the story.A group of my platoon and unit mates were chosen for guard duty on a weekday. This meant the duty would be from 6pm to 8am the next day. At 5.45pm, after drawing arms, washing up and consuming our dinner, 15 of us marched over to the guardhouse. The RPs were glad to see us arrive and they waited for the Guard 2IC to take over duties. Duties were quickly assigned, and some of us choose to be the prowlers and the rest sentries. At the request of another platoon mate, i agreed to be prowler for 3 shifts (Each prowler had to do a total of 3 shifts, with 4 hour breaks in between, as there are three groups). The first shift went without any mishap, as the sun had not set. Nightsnack is always welcomed during guard duty However it was during the second shift that I met with that incident. As usual we drew our arms, torchlight and comms set. We set off on the path from the back of the ATC stadium towards the 46SAR vehicle shed. Dogs were seem to be everywhere, with even a pair following us for quite a distance. At this point in time, at around 12mn, things were pretty serene and silent, with perhaps the occasional lights in some of the bunks. It was during the turn into the AETC route that i noticed something strange. There is a vehicle parking area on the right infront of AETC. While walking past it, the front lamp suddenly flickered out, and i noticed that the gates were actually open (the metal chains holding on to the gates were loose). Looking into the distance in the dark, i could see that there was a "swing" and it was moving! Without a doubt, i was shocked but managed to keep my calm to continue into the old AETC vehicle shed... (which is even creepy, especially since the whole area is abandoned). By the time we came out and passed by the same path, the gate was locked and the lamp was on again! The final shift of my duty, I noticed that the gate was the same condition, locked and lamps on...With that, we ended our guard duty for that errie night and went back for the next day of lessons

2 comments:

Look said...

lol, this call eerie ar zz

i last time from gedong one. last time gedong prowler is need to search for the damn piece of paper inside the ammo case at the different checkpoints throughout the whole camp. now dunno wat they use.

i remember one prowling round need 2 hours zz.. 4 grps of prowler prowling at same time, 8 ppl. 2 pairs in one direction..

i remember the path leading towards area D, where there are a few abandoned colonial buildings parallel to the 2gsmc company line.

the abandon veh shed there is damn eerie.. and there is only 1 working lampost which isn't really working at all. ( no, i shud say.. the whole road only got 1 lampost )

and there are 3 checkpoints which we need to find, they gave us a damn map of the camp zz..

i remember a sheepdog who will always lead us on our rounds. better follow him, if not he will bark at us. my senior from the camp say the dog is already there since long ago.. and its still there now, although no one see it in daylight la ..

the dog only lead us on the prowling route near the abandon areas.

got one time i rem me and my buddy searching for the stupid ammo box near the area D gate. whole place damn dark, we using L torch to search for the box .. the lame flashlight doesnt work.

the abandon area is dark like hell, use torch only can see less than 1m around u..

while searching the box, the sheepdog start barking like mad. we din bother to point the torch, cuz cant see even if point.

then the dog run to my buddy leg and start dancing and circling and moving off and barking. he signalling us to run.

we get his hint.. so we run to armor hq. the dog all the way behind us.. barking like siao.

but once we left that area.. the dog disappear.

scary experience, dunno the dog barking at wat. cuz normally, the dog dun bark -.-

Martin Kwong said...

i ord on 2003..yes they using paper from 2001-2003..not sure about now.. did u know there is a room in beside that abandon vehicle shed and its have all kind of statue..chinese, muslims, christian...