Army stories are a crucial part of my personal narrative. When I chart my growth through the ages, I always fixate on two massive milestones in my life. One of them was in 2010 when I enlisted.
Many Singaporeans differ on how useful it is for them to go off for two years and serve a country that’s been relatively conflict-free since the 70s. And I can see why. It’s two long years, and 90% of the work you do as a conscript isn’t exciting at all.
I do wish sometimes that I can have those two years back. But I also acknowledge that those two years changed me. It really grew me up, and gave me a confidence that I never had before to jump off the deep end and swim. I think it was pivotal in enabling me to thrive and adapt in the U.S.
It also gave me some fantastic stories, and today I’ll be penning down my favorite one.
This story is set in the heart of Singapore’s man-maintained forests. I was in my Service Term, which is a 3-month long common training program for officer cadets.
Our company embarked on a navigational exercise that day. Our mission was to navigate to all the waypoints (more than 10 of them) within a given timeframe.
I was traveling with 2 other company-mates, in what you would call a section (a three-person unit). Unfortunately for us, the weather was not ideal. In fact, what was coming down was the heaviest thunderstorm I had ever been in, with lightning flashes every 10 seconds. The rain came down in sheets like rippling gray concrete.
Usually, this sort of weather would have halted training entirely. Because we were in the field, however, we were stuck. We didn’t even have a choice of waiting out the storm. We knew we had to hit the rest of the waypoints as fast as we could, so that we could finish the mission without punishments and get back to shelter.
Using our (very frail) “talc-ed up” maps, compasses and pacers, we shouldered on. Our radios were beyond non-functioning at this point. My rubber boots, laced up to the top and gartered into an airtight bind, were so water-filled I felt like I was wading through low tide. We were slipping ever so often and tripping on roots. At last, we found our next waypoint.
It was at the top of a small knoll.
Memory fails me on what our conversations were at the point. Nevertheless, I remembered staring incredulously at this little mountain, where a mass of thundering clouds (and supposedly a little flag) lay at the summit. But we had no choice. We started climbing.
The rain was coming in waves now. Everything sounded and felt exactly like the final scene in Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End. The thunder was loud but so constant my eardrums had gotten used to it. Then, suddenly —
There was a huge flash of light.
My vision whited out for a moment. I felt a pulse, kinda like static but stronger, hit me. I could feel it even through the 3 layers of uniform and standard-body vest. The clap was deafening; it left a dull ring in my ears, muting the crashing sounds all around me. All 3 of us dropped to our knees. “Get down! Get down!” My only thought was to get down. My greatest fear was that we were gonna get struck again.
We were all shouting now, even while we huddled in an upright fetal. One of my section-mates started unwrapping our mobile phones, modern day devices that we were banned from using unless in severe hazardous conditions. We all put our rifles to the side, in irrational fear that the metal would attract the volts in the sky. The phones were wet and not working. In desperation, we tried our army radios. Static.
I have no idea how long we stayed there, in that position, while the storm raged around the knoll. It was a long time; each time lightning struck, I thanked God for sparing us. Finally, one of our million desperate calls to base were answered. We were given instructions to move off the knoll, find a lowland near our coordinates, and hunker down till the storm subsided.
We ended up finishing the mission, albeit in a longer time than was allocated. Thankfully, we did not get punished for it.
In the aftermath, my section-mates and I sat around in our bunks talking about it (still mildly shell-shocked). One of us thought we saw what looked like a small tree connect with lightning, just 10–15 meters away from us. We surmised that with everything so wet, some residual charge must have hit us.
Even till today, I have an enormous fear of thunderstorms and lightning events. I would almost run to the nearest shelter, and opt not to go out, even with an umbrella.
