Note Federation Artillery on my shoulder, bomb on my collar and cannon on my songkok
Fifty years ago today, 6 December 2014, I was commissioned into the Artillery Regiment together with Steven Pan Kong Leong. We were the 31 cadets from the Seventh Regular Intake Federation Military College Sungei Besi. Most of us made it to commissioning but unfortunately some were relegated to short service commission, and others were dropped out. It was my graduation from the Federation Military College into the Federation Artillery.
Getting commissioned into the various corps of your choice was very competitive. We literally had Hopson’s choice so to speak. The bulk of the army was Royal Malay Regiments, two Recce Regiments and squadrons and minor units of supporting arms and services. The Ranger Corps and Commando Regiment was just being formed too. Federation Artillery had a Regiment since 1957 and the second Regiment was just raised in mid 1964. Each cadet was to indicate three preferences. Cadets were enticed by their favourite instructors in the college to join the various corps, of which the creme were to join the Royal Malay Regiments following Major General Baharuddin bin Kadir who was the winner of the Sword of Honour. The cadets from Singapore were commissioned into Malaysian units but later went back to Singapore units. My three choices were Artillery, Recce, and Signals.
Needless to say there were no Artillery Officer Instructors at that time to entice us into the Artillery Regiments. (Four years later in 1968, I was to be the first Malaysian Artillery Officer Instructor to serve in the college). With no push and pulls from our instructors, many of us only relied upon our hearts to join the Regiments of our choice. The most popular criteria to follow around then, were the knowledge that the Artillery was the King of the battlefield and the Crimean model in Europe. In the order of battle in the Crimean model, there was first the Kramer (King) then came the Gunners followed by the Calvary Officers. After the Calvary Officers came their horses. After their horses came horse shit. And the rest of the army came after that. It was to note that Artillery Officers had also lent finesse to the battlefield.
So Artillery was to be my choice of Arms. I have no regrets to this day. Once a Gunner always a Gunner. Pan Kong Leong and I reported to 2 ARTY in the old Gurkha Camp next to the Chinese cemetery and opposite to the lake in FMC in Sungei Besi. We were then Federation Artillery. 2Lt Pan was posted to F Bty and I to E Bty. Each Bty had four new Oto Malaria 105mm Howitzers. Our 25 Pounders were phased out by then. In the early 1960s we had more guns than Officers in the Regiment.The Commanding Officers and all senior Bty officers were Mat Sallehs. Luckily we spoke English. Senior ranks usually did their best to understand orders. I recalled my BSM coming to me after an O Group asking me to clarify what our BC had told him earlier to which he had confidently answered “YES SIR”. That being the case in the Regiment, I would still honestly testify now that we had no communication problems, notwithstanding our language problem.
It was no joke to be a young Gunner Officer. Not when Lt Tony Chia Eng Lim was the Senior Subaltern. Fondly known as Anthony Samy as he spoke fluent Tamil, Tony took no nonsense from anybody. He was a cool cat, tall and upright, suave and with a smile that could mean anything. That smile was his camouflage to what was to come next. We learnt our lessons in double quick time.
As newly commissioned Gunners, we were tagged NQFA. Non Qualified Federation Artillery. We had to pass our Artillery YO course to be qualified. We did not have our own School of Artillery then and we had to wait to be trained in the School of Artillery in the Larkhill , UK or in Hong Kong. The Royal Artillery had ad hoc courses in Singapore from time to time. The coming course in Larkhill for Pan and I was in late 1965. Lt General Dato’ Jaafar Mohammed IG, organised the first local ad hoc course for us. The ad hoc YO course was held in 1 ARTY, using the regiment’s gun park and class rooms. The first Arty equipment I learnt to use was the ARTY board which was huge at four by four feet. We had to qualify quickly as we were still at Confrontation with Indonesia. We had two operational independent Btys deployed in Sarawak and Sabah with single gun positions spread across our borders with Indonesia.
Fifty years down the road at the blink of the eye, and I am still a Gunner. I will not retire, I will just fade away with finesse. My memories and thoughts are fading fast. But I remember being a Gunner and I had served the Agong, my country and my Regiment with pride.
I did not I forget that I had pledged to Serve to Lead half a decade ago.
Allen Lai
No comments:
Post a Comment