Scorpions: Silent and Effective

On my way home this afternoon, the cab passed by Bedok Camp at the eastern end of East Coast Road. Bedok Camp was home to the Scorpions (3SIR) for the last few decades, but now it stood silent and deserted, ready to be torn down. I haven't gone by this area in ages, but it still seemed the same, and I could almost hear the men of the 8th mono chanting "Scorpions, To be Respected!" in the parade square after their Saturday 8km run. Across the street was our favorite "Bedok Corner" hawker center, which has now been renovated and given a name: Bedok Food Center. I wonder if they still have my favorite salted fish fried rice (Giam Her Char Png), ching tng and Hokkien mee. And right next to the camp was that little patch of "forest". They didn't allow us to dig holes in the camp, so myself and the Mortar Platoon were marched to this "forest" outside to practice "digging in". It's funny how the Mortar men spend most of their time during an exercise just digging and digging, and then digging again; but when they are finally done, its time to cover up, redeploy, and start digging again. What good training for a second career as a gravedigger!

Since the appearance of the Main Battle Tank (MBT) in WWII, armies throughout the world regarded the infantry as second class soldiers whose only role was to clean up after the armor had finished its job. The blitzing tank was too fast for artillery, and could run down infantry. It was practically invincible in large numbers on the battlefield. That perception changed in 1973....

In the opening days of the Yom Kippur war, Egyptian infantry inflicted devastating losses on the Israeli tank divisions at the Sinai front. The armor fought valiantly, but were no match for the swarming infantry armed with saggers and RPGs. Limited Israeli artillery batteries did not do much damage to the dug-in Egyptian troops (that's why infantry practice digging when they are not moving...), while themselves being subjected to counter-battery bombardment. The tank was king no more...

Alrite, enought depressing war talk already. It appears that I'm very likely to be joining PromiseWorks. If anyone else is interested, just let me know!