School of Military Intelligence (SMI)
No SMI is not a stock symbol. Read on
As the the title implied, this is where they teach you the trade for intelligence gathering from a military perspective. We are the eyes and ears of the brigade and as such we are usually behind the enemy lines. At this point, we were only recce scouts in name only. We have no idea what we are in for. We were sent here right after our Driver’s Training. Our training cohort consisted of all NCOs and Platoon commanders from our unit in addition to another unit from the Armour Brigade.
These four weeks were classroom-based training consisting of tactical theories, infiltration techniques, topography and navigation, etc. We were taught squad-level movement and how to select strategic observation positions and set up support firing positions. The lessons were mostly based on topographical maps. It had curvy lines upon curvy lines marking the lay of the land (wished I was awake then). We had to know how to read those lines to visualize what the ground would be like. For example, if you are going to attack up a hill, you don’t pick an area where the curvy lines are bunched up together. The tighter the lines, the steeper the slope.
Based on the region topograhpy, we learned where to position ourselves for the various tasks assigned. It sounded “simple” in theory, especially when I had a hard time staying awake. Everything appeared fuzzy when I was fighting to stay awake and the information didn’t sink in back then. I had a general idea, not the details. Wished I had been able to pay attention back then. My “bad student” characteristics had carried over into my army training, inability to stay focused.
After 4 weeks of classroom training, we headed back to our battalion. Unbeknownst to us, while we were away the past couple of months or so, 2SIR had relocated to their new camp in Ang Mo Kio area. This was also the time when we were introduced to the men of the scout platoon. These men were conscripted about six months after us and had gone through their 3 months of Boot camp training and their assigned vocational training as well. For them, they only had to serve 2 years instead of 2.5 years like us. We didn’t have much time to get to know each other before we were shipped out again to SMI for platoon-level training at SMI. Each squad/section consisted of 1 Section Commander, 1 2nd in command, 1 jeep driver, 1 machine gunner, and 3 trained bike riders. Our scout platoon consisted of 4 of the above squads plus a demolition squad.
Classroom lessons at the platoon level were limited, however, we had many exercise related to topography and navigation. I remembered during an individual topography navigation test, we were given the map coordinate of a target containing the map coordinate of the next target. This will continue until we reached the final destination to complete our mission. A target can be a tree or any obscure object lamp post, etc. I ace this test, completing the course in slightly over 2 hours breaking the previous record by half an hour. The average completion time for our cohort was around 4 -5hrs. I was pretty much jogging or at times running from point to point, while others probably took their leisure stroll. My outward appearance may belie a lackadaisical attitude, but I do have a competitive drive to succeed that I don’t display much.
After completing the classroom training, we proceeded to the 4 weeks field training phase.
Field Training
The field training phase was where we applied what we learned (or in my case- slept through it) in the classroom to real world situations. I remember this part the most from my SMI days. This phase was fun yet stressful and exhausting for me at least. We had to spend 5 days each week out in the field and headed back to base camp Friday night. We get to book out on Saturday after equipment maintenance and book in Sunday night. The good- we did not have to deal with barrack life or our company Staff Sergeant and his area cleaning routine. The field camp area is just a clearing in an old rubber plantation and civilians living nearby. They made extra income peddling foods and snacks to us, NS boys. There were always that Cool factors of us going out in our convoy of machine gun mounted jeeps and dirt bikes as we traveled between barracks to Marsiling training ground. The bad, out in the field meant there was no taking of shower, we had what we call dry “bath” ie using medicated talcum powder to clean ourselves. I believe there was one time when they did send a water tanker with shower attachments for us.
This was the first time we worked together as a squad with each of our roles defined. This allowed us to get to know each other and bond together since we were together 24 hrs a day. Reconnaissance missions are usually done at the squad level. Each squad acted independently of each other on missions. This suited my personality well, as I am the type that cannot function well being micro-managed. I feel dumb down if I am micro-managed. Give me the mission directives and I will figure out how to get the result. Also as a scout, you have to be flexible, creative, innovative, and able to adapt to the situation. No amount of training and instruction can prepare you for the reality of each mission. The unexpected will be what you will encounter.
The first week, was more about bringing the classroom to the field. What was taught in the class, now we had to implement. We were given a mission by the instructor and we had to apply what was taught into our planning using the “sandbox” model. The only issue was, that there wasn’t any sand around to build a sandbox, since the ground was hard. We had to improvised with rocks, twigs, and anything we could find. If the instructor approves our plan, we will then move out to execute it. The strategy planning was stressful due to our inexperience.
The traveling Marsiling
After the first week for painfully building a sandbox on hard ground, one of my guys showed his artistic and creative skills. The next week he brought a portable “sandbox”. There wasn’t any sand. It was a model of our training area based on the map with those hills (Hill 265, Hill 200, etc) made of plasticine clay. It looked pretty impressive back then and is was so handy. Each day we would use it during our planning session and pack it in the back of the jeep as we headed out. One of our instructors coined the term – The traveling Marsiling, when he saw the board from the back of the jeep.
Where’s the jeep and bikes?
As you can see from the above photos, we would head out on our jeep and bikes. However, in all cases, we are required to dismount at a rendezvous point and proceed the rest of the way on foot. Everyone outside of the scout platoon in the battalion was under the impression that we are motorized all the way and harbor a deep resentment towards us. Even our Company Staff Sergeant would picked on us and every chance he got, he would issue “Take 2”. Take “n” is a SAF term for being punished by taking away your liberty for n-days. So while everyone booked out on Saturday, you had to perform guard duty or if you are lucky, performed the “COS” duty if you are NCO. This required that you spend 24 hours during the weekend manning the company office alone. There wasn’t much to do, as long as the phone doesn’t ring.
Since our field training in Marsiling is relatively small, maybe a few square miles, there weren’t much use for the jeep and bikes. As part of the mission planning, we had to pick our rendezvous point (RZ). That would be where we will park our jeep and bikes. The rendezvous location in theory had to be far away front the “enemy” location, usually many miles away and we had to proceed the rest of the way on foot. One mission stood out to me, one that I reflect fondly to 30 plus years later. Since we were supposed to leave our vehicles behind at the RZ, we had to camouflage them. In the photos above, underneath those leaves is a camouflage net. On that particularly mission, our RZ was a small patch of rubber trees on a gentle slope, bordered on three side by small trees and bushes and a dirt road. We parked our jeep and bikes high up towards the back bushes. Since the rubber trees foliage provide coverage from the air, all we needed was to make sure our vehicles were not seen from the dirt road down the sloppy hill. So instead of wrapping the net over the jeep like we normally do, we spread it out in front of the jeep and secured it to the trees trunks on both side. For extra camouflage materials for the net, we use the leaves on the ground, and there were plenty. As usual, time is of essence as we hurried off to complete our mission.
Note, that we had an instructor tagging along on all missions, grading our performances, so there were no slacking and short cut for all tasks, camouflage was one of them. Long story short, on our way back after completing our mission, like all instructors in the SAF, they loved to make us practice tactical withdrawal. That means, there were casualties we had to evacuate. The instructors loved to pick the heaviest guy as the casualty and have a smaller guy “fireman lift” the casualty. Not sure who suffered more, the casualty or the evacuator? I have been on both end before, I think, it is the casualty that suffered the most. The guy carrying you are not going to care how you feel, he is tired from his own load and on top of that, he had you over his shoulder with your load and running and crouching all these times.
So we finally reached our RZ location. As we were crouching by the side of the dirt road making sure that the RZ was safe, we couldn’t find our vehicles!! Even the instructor was shocked. After a couple of minutes, we decided to move up the slope with rubber (not what you are thinking guys!) trees, we were finally able to make out the outline of the camouflage netting with our jeep and bikes behind! Whew! It would be hard to explain what happened to the jeep and bikes at a court-martial hearing
Overall, my SMI field training days, while stressful and tough, yet were fun times when looking back. I love the squad-level exercises where we work as a 7 men unit independently, but still under the watchful eyes of the instructors. Marsiling area was a countryside within the concrete jungle of Singapore. This area consisted of red dirt hills, tracks, and small farming plots with scattered fruit trees. My motto has always been “You work hard and you play hard”, in addition to the well-known saying in SAF – “You can do anything as long as you don’t get caught”. For the 2.5years in army, that’s what I live by. When you are young, you know no fear! The fielding training phase was also when I inherited a reputation, unfairly in my opinion, that I found out later.
After the 4 weeks field training completed, we were are now considered reconnaissance operational ready. Of course, now we had to applied all these to the real world in an Operatinal Ready Battlalian – 2SIR. Oh, we do get an extra SD$40 a month vocation pay upgrade over a standard NCO pay.
