4,30AM in the morning opstaan tyd ,get up time then the 3 sss **** shave shower,no inspection because there is no kit yet ,march to breakfast ,there motto was eat now chew later back to the barracks fall in for kit ,standing in the kit kine i was as nervous as hell ,when i came to the quatermaster there was a pile of kit on a table ,staaldak (steel helmut)and green webbing 2 sets of browns 6 pairs of socks 3 pairs of overalls web belt round kitbag that the army insisted we had to make square sheets blankets pillows boots ,beret ,bush jackets ,for the first two weeks they showed us what they wanted in our kit inspections and bungalow inspections ,plus lots of chicken parades,the first time i was asked by our company staff sergant if i knew what a chicken parade was "yes staff ,when a bunch of chickens are on parade",before basics i could not do 10 pushups ,after 2 weeks i must have done about 500 hundred
By then i was developing a bit of a rep as it where ,the guys in my platoon used to get pissed off with me because sometimes they too would get PT because of a certain comment that was made by me when i asked a direct question
when we had inspections they where very strict as any ex serviceman would know,my inspection where always good ,never a fault and they used to go over everything with a fine toothcomb ,the staff the RSM and the sarge all used to stand 2 millimeters from my face snarling at me ,whats going thru my mind do not laugh do not laugh do not laugh,that would last about 15 seconds i could not help myself ffing push ups again .I will be honest with you guys i was the unfittest soldier that was ever drafted into the SADF as i said to my sarge whatever i do whether it is right or wrong u still gonna make me run so i may as well have some fun while i am doing it
We got issued with our weapons 1 month into basic ,the army will always find more things for me to clean i thought to myself.tHE FIRST MONTHS OF BASICS WAS BASICS FITTNESS RUNNING screaming shouting inspections then we got our first pass wahoo ,i think the first 3 days was a drunken blur ,if i had know what was install for me when i got back i would never have got so pissed ,In my youth i was a rum drinker ,so can you imagine monday morning back at camp during our inspection i was reaking of old rum ,SOUTIE YOU REEK OF ALCOHOL FULL KIT PLEASE ,THAT DAY I RAN 3 2,4 IN N ROW I PUKED RUM AND COKE UNTILL THE COWS CAME HOME , somehow i felt they where picking on me .For the most part our NCO where pretty hard they where not sadistic excepy for one ,he used to take enjoyment out of it ,he was later tranferred to another unit.We had two operational NCO who used to give us lectures on platoon weapons these guys where good ,i heard they where sent to there respctive units in NAMBIA we heard rumors that the one guy ,who was called mitch by his collegues was sent to 32 as i said that was a rumour