35 eh ginna PAH BUAY TOH!!

i was surfing around googling and for some inexplicable reason stumpled upon the link for the award winners for SAF day 2005. lo and behold!! i just realised that the 35th battalion, Singapore Combat Engineers won the best combat engineers unit for this year!! this is only the second time since the award's inception where the bridging folks at 35 SCE managed to break the strangehold 36 SCE have on the awards.

alright, perhaps the joy seemed somewhat over-rated considering the fact that the honour was attributed to the hardwork of the junior batch of bridging pionners from Alpha coy after i ORDed and not us from Bravo Coy. but it's just that kind of joyous empathy you have when you see your alma mater jumping a gazillion notches up the school rankings and 35 is in every sense, a place where i received the defining education of my life. it is in every way, THE school of hard knocks.

i would dare say that the sense of identity for each individual combat engineer unit probably is much stronger than battalions from other formations such as perhaps the infantry for the simple reason that unlike the infantry or artillery, each individual engineer battalion is defined by its specialised role within the diverse functions of the combat engineers formation. those from 30 will only do field pioneer stuff and those from 35 will stick to our bridging ricebowls, seldom will the twain shall meet. and for this reason, regulars and even NSFs tend to be stuck within the same camp and personnel movement are more often than not an internal affair rather than through external posting-in.

this camaraderie was perhaps best accentuated during the inter-unit soccer matchs and the title of the post was the result of a spontaneous cheer the almond guys gave to our own platoon mates who were on the team when we were watching the match between 35 and 30 SCE. and jessel, the solid centreback of the team eternalised that ever since. that year (2003), 35 SCE and AETC -armoured engineers training centre - met in the final of the engineer formation inter-unit soccer tournament which was held in our homeground in seletar camp. the stakes were high, as our CO, 'bai-kar' leong was quite a diehard soccer fan (he was at a point of time temporarily downgraded for tearing his knee ligament after a soccer match, hence the nickname), the entire unit could conceivably get a long weekend should we win the match. it was by no means an easy match even though 35 were 2 goals up after half time. tensions were mounting on the pitch and the AETC guys were getting more and more physical. jeering and swearing from the homecrowd grew louder by the minute. and since most of the team was made up by bravo people, and since the pitch was just beside bravo coy, the rowdiest part of the crowd was in fact, also from bravo coy. man, it was great fun trying to intimidate the opposition shouting and cursing the entire lineage of any AETC player who dared to make a challenge regardless of whether it was fair or not. for that one day at least, the pitch in seletar east camp was our nou camp, our santiago bernabeu, and perhaps more befittingly, our ali sami yen stadium

the catalyst came somewhere in the late second half after AETC pulled a goal back. AETC was getting more aggressive, and one of the AETC players made a challenge on raymond pong, our star striker who was also from bravo, candace platoon. that was in fact the second consecutive time in a span of minutes where raymond pong was singled out for rough treatment by the same AETC player. that probably got to him and so rayomnd squared up to the fucker and the fucker shoved raymond pong. soon the both teams gather around the 2 players and there was also some shuffling between some other player. that gesture made the bravo crowd turn mad, and New K Yaw, Raymond's platoon mate (that is most unfortunately for him, his real name) the ringleader of candace, shot up with a resounding 'NABEH PUAH CHEE BYE!'and lept forward charging on the pitch. and that was the moment, without and sychronising, all of us who were around New K yaw shot up ready to charge into the pitch with our water canteens in hand. we were already stepping into the pitch and ready to throw our water canteens towards the AETC ppl until the one of the warrant officers from ARMCEG shouted at us to shift 7 steps behind the pitch. fuck, that killed the momentum for a spontaneous pitch invasion and till this day, i would love to think about how it would be like should we have charged into the pitch and if not beat up, at the very least scare the shit out of that AETC motherfucker....

' We the Engineers of the SAF
A force to reckon with, support role that we play.
Training as one for the SAF.
Striving for the best, for our dear motherland.

We do the work, you cannot do without.
We do the work, you cannot but be proud.
Oh! Combat Engineers of the SAF,
a force to reckon with in defence of our land!

We the blue berets of the SAF.
A force at the frontline, a force that fortifies.
Whereupon we stand, unwavered by no man.
That's the way to defend to success.

We do the work, you cannot do without.
We do the work, you cannot but be proud.
Oh! Combat Engineers of the SAF,
a force to reckon with in defence of our land! '

-- The Engineers March