Posted on 23-Jun-2014
Written by Lance Corporal Jason Ching of 12th Kuala Lumpur Company
April 4-6th, 2014
SENTUL, KUALA LUMPUR - The 12th Kuala Lumpur Boys’ Brigade held its Boot Camp with the objective of the camp was to teach the recruits about BB and other moral values such as discipline and time management. There were 122 members who attended this camp, including 83 recruits and 39 Year 2 Privates. We were supervised by four officers.
On the first day right after school ended, we had our registration for all Boot Camp participants. The registration was conducted outside the chapel due to the lack of space. Most members were punctual and came at the time given by the organising committee. After 3.45pm, the registration was done. Soon after that LCpl. Ong Wil Sern gave a short briefing about the objectives and rules of the camp.
After the briefing, we had some games; one ice breaking game and two team-building games. LCpl. Nigel Ng took charge of this game session, first by briefing the recruits on how to play the respective games. We had the team-building game first, followed by ice breakers. The team-building game was called the Bomb Game. Each squad will have to create a bomb name for their squad, and then they will tell everyone what their bomb’s name was. After that, one squad will start and they will keep passing the bomb until one squad fails to react when the bomb reaches them. But the end of the game, there were 4 winners because all four squads were equally good. The first icebreaking game was called the Smile Game. We divided all the participants into 2 big groups and they will have to sit in a circle. After that, one person will have to be in the middle. The aim of this game was to make other person smile. If the person managed to make the other person smile he will have to go to middle and try to make others smile. If they fail, they will have to move on to the next person. We had a lot of fun because many people used ingenious ways to make someone smile such as faking a selfie, making funny faces or making funny ridiculous jokes. The other game was ‘Bang!’ We kept the two groups and explained this game to them. So there will still be a person in the middle as the shooter. The shooter will shoot someone, and then the two people next to him will have to shoot each other. The one who shoots first will win and continue, the one who ‘dies’ will have to sit down. In the end, it was a one-on-one, one person from their respective groups. So this time the facilitators said some random letters such as A, B or Z, every time he says a letter they will have to walk one step. Once the facilitators say a letter, they will have to turn around and shoot each other. The one who shoot first will win.
After that, the participants had an hour free time to bathe or do anything they want except for playing with their electronic devices. After that, we had our dinner which LCpl. Vincent Ching took charge of. After dinner, we had a praise & worship session led by LCpl. Brendan Eu. After that our captain, Mr. Nicholas Yeap, came in for Session 1. During this session, our captain asked the participants to write on a piece of paper any questions about BB in general or about the camp. Halfway through the session, the facilitators went down earlier to prepare for Capture the Flag. After the session ended at 10pm, the participants went down to play CTF. Each round involved only 5 squads, so during the first round squads 1 to 5 played, with the second round involving squads 6 to 10. For the final round, there will be two teams from the winners of the previous rounds competed, while one team help facilitate. The last round it ended with a tie because all teams played well. The game was generally enjoyable but some participants were ‘over-excited’ and used brute force. We then had supper and sang BB vesper. Lights out was at 12.30 am. While the rest slept, squads 1 to 5 took turns and manned the night watch between 2.30 am to 5.30 am,
The next day, the participants woke up between 5.30am to 6.00am. At 6.00am, we had morning exercise led by LCpl Michael Tan. We did some stretching and jogged around the school compound. After that, the NCOs had their breakfast to prepare early for NCO fall in later at 7.30am. Meanwhile at 6.30am, the participants were allowed to wash up, rested for a while or to change into their uniforms before breakfast. The campers had their breakfast from 7.00am to 7.50am. Those who finished their meals were aloowed to change into their uniforms before the start of parade. Fall in for the opening parade started at its usual time at 7.50am. Unfortunately, it started raining and we moved to the chapel for opening parade.
After opening parade, we had our praise & worship session led by Private Alex Ong. For the Word session, our chaplain, Rev. Christopher Rao gave a session on Love. The session was great because it taught us many things about love, such as our love in brotherhood for one another and how God's love for us in unconditional. After that we had our Target Badge session (Session 2) led by Mr Andrew. After the session, all the participants went down for drill. The way we conducted this drill session was unlike previous ones. We used to carry out drill by separating the recruits and privates. This time, the NCOs did a demonstration first, before the campers were asked to try it in their own squads. Occasionally, two squads may combine to form one. This method turned out to be highly effective and the recruits could understand the sequences more clearly and can execute the movements correctly. After drill, we had our closing parade. From 11.00am till 12.00pm, the drill team members stayed back for an extended drill practice while the other participants had their free & easy time. Lunch was served shortly after.
After lunch, a polishing workshop was conducted by Cpl. Jack Lim. This is to teach recruits how to polish their metal parts and boots. Those who did not have parts to practice polishing had to borrow from their willing NCOs. The polishing session was productive - the recruits can now polish their own uniforms and look smart when they come for Saturday parades or other BB events. After the polishing session, another drill session followed, to cover all the basics of drill. We used the same method as before, but the recruits were lacking in morale. Mr. Andrew, after seeing this, provided an incentive by promising sports if they did drill properly. Immediately, everyone’s morale was boosted and they perform very well. After the session, Mr. Andrew gave the participants permission to play sports since it was free & easy time and they did well, but there are limited to only play at the basketball court or netball court. Others could go take a shower and rest. At 6.00pm, all participants had their dinner. Dinner was served by the Form 2 leadership team.
After dinner, we had two sessions; one on paying compliments and the other for the Target Badge. Sgt. Jason Pereira and Sgt. Yip Wei Jian conducted the session on paying compliments, which turned out to be a very good time of learning as it cleared up the confusion on when to salute and when not to. The next session was led by our captain. He told everyone to salute and checked, squad by squad. It was the squad leader’s duty to ensure his members saluted correctly or they will get punishment - ten pumps for each fault. After the check, those who were involved in the Clue Hunt went to change into their costumes and made preparations on the areas involved, such as the placement of the clues. At 10.00pm, the participants came down for the clue hunt. They were going round asking the cast members for clues and to look for the clues that had been scattered around. However, there was a problem halfway through the game; we found out there were other teams sabotaging other teams. At the end of the game, the participants will have to submit their answer to the clue hunt. After that, we had our supper and sang BB Vesper. Free time was given from 11.30pm till 12.30am, campers could go wash up, eat supper or go to sleep early. Lights out was at 12.30am. This time Squads 6 to 10 had to do their night watch from 12.30am till 5.30am.
On the third day, reveille was at 6.30am. We had our breakfast before proceeding for praise & worship led by LCpl. Brendan Eu. From 8.00am till 8.30am, the recruits were allowed time to make some place minute revisions before sitting for the Target Test. After that, the NCOs and Leadership Team were given a briefing on how the test was to be conducted. From 8.30am till 9.00am, each squad were given a song test for the 3 most important BB songs; the Anchor Song, BB Vesper and Table Grace. Each NCO took a squad. After that the song tests, Mr. Nicholas Yeap came to conduct the written test. While the recruits were having their test, NCOs and Leadership Team were given another briefing on the drill test. of which the recruits were tested then after. The people in-charge were given 25 minutes only to finish the test.
After the test, all participants came to the chapel to give their reflections and feedback about the camp, before being instructed to pack their luggage and clean up their dorms. We gather before noon for a group photo being the closing parade which marked the end of Boot Camp. Overall the camp was good and we managed to achieve our objectives. We enhance the recruits BB knowledge and strengthen the bonds between all of us in the company. We hope that we could make the next Boot Camp better and improve from our mistakes made.
Page Created: 23rd June 2014
Last Updated: 23rd June 2014