Tuesday, July 01, 2014

Trained Bloodlust


After the first 6 months of training, I was bloodthirsty and ready to go for war..

They gave me 6 men to train, after another 6 months, we were ready for a war that didn't happen. We were proficient with the myriad of weapons and field-craft and camouflage.

Each time we fought fake enemies with blanks, we also had to fight our urge to buttstroke them with our rifles or stab them with the bayonets as if they were real enemies. The bloodlust was unmistakably strong in each and every one of us.

Another 12 months of continuous training passed by and they gave us our lives back, to let us integrate back to society and be ready to kill again when the time beckons.

Unknown to most, we are called back yearly to make sure that we still have the killer instinct and that we are still considered proficient with our killing tools. And as bloodlust brothers unite yearly for a short period of 14-21 days, the activities we did together in our yearly reunion are best kept unpublished and unwritten, for the details are too ghastly to be spoken or printed. And with each reunion, the bloodlust is often satisfied, by and large, in order to maintain a sane mind when returning to normal life for the next 12 months.

With age, only after 10 or more yearly reunions, could the bloodlust be kept at bay. And it can be said that after 10 years, the bloodlust accumulated during the first year of full time service could be laid to rest. No more handling the tools of killing, no more bloodlust brothers as each will go their own way. Turning our head away from each other sometimes when we occasionally bump into each other in public. For we can't say we were proud of "all" the things we had done together previously and for the fact that we know we are unable to reminisce properly if we are no longer in the service.


For the time rendered in full 2.5 years of service and the yearly reservists training so our leaders can say that we have a deterrent force that is effective.

Happy SAF Day 2014!

Bloodlust