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| Men of Naval Diver Unit |
As an average joe, I expected a letter from BMTC, telling me to go to Pulau Tekong for the start of my NS life. To my surprise, NDU sent me a letter, asking me to head down to their camp for a medical check-up. Without much of a choice, I went.
I arrived at Sembawang MRT station that morning, waiting for someone and some direction from him (as told in the letter). A master sergeant appeared and soon all of us boarded an excursion bus. We were headed to Sembawang camp.
There, we were asked to swim 50m to see how proficient we were in swimming. After that activity, we were led into a room one at a time for an interview with a warrant officer. He asked me loads of questions, of which including the most important question of the day, "do you want to join NDU". It is worth noting that answering "No" to this question is one of the key towards escaping service in the NDU.
When I told him I do not want to be part of the family in NDU (I dislike the water), he spend the remaining 15 minutes trying to convince me to join them, listing down the benefits and things I could learnt during the 2 years of NS. But I still insisted.
After all had been interviewed, we had lunch at the camp's cookhouse where I saw my Primary school friend. He asked me what was I doing here and I told him my purpose. The only thing he said was that he regretted coming in here and hope that I would not follow his foot steps. His words further encouraged me not to join the NDU.
Lunch was over and we were led to the medical centre where we had our medical check-up. There, they checked to see if our bodies are naval divers material. I remember a particular station where they checked how much my lung capacity was. I figured that this test was vital in the outcome of today's trip. Therefore I tried to score badly. Of course, this was another key towards escape of service in NDU.
Lastly, they conducted a test to see if all of us could withstand huge pressure under water. This test was the final and biggest key of all. As the pressure increased, my eye drums were popping like crazy until a point where it was so painful. I asked them to stop and they sent me to see a medical officer. The medical officer said that the area near my ear drum was red and soon after asked for my name.
As expected, I was rejected from NDU and soon started my service as a soldier in BMTC.
