We walk. A lot. And we only walk under the cover of darkness through forests, up hills and across rivers till daybreak.

Soldiers in the infantry lead a hard life. Sure, there may be harder lives led by other units in the Army. But here I am, as an infantryman, going to tell you about the toils and hardship of life as one of us.

We rely on our feet, the weapon carried in our hands and each other to win. That is about everything that the infantryman has and almost as important. We depend on our legs. If we don't have them, or if they're not in the working condition, we cannot think about completing our mission successfully; we cannot move.

Because we are so vulnerable, with no armor-skin protection, we are just like any human being, composed of flesh and blood. Our only protection is stealth by darkness and cover. We start our missions in the night and strike our enemies at dawn first light.

The movement phase is often long and arduous. It is done in the dead of the night, in the forest, silently and continuously, into enemy territory. Soldiers laden with battle-survival essential equiptment have to walk kilometres of vegetated and undulating terrain in order to reach their objective. Some need to carry machine guns, anti-tank missiles, and specialized equipment weighing up to 20kg, on top of their standard load.

Commanders, on the other hand, need to lead their forces the way to the objective, with the help of a map and compass, and the awareness that a wrong decision or judgment in terrain could result in longer distance covered, or even not reaching the objective, which affects the morale of his troops, mission timings, and ultimately, mission success.

Sometimes, there are streams and water bodies to be negotiated; a soldier needs to be comfortable with his waterlogged boots and tolerate it for the rest of the mission. There are many uncertainties as there may not be just one river or one knoll. The strain of natural elements cause ruptured blisters, abrasions rubbed raw to the flesh and the notorious foot-rot. In addition, the soldier needs to constantly fight fatigue and sleepiness that is screaming inside of his body to stop. It is a painful process that a soldier needs to inoculate it in him as something normal and a second nature.

There is already so much that is wearing out the soldier's mind and body, let alone the enemy element that is constantly trying to disrupt the forces all the way into his territory. They come in the form of artillery shelling, enemy foot patrols and vehicular patrols. And soldiers need to be on alert and execute drills to evade or react to these situations to stay alive. Men will be wounded and killed, there will be attrition of forces and this is the time that separates leaders from ordinary men; leaders step out to control and manage the chaos.

By the time he reaches the form-up site, where the attack is launched from, he'll be extremely drained. More precisely, the soldier is in no condition for a proper fight. To stay all fresh and ready before a battle is an unrealistic expectation. He'll be worn-out to some extent, wounded in some way or another, and what it seemed was a movement phase was already a hard-fought battle. All he has left is his mental depths and his platoon mates to draw strength from, to prepare himself for the attack phase. He has to be committed, focused, disciplined and have a tremendous amount of fighting spirit in him if he wants to fight a decent battle and come out alive.

This process goes on for days.

When trying to stay alive, is already a tough challenge.

God bless the infantry.




Written by a friend Johan hooya, we both have chosen to walk the same path like many others before. Treasure the infantry. for we are the pillars of Singapore's freedom.