Haiz.......... talking abt military conscriptions i decided to tell u or should i say paint to u the happy yet most of the time, sad aspects of conscriptions in Singapore.........
In Singapore, all males at the age of 18 is drafted regardless whether u are a conscious objector or a person in religious training, eg. trainee priest. We have one of the longest conscription term in the world that is around 2.5 yrs, recently they reduced it to 2 yrs. U will do a basic military training of about 3 months and get posted to either the army, navy, airforce, if not, u might get into civil defence like for example, police force or fire-fighter. U dun get to choose, they choose for you. For me, I was posted to a Guards battalion which is some what like air-mobile infantry with some capabilities of that of a marine. Training was of course tough but bearable, and there will of course be good and bad memories to come with.
Positve aspects:
U get a chance to interact with ppls from all walks of life and to get out of ur typical comfort zone. For me, I was a college graduate and I never had a chance to mix with lower educated groups. And the army gives u a chance to see the true colours of ppls and ferret out who are ur true frens and who are those that suck up to the superiors, i can say it is a good prep for work environment in the future with all those office politics. U get a chance to interact with foreign troops u train with and get a chance to visit other countries. For example, I trained with the royal Thai army before and some the ppls in our Bn got a cause to fly to US to train with the USMC. I also got a chance to visit Australia and train in shoal waterbay area which is a unique experience as usually Australia is considered too expensive to holiday for me at least. I also trained in Brunei rain-forest too.
Now it is the cons:
Firstly, many ppls sustained many injuries during training and some of these injuries are permanent and causes lifelong pain to the person. I have a fren who carries the GPMG and the MG hits his back as he attempts to prone down and take cover fast. As a result, he suffered 3 hairline cracks on his spine, while others suffered from slip disc. U must noe that SG forces lvl of mechanisation is not as high as the NATO countries, thus most troops operate on foot, eg most exercise I participate, I have trekked abt 20+ throughout the nite to reach the objective. Thus over-time, many ppls including myself sustain injuries. I carried the 4 rounds for the 84mm Carl Gustaf rifle which is itself abt 14kgplus my personal kit and rifle, it can easily work to abt 27 to 30 KG which is tough for a small Asian guy to carry. The worst is the ministry of defence tries not to compensate those injuried. Unlike other nations in which those injuried during training, care will be given to them to the max. Here, they will try to delay paperwork procedures, so by the time u leave the conscription term, u are no longer liable for medical coverage. In fact, during my two yrs, 2 members of my Bn died as a result of training, one died of over-exhaustion while the other died during POW training. The biggest joke is that they are only compensated 6000 dollars, when the cost of a coffin is more than that.
Another thing is, most male when they enter university or workforce, they are older than their peers by 3 yrs. When I met my female college classmate one day at university, she was already in 3rd yr mechanical engineering while I am onli a first yr engineering student. The feeling of coming back to civilian life is like a man frozen in time and suddenly being unfrozen in the yr 3000. The feeling is sad, weird and bizarre. Many of my peers also lost their girlfriends as they are away from them for a long extended time, thus it is hard for the gals to wait for them.To make things worst, here we practise yearly reservist training for 10 consecutive yrs, and mobilisation. Which means to say yearly, males have to go back to camps for 1 month worth of training. In times of globalisation and a world highly accessible by air travel. Local males marketability in the work force is at risk. Companies especially MNC dun really like the idea that their workers have to disrupt from work to go back for training, as time is money. This is worsen by the case that our govt is giving out PR-ship to Indian and PRC like free chocolates. Coupled with the fact many PRC tertiary educated folks are finding difficulty to secure a job as they face millions of their own peers searching for jobs too. Thus many jump on the bandwagon and come to SG to work. This puts local males in an unfavourable position as companies tends to hire the PRC as they dun need to do reservist or do mobilisation practises. Thus jobs from blue collared ones to managerial ones are being 'robbed' by them as there are always throngs and throngs of "temporary immigrants" ready to replace you in the future.................
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bd popeye moderator
I really do not think there will be one any time soon in the US. Afterall if you were a Democrat would you want your party connected to a military draft? Hell no. I just don't think it will work in the US. The mind set of the average 18-25 year old crowd in the US is to self centered to serve in the military.