Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Remembering Datuk Temenggong Kanang Langkau S.P., P.G.B
Thursday, January 03, 2013
Decorated Iban war hero Datuk Kanang Langkau collapsed while watching television at home in Sg Apong here Wednesday night. He was 68.Here is the story of his exploits:
In the annals of the Malaysian Military History no one person was more decorated than Kanang anak Langkau of the Ranger Corps.
He is one of the very few survivors ever conferred the "Seri Pahlawan
Gagah Perkasa" whilst still alive and a "Pingat Gagah Berani". No other
person has ever received two gallantry awards in the history of the
Malaysian Armed Forces. No other Corps can boast of a warrior of his
stature but the Ranger Corps. This happened when Lieutenant Colonel C.A. Tony Loone was the Commanding Officer of 8th Rangers.
On
a patrol on the morning of 2nd February 1980, a sub-unit commanded by
1029095 Sgt Salleh bin Ahmad from No.9 Platoon, C Company, 25th Royal
Malay Regiment made contact with the Enemy. One Enemy who was an “Orang
Asli” (Original People of Malaysia) who was believed to a Communist
Terrorist at Tanah Hitam., in Tanjung Rambutan, Chemor. The Royal Malay
Battalion at that time was commanded by Lt Col Mohamed bin Osman
(12304). The Battalion was conducting Operation “Gerakan Setia”. After
that incident No. 9 Platoon was one day attacked, one round from a
shotgun shattered the silence in the jungle, the shooter escaped. The
round from that shotgun was stopped by the head of 1023907 Pvt. Abu bin
Abd Rahman who had just completed his sentry duties and about to rest
inside his hammock. Death was instant. 8th
Rangers which at that time was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel C.A.
Loone (200104) was deployed. The sub-unit chosen to track and destroy
the Enemy was the UCIS Platoon of 8th Rangers. This follow up was
assisted by 25 Royal Malay. The operation orders were deivered by the
Brigade Commander, Ahmad bin Hj Kadir. They were deployed from Camp Syed
Putra, along the Tambun – Tanjung Rambutan road. The UCIS Commander was
2Lt Johnson anak Meling (3000491), his Platoon Sergeant was Sgt Kanang
ak Langkau. The rest of the members of the UCIS Platoon were : 1. 455669 Cpl Mohd Nasir bin Mohd Nordin 2. 931635 Cpl Omar bin Awang Tengah 3. 931890 Lcpl Seaday ak Meloh 4. 1011643 LCpl Rajagopal al Subramaniam 5. 931630 Rgr Kalang bin Batang 6. 932494 Rgr Mohe ak Singkie 7. 213611 Rgr Mohamad bin Che Will 8. 213614 Rgr Jamian bin Hj Lajis 9. 213573 Rgr Mohamad bin Tisman 10. 213613 Rgr Mustaffa Kamal bin Majid 11. 1011293 Rgr Zulhisham bin Shahrum 12. 1011336 Rgr Rosli bin Md Isa 13. 1011577 Rgr Kanagasan 14. 1012101 Rgr Abdullah bin Chik 15. 1012424 Rgr Muniandy al Gindaraju 16. 931899 LCpl Abang Mohd Salleh bin Abang Morshidi (Medic) 17. 212057 Rgr Mohd Arif bin Harun (Assault Pioneer) 18. 931531 LCpl Jonathan ak Aton (Assault Pioneer) 19. 932281 Rgr Meringai ak Ledang (Assault Pioneer) The others attached were from D Company of 8th Rangers : 1. 931569 LCpl Sutoh ak Minon 2. 1021661 Rgr Sakaria bin akop 3. 1025083 Rgr Omar bin Mahmud 4. 1025085 Rgr Ghazali bin Sudin 5. 1025093 Rgr Kathina Vellu al Sitamparam 6. 1025129 Rgr Valalam al Muniady 7. Rgr Sulaiman 8. Rgr Sharif 9. Rgr Idris. After
receiving the orders from the Brigade Commander 2Lt Johnson Mileng led
his men into the operational area. He broke up his platoon into 3 groups
to track down the Enemy. Sgt Kanang led one group, Cpl Omar led another
and he himself led one other group. The Platoon married up again after a
day as Sgt Kanang and his group reported coming across Enemy tracks.
They had come across an enemy Camp that could accommodate 10-15 men.
After a week of tracking, they found that the Enemy was trying to
dominate the area. They were required to report to the CO of 25 RMR, as
they were placed under his command. They were re -supplied after a week,
“Ops Pukat was launched by 8th Rangers after that re-supply, in the
Tanah Hitam area of Chemor. After they were re-supplied, Rgr Sulaiman
stepped on a booby trap, as he was removing a tree branch which lay in
his way. He was extricated to be treated at a hospital. Since
the insertion of the UCIS Platoon of 8th Rangers , 10 days had already
passed, with the finding of Enemy traces, but they still had not got
into grips with the Enemy. It was already the 13th February 1980. Sgt
Kanang did not at any time show or display that he was bored in leading
the patrols assisted by Cpl Omar, in fact he was eager and displaying
the indomitable fighting spirit of the Corps. On the morning of February
1980 as the Platoon climbed a hill, as it was descending, Sgt Kanang
came across an empty wrapping of “Maggi*” noodles. * Popular brand name
for instant nnodles. After
that they walked, patrolling for quite some time, they were tired and
weary. They stopped on a hill to cook for lunch. After lunch they
continued their patrolling, as usual Sgt Kanang being the expert tracker
took the lead. Sgt Kanang reached the foothill whilst the soldiers who
were behind him were still descending. He found himself on a very level
ground. Suddenly he spotted an Enemy sentry who was on duty. Realizing
that he was in the vicinity of an Enemy camp, he fired at the Enemy
yelling “Enemy ! To the right ! Enemy ! To the right !” The soldiers who
were behind rushed forward to form an extended line, to shake up into
an assault formation. They started bringing fire to the right as
indicated by Sgt Kanang. Even though heavy fire was brought to bear
against the Enemy, it was not very effective. The Enemy main force was
well away from the heavy fire, it was located lower on the left, whereas
they fired to the front from above. The
Enemy base was located and was assaulted by them, the Enemy by then had
fled leaving large quantities of their equipment and food. The food
left behind comprised of rice, sugar, cooking oil, pork, flour and
liquor. One of the Enemy was believed to be wounded as there were blood
trails in the direction they fled. The spent the night at that location,
in the Enemy camp. That
night Sgt Kanang and 2Lt Johnson discussed their plans on tracking the
Enemy the following day. They discussed the two possible directions the
Enemy might have taken when they escaped. They formulated their plans to
track down the Enemy along these two trails. The following morning the
Platoon broke up into 3 groups. One group to form a firm base and stay
put. Two more groups to conduct the tracking, one group under 2Lt
Johnson and one more group under Sgt Kanang. 2Lt Johnson was to lead his
group along the ridge whereas Sgt Kanang and his group was to track
further downhill. The in charge for the firm base to be guarded, with
the Enemy’s captured equipment and food supplies was left to Cpl Mohd
Nasir and his group. He was also required to wait for the Combat Tracker
Team that was on it’s way to participate in the tracking down of the
Enemy. After
trailing the Enemy for around 15 minutes, one soldier from Johnson’s
group stepped on a booby trap, which exploded, injuring Rgr Zakaria.
They started making a winching point to extricate Ranger Zakaria. At
around 1500 hours, a helicopter arrived to extricate Rgr Zakaria. They
spent the night again in the Enemy camp, before continuing the tracking
of the Enemy. On
the morning of the 16th February 1980 they left the Enemy camp to
continue hunting them down. During this tracking of the Enemy they were
assisted by the Combat Tracker Team, which was commanded by 23006 Sgt
Jamaludin bin Razali and assisted by 22448 Cpl Abd Rahim bin Yacob,
there were two Labradors (dogs) with them. Before moving Sgt Kanang told
Cpl Nasir that the previous night he had a vision that it would be bad
for Cpl Nasir to lead. He advised him to move at the rear or in the
center of the patrol. These are some of the beliefs of old soldiers. Sgt
Kanang believed in his visions very strongly. In his dream he saw
faeces being thrown at Cpl Nasir. He did not allow Nasir to be the
leading scout. As
required by Sgt Kanang, Cpl Nasir took up position in the center of the
of the patrol. Sgt Kanag on the 19th February 1980 in the morning
related another vision, this time to 2Lt Johnson, that he dreamt that
he, Sgt Kanang himself was bleeding in the stomach. Realizing that Sgt
Kanang had very strong beliefs in his dreams, 2Lt Johnson ordered him
not to lead the patrol. 2Lt Johnson tasked Cpl Omar to lead, with 2Lt
Johnson immediately behind him. They
went on tracking until they reached a foothill. The Enemy’s trail at
that point broke up into many different trails. Johson stopped them and
broke them into 4 groups. One group to guard their packs and unnecessary
equipment. 3 groups to continue following the now split trail. Cpl
Nasir stayed with Sgt Kanang’s group Sgt Kanang’s group was to track
uphill. At the foothill Cpl Nasir saw a very small and clear stream, in
it, he saw a footprint, in which the mud was still swirling. There, they
were ordered to go back to their firm base to have lunch, to continue
after lunch. Sgt Kanang looked depressed, anyway he ordered then to cook
the inner stem of the wild banana plant as a fresh vegetable for all.
He had foraged it along the trail. They
had barely partaken of their lunch, at 1300 hours, Sgt Kanang ordered
his men to move out. 2Lt Johnson who wanted his men to rest was seen
arguing with 2Lt Johnson. This argument was that 2Lt Johnson had not
given his order to move out. Sgt Kanang ordered Cpl Nasir to lead. 2Lt
Johnson was thinking, “What’s up ? He did not want Cpl Nasir to lead,
now he wants him to do so.” After tidying up Cpl Nasir stepped out
leading the platoon, following the now very clear trail of the Enemy.
Johnson signaled the rest of the Platoon to follow the leading group. After
moving a short distance Cpl Nasir felt very queasy in his stomach, he
had a very upset stomach. He had to really take a shit. He tried to
concentrate on something else so that the urge to take a dump went away.
He had already walked for half an hour. He had already descended from
one ridge, the Enemy trail broke, split into two different directions.
One to the left another to the right. He stopped to ask Sgt Kanang to
make a decision on which trail to follow. After examining the trail he
told Cpl Nasir to follow the trail on the right. Before
he could move one step forward he heard a cry from behind. The soldiers
behind him shouted, ”Nasir ! Stop! Booby Trap! He turned around and saw
that Sgt Kanang had raised his left arm indicating, stop. There was a
branch which was forked in front of Cpl Nasir. Anyway the urge to shit
was very strong. He went towards the tree to take cover and do his
business. As he squatted to place his pack he heard a shot from the
front, a bit to the left. He was struck down by the round which had
penetrated the far left side of his chest. He yelled out to Sgt Kanang,
“Sarge! I am hit”. He yelled while crawling towards Sgt Kanang. He
desperately wanted Sgt Kanang to cover and help him. Actually
they were inside the location of the enemy, as they were at the foot of
the hill. They only realised that they were inside the enemy's location
when they found a communictions cord from the enemy sentry's location.
This cord was running from the sentry's location to the enemy's main
force. This cord is normally attached to a small bush or empty cans
which make noise when pulled. This way the main force can be alerted by
the sentry when an enemy approaches. At
that moment Sergeant Kanang was approximately 8 meters from the enemy
sentry's location. Realising that, he launched the assault towards the
right by firing towards the right of the enemy along with his platoon.
After launching the attack to the right, it suddenly struck everyone
that the enemy's main force was on the left, below the slope of the
hill. Without losing his senses, he switched the direction of fire to
the left, at the same time changing the direction of the assault to the
left. They
ploughed into the enemy, a large force of the enemy managed to escape.
Whilst trying to rescue his wounded friends, Sergeant Kanang himself
was repeatedly shot, he took three rounds from the enemy into his body.
Sgt Kanang in a very calm voice told Cpl Nasir that he too was hit. His
voice was quivering in pain, when he told this to Cpl Nasir. Cpl Nasir
bit his lips took cover behind a tree and started firing at the Enemy.
He finished one magazine, as he was changing his magazine, his vision
failed him. He started yelling for the medic. After a little while he
heard his friends firing. LCpl Abang Salleh who was the medic crawled up
to him to give him aid. The moment the medic reached him, he had passed
out. The next time he awoke was on a bed in he General Hospital of
Ipoh. Even with that success, they were saddened by the loss of one of
their group who was killed and one more seriously wounded. After opening up on the Enemy, Sgt Kanang called 2Lt Johnson. Johnson and CplOmar
inched their way forward under Enemy fire. By the time they reached Sgt
Kanang the Enemy had fled. He went to Kanang and found that Kanang was
critically wounded. He was shot. Sgt Kanang told 2Lt Johnson to leave
him there and to pursue the Enemy who were already fleeing. He further
told 2Lt Johnson that he would not die. Johnson, at first wanted to do
so, seeing that Kanang was getting weaker he changed his mind on
pursuing the Enemy. Johnson ordered the medic to attend to Kanang, his
stomach was bandaged and he was given a shot of morphine. A
search was conducted in that area. no Enemy was found dead. There were
also no signs indicating that the Enemy had been wounded. It was found
that the Enemy was in 3 locations, mutually supporting one another, all
facing in the direction of the approaching Rangers. In front of their
location the booby traps were heavily laid. It is believed that the
Enemy was preparing to ambush the Rangers. All the Enemy’s plans were
foiled by the careful observation of the Rangers whilst on patrol. Had
they not been observant they would have greater casualties. The Platoon
suffered only 3 wounded. They were Sgt Kanang, Cpl Mohd Nasir and Rgr
Abang Salleh, the medic. Lcpl Jonathan from the assault Pioneers using
plastic explosives blew a winching point in the jungle to have the
wounded evacuated. A Nuri helicopter evacuated them late in the evening
to the Ipoh, General Hospital. The rest of the Platoon continued on the
operations until withdrawn a few days later. Lt
Col C.A. Loone who was the Commanding Officer of 8th Rangers nominated
Sgt Kanang anak Langkau for the “Seri Pahlwan Gagah Perkasa”. This was
for his involvement in Ops Pukat and for the firefight on the 19th
February 1980. The citation succeeded, thus Sgt Kanang became the second
living recipient of the coveted award. This award was gazetted on the
3rd June 1981. The award was bestowed to him by the King on the 10th
June 1981. Sgt
Kanang was born in Karangan Anok, Nanga Meluan, Kanowit on the 2nd
March 1945. He was an Iban, who grew up in the interior of Sarawak. He
grew up away from progress and modernity. Like all his friends in the
interior, educational opportunity was limited. He schooled until
Standard 3. Even though he had limited formal education, his knowledge
on rivers, jungles, mountains, valleys and the life there made him a
master of tracking. Very few could match him in his combat tracking
capabilities. It was only natural that a person who was embedded with
natural instincts of a warrior would choose the profession of arms. Sgt
Kanang started his Military career when he joined the British army as
an Iban tracker of the Sarawak Rangers with his service number 18195179
on the 21st April 1962, after an interview which he had attended in
March 1962. After that he was absorbed into 1st Battalion Malaysian
Rangers on the 1st June 1965. He received his basic training at Changi,
Singapore, trained by the Gurkhas. After which he attended training at
Jungle Warfare School in Ulu Tiram, Johore. Even before his training
ended he was sent to Brunei where there was the Brunei Revolt, followed
by Confrontation. The war against the Indonesians. He
was promoted to LCpl on the 6th August 1971 and to Corporal on the 17th
June 1977 in 1st Rangers. Promoted to Sergeant on the 1st January 1979
and appointed the UCIS Platoon Sergeant. On the 1st November 1981 he was
promoted to Staff Sergeant. He was promoted to Warrant Officer 2 on the
1st April 1983. Finally he was promoted to Warrant Office 1 on the 17th
February 1986. He retired a few months after that. He
retired on the 31st May 1986 after serving the nation valiantly, 3
years with the British and 21 years in the Rangers. He is married to
Helen Latai anak Ani, they have 6 children, two boys and four girls. He
is involved in agriculture and runs his own sundry shop in his village
in Skra Hilir, Simanggang, Sarawak. Source.
Your dad too was a great man. Not everyone in a contact gets mentioned in despatches. There are lots of heros out there without their names being mentioned, they did it for the love of the country, they love. Lots of Malaysians do not realize the passionate love these guys have for their country. I am not talking about DUMNO Wallahs.
After my SPM exam in 1974, my classmates and I went our separate ways. Years later at one of our alumni dinners, we caught up and shared our life journey. The one classmate whom I greatly respected that night and till today was the one who became a commando and operated deep in the jungle to eliminate the CTs. He literally put his life on the line for all of us. While the rest of us talked about our careers and financial successes and the great children we sired, none of our achievements came come close to our commando ex-classmate's. We can talk till our faces turned purple about patriotism and what not but my friend put his life on the line so that we can sleep soundly at night. My friend isn't one who screams "untuk bangsa, negara dan agama" like those DUMNO Wallahs but he knows who are the genuine and hypocritical ones.
To my great ex-classmate, Bala, thank you and God bless you and your family.
Hi Sir, my dad was in 8th Renjer B Company when this incident happen.
told him about this write up.He still remember all those names.
Sethu