The Duck Walkers (Click On Image To Enlarge)

This were for emergency where you did not have to lug extra weight. I was involved in this exercise. The Malayan Communist Party Cadres who were our enemies were very adept at it. After that we had a 5 days survival training. We were stripped of our clothing.

We were only allowed to wear our underwear. Most of us were clad in white underwear. During that time colored under wears were rare. Our boots were taken from us. Once you take away the boots of a soldier he is totally screwed! We were allowed to carry a machete, a packet of salt and one side of a mess tin.

Not forgetting a water bottle each. A fishing line and some fish hooks, like the small stram was teeming with fish!! We were taught the basics of survival theoretically now was the practical. We slowly trudged to the small river with crystal clear water. This was at the foothill of Mount Ophir (Gunung Ledang).

We divided our tasks, to look for river stones that could create sparks. Another was tasked to gather dried twigs, which is not easy in the primary jungle. They chopped up the twigs to standard sizes and laid them on the rocks where the sun was shining. Another lot of us looked for dried moss, which is impossible.

Scrapped them off the trees. Started drying them on the rocks in the river as the sun could not get through the jungle canopy. Some of us identified a sleeping and resting place for all of use, Cleared the ground evening the ground so that we could rest. Of course we prayed that it would not rain. Our prayers were answered.

We made a pile of twigs and dried logs, which we had foraged to make a fireplace. We were ready to make a fire, we tied all the twigs with a twine to make into two separate torches. We took the moss and place on a flat rock, between two bunches of tied twigs. One of us took the machete and the river stone and started creating sparks over the moss. The moss started smoking, everyone got excited.

The guy who was doing it ignored the excitement and scooped up the smoking moss with the two tied up bunches of twigs. The twigs soon caught fire, he walked slowly the to arranged fireplace and placed the two torches there. This is not as easy as it sounds. Speed and patience are required. The woodpile started smoking and turned into a fiery pile.

We were done, to keep warm at night and had fire to cook. We were given an empty vegetable cooking oil tin to boil water for drinking. Which was the first thing we did. For scooping, we used our mess tins. We filled our empty bellies with water. If you get lazy, you can only do so much with water in your belly. It is only temporary.

We foraged for food, we found some jungle bananas, we ate up this monkey food. If you do not eat, you will become lethargic by only drinking water. The fire was burning well. So we settled down lying on the ground just in the underwear. It was getting chilly the warmth from the fire swept over us. All 13 were lying down on the ground.

Two of us would act as sentries and keep the fire burning. We had machetes and sharpened staffs to be used as spears. We took turns on 2 hour watches, we were allowed to keep our timepieces. We got large leaves to place as a roof over the fire in the event there was a shower. Was not as worried as the logs were burning very well.

In the morning we filled up our water bottles share the boiled water and went out to forage in pairs. We walked bare footed for miles, we came across and abandoned shack, which had an old jackfruit tree. There was one solitary fruit not ripe, who cares that was food. There was a very old banana tree. We chopped it and took out the center of the trunk.

The white to pale green-yellow core is the edible portion of the stem and is dense and firm with a crisp, starchy consistency. Banana stems have a texture similar to turnip and can be consumed fresh or cooked. The fleshy cores have a mild sweet-tart flavor and a subtly bitter aftertaste. Both of us feasted on it.

Some we tied them into a bundle to carry. The jackfruit we carried and once we reached our camp we shared it out. Another group brought back a dead monitor lizard which apparently died of heart attack, 6 guys nabbed it. Problem was all of them were Muslims who had never prepared a monitor lizard for eating.

I had it salted up and chopped into small pieces. I never in my life had eaten a monitor lizard. Divided the pieces and let the guys who wanted to eat and skewer the meat to be cooked over our fire. Even though I was squeamish, the hunger pangs pushed me to eat the meat.

Being Muslims, they were reluctant at first. Soon all of them were eating, some even wanted seconds, the small monitor lizard did not fill our bellies. Once I started eating, I found it delicious, only because of the hunger. The second night whilst on sentry duty I saw a large centipede. A fast and aggressive predator, this Malaysian Cherry-red Centipede can reach over 20cm in length and can consume prey as large as a mouse. Anyway it soon became a snack.

We did not announce the catch as I thought it would be a disappointment as there were 13 of us. We roasted it over the fire and ate it, half each. Overly cooked though. Woke up the following day to forage, my partner was Hasnol. As we were walking, I asked him whether he knew how to go to the spot we cached some of the foodstuff. He said he was not sure of the spot.

I suggested to him at the rate we are going we will not have any strength left. I said I can roughly remember the route to the cache. He said that he was with me. The intention was not to take all the food, just two packs of rice, one can of baked beans and a can of fish in gravy. We planned to disappear for a short while, before the instructors found out that we were missing.

Both of us virtually jogged to the spot where the food was cached, it was a very good hiding place in a hollowed out tree trunk. I reached into the hollow pulled out a plastic bag containing two days of combat rations. We quickly place back the rest of the contents inside the hollow. Ran back at a brisk pace, emptied the container of water, leaving enough to cook the rice, poured in the baked beans and the can of fish with gravy.

It became a thick gruel, soon everyone was tucking in. We stupid idiots because of hunger were thinking only of food. Never bothered to place sentries to be on the lookout for our Commando Instructors. Luckily, for us we finished eating when a Commando Sergeant came upon us. We were taken by surprise. We left the evidence lying on the ground, the empty can and the shredded plastic packets.

He collected the all the evidence quietly. I knew that we were in a world of shit. Not too soon afterwards a Major Aziz appeared. He asked who was responsible for the stolen food. I sheepishly lifted my hands. Hasnol, being the gentleman lifted his hands too. The next question he asked, “did all of you eat? There was no answer.

As no one answered it was assumed that all had eaten the stolen food. We were asked to dress up with our webbing, combat boots and all minus our packs. We were made to carry our M16’s, to a milestone. We were made to squat and duck walk, yes we duck walked from milestone to milestone. We did a solid two mile duck walk. Our thighs were screaming for relief.