Representative Image Of A Wild Boar

From twenty plus in a platoon to slightly over one dozen men. In the Battalion there were 2nd Lt Wong Heng Ging, 2nd Lt Fabian Bangkong, 2nd Lt Lim Wee Peng, 2nd Lt Raphael Tan, 2nd Lt Ivan Lee Synn Leng, 2nd Lt Jeya, 2nd Lt Mathaven, and 2nd Lt Tara Singh. I had an all Indian and Dayak platoon, which was a first to command for me, all Non-Muslims! There were one Chinese, seven Indians and eight Dayaks, plus me made seventeen in my group.

Curried Meat

I asked all of them if they knew me as they were from other companies. They replied they knew me as the UCIS Commander; well there was only one UCIS platoon in the battalion. The signaler was Raja, a tall lanky chap. What happened was the voice procedure for signals went to shit. Tac HQ too had only the Non Malays. Our signalers started talking in Tamil over the radio sets. I told them stick to the everyday voice procedure; the reply was the enemy would get confused.

The Indians I mixed them up to partner them with the Dayak soldiers, they did not have a problem as some of them were married to Dayak women. The Indians can make mean tapai (traditional rice wine) drinks, which pack a wallop. Those who were married to the Dayak women. They got along very well with their in-laws. One of the problems is when Indians get together they become loud, very loud.

So I told them to lower their volume and not to gather with more than two people at a time. Warned them that this was the festive season, the enemy would be more than happy to strike as our forces were spread very thinly. Told them that if they disobeyed me they would be soaking in the stream nearby. They were good and very well behaved.

For patrolling, I had a Corporal Rajoo who could lead any fighting patrol. He was reliable and very able, I had known him since the day I joined the unit. I kept a firm grip on jungle discipline when I rounded I reminded them that we were the best of fighting soldiers. The end of the operations was in two weeks’ time I needed to keep them alive and in good spirits. It was fun in a way, I enjoyed eating with them, as they knew how to improvise.

One day one of my Dayak boys came to me and said that there were wild boars around our area. He asked me permission to shoot one of them. I told him that he was allowed to use only one round. To be careful as he will be alone and allowed to be away from us for a distance of five hundred meters only. I detailed another five of my boys fully armed to be on standby.

I told the boy who was to shoot the boar that if we hear more than that single shot, I will send out the five boys on standby, more than one shot means he was in trouble and needed help. We had insufficient radios; we had to improvise to overcome this by being flexible and practical. I told them I would lead the standby group. I let the shooter go out and waited sipping hot coffee.

Lay down on my hammock cradling my rifle. The rest of the boys too were ready, apart from the five on standby the rest of the boys too were ready to go, only on my orders. After about two hours of nervous and tense waiting, I heard the clear single shot of the rifle. Waited for a moment, then told the five to move out I followed quickly.

After an hour of walking Ranger Latop was there hidden behind a log. Near him was a huge boar. The boys set to work quickly, bound the legs of the boar and pushed a long staff between the legs. Carried the boar back to base and laid it beside the stream. To be chopped up. The boys gave lean meat to me. Before the operation I had gone home for a few days, I brought back with curry and chilly powder with me. I made the Indian boys to cook for me they even had spices. They made a mean gravy.

They pounded the “dog biscuits” into powder, which were part of our combat rations and made them into a kind of bread. They were eaten with the pork gravy; it was out of this world, in a jungle. The rest of the meat was roasted and distributed to all, roasted so that it could last for a few days. They hung the meat on their packs. As they walked they could slice off pieces of meat that hung from their buddies pack.

I continued patrolling, one day a patrol led by Corporal Rajoo came back with two young Malay kids just before the day of the Muslim Festival. I asked why were the two kids with the patrol. Apparently, they were dirt poor and living at the fringe of the jungle in a small rubber holding. They were bare footed and told me that they had shoes for school.

Representative image

They were staying with the mother and elder sister who tapped rubber, they barely scraped through for their daily needs. We fed them from our combat rations. Made a collection for the boys. We collected around eighty dollars and gave it to them, plus rice packets and  all the combat rations in cans which they did not eat.