Surprise, surprise. While on guard duty on monday, we recieved a call telling us to recall the rest of the guys currently on leave. Reason? Book-in monday night, tuesday morning we'll be moving out to Nee Soon camp for a crash course on a bridge. Rumours were then flying as to what bridge we would learn, and as to when the deployment date would be in view of this crazy change in training. Admin Spec Sgt Sean then came and told us that the most probable deployment date would be next week. Mmmm....with me blogging this now...not likely i'd say.
Anyways, we heard more rumours that we would be learning the MGB in Nee Soon. Strange considering we already have that bridge in camp. Other rumours were that we were going to be taught the APB, and we would be deploying without a crane. This is pretty crazy news as the APB is extremely heavy, what with it being the largest military bridge currently available. Well, turns out that second rumour proved to be true, and so started a week of crash course hands-on training on the APB.
Let's give you some bits of info before i dive in. The APB, or Acrow Panel Bridge, is well known as the eye-power bridge. Simply because you don't have to use much strength to build it. Yeah right. Without a crane like us, you'll be dead just building the damned skeleton. One side panel of the bridge weighs in at about 250kg or so. Left and right panels are held together by this huge piece of metal called a transem, that's shaped like an I-beam. That weighs 450kg or so. Panels are held together by panel pins, and weighing in at 2.7kg each, they are the lightest parts of the bridge. So then, if anybody would like to say that we are too pampered and can't take hard work, i say go lift one of thos damned panels. It takes only 6 men to lift. Go ahead and try, then tell me who's the pampered one here.
Right, training, though tough was pretty fun, due to the fact that the bridge being so large and all gave you pretty much a large sense of acheivement when you complete it. However, it being so large and being almost totally man-launched, building it is very slow. The FLB platoon came down, built their bridge, smiled at us, enjoyed some sun and retrieved and packed up their bridge all in a day, while all we could do in one day was to build the skeleton. More precisely, the skeleton of the nose. Damn.
As for the deployment to Aceh, that at this stage is more or less a sure thing. However, a decision was made thursday that we whould not be deployed yet. Go learn the MGB first seemed to be the decision. Whatever. Just somemore bridging. But, bridging is a lot more meaingful than building and clearing minefields or wire obstacles or whatever other nonsense that we do, 'cept explosives of course. Only the engineers build bridges of this size, so...yep...pride. But, i do hope to be deployed to Aceh soon. The bridge, if needed would stay there for 5 years at least. It'd be great to be able to be part of something like that.
Anyways, we heard more rumours that we would be learning the MGB in Nee Soon. Strange considering we already have that bridge in camp. Other rumours were that we were going to be taught the APB, and we would be deploying without a crane. This is pretty crazy news as the APB is extremely heavy, what with it being the largest military bridge currently available. Well, turns out that second rumour proved to be true, and so started a week of crash course hands-on training on the APB.
Let's give you some bits of info before i dive in. The APB, or Acrow Panel Bridge, is well known as the eye-power bridge. Simply because you don't have to use much strength to build it. Yeah right. Without a crane like us, you'll be dead just building the damned skeleton. One side panel of the bridge weighs in at about 250kg or so. Left and right panels are held together by this huge piece of metal called a transem, that's shaped like an I-beam. That weighs 450kg or so. Panels are held together by panel pins, and weighing in at 2.7kg each, they are the lightest parts of the bridge. So then, if anybody would like to say that we are too pampered and can't take hard work, i say go lift one of thos damned panels. It takes only 6 men to lift. Go ahead and try, then tell me who's the pampered one here.
Right, training, though tough was pretty fun, due to the fact that the bridge being so large and all gave you pretty much a large sense of acheivement when you complete it. However, it being so large and being almost totally man-launched, building it is very slow. The FLB platoon came down, built their bridge, smiled at us, enjoyed some sun and retrieved and packed up their bridge all in a day, while all we could do in one day was to build the skeleton. More precisely, the skeleton of the nose. Damn.
As for the deployment to Aceh, that at this stage is more or less a sure thing. However, a decision was made thursday that we whould not be deployed yet. Go learn the MGB first seemed to be the decision. Whatever. Just somemore bridging. But, bridging is a lot more meaingful than building and clearing minefields or wire obstacles or whatever other nonsense that we do, 'cept explosives of course. Only the engineers build bridges of this size, so...yep...pride. But, i do hope to be deployed to Aceh soon. The bridge, if needed would stay there for 5 years at least. It'd be great to be able to be part of something like that.
posted by Timothy at 1/15/2005 05:19:00 PM
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