cougar part 2: digging your own grave

2. shell scrape digging
a shell scrape is a grave for recruits to dig and sleep in during their field camp, and is not intended for any military purposes. it is supposed to fit the digger and his field pack without any part protruding, so it's about 2m long and maybe half a metre deep.

when i heard that we were supposed to finish it in 45mins, i felt relieved because i thought it couldn't be that difficult, or else the time wouldn't be so short.

but like all things in the army, what we're supposed to do and what actually happens is usually very different. armed with a tiny hoe (aka ET stick and blade, i don't know what the fuck ET stands for), dressed in number 4 uniform, load bearing vest, helmet, and the damned rifle slung on my shoulder, i started digging.

the time was around 1530 to 1600. the ground was harder than i expected, the hoe was just as useless as i thought it would be. my rifle was falling off with each stroke i made, my helmet moving all about. the vest was cutting into my arm. "wow, this is fun," i thought.

so the process went something like this- swing hoe into ground, rifle falls off, pull rifle back up, dig out the chunk of soil, throw soil aside, adjust rifle again, continue.

soon an hour had passed and no one was near completion. 2 hours, and one guy was done. 3, 4, the sky was getting dark and we had to work in candlelight. more fun was to come when i started to dig into roots from the rubber trees, so i had to chop at the roots with my stupid blade.

5 hours and many people were done. i was still hacking away at the roots. we were supposed to stop at 2130, which was an hour away. those who failed to complete were supposed to go for a re-dig on a weekend.

time was almost up and i gave a last burst of fire, as well as got my buddy to help, and finally FINALLY completed the damned thing. the same cannot be said about some others, and they had to continue digging later that night.

our fingers were swollen for a few days afterwards, but because i'm special, my joints still feel funny when i clench my fists now, despite it being more than a month ago.

once again, this experience is more about mental pain than physical. spending 6 hours on a stupid hole with a useless ET stick is no joke. other countries' military forces have entrenching tools (aka SPADES) and all we have are stupid ET sticks. oh, and i think ET stands for Entrenching Tool.

my friend even managed to break 2 sticks while digging his hole because the whole area was filled with rocks and roots. whenever he swung the blade, there would be a TING sound instead of the blade digging into the soil. i can only imagine his agony.