HOBTC is over!

After two weeks of intensive training, the 29th Honorary Officers' Basic Training Course (HOBTC) has come to an end. At first I had doubts as to whether I should go for the course, given that I am from another uniformed group previously and have limited knowledge about NPCC hard skills.

After going through the course, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Although my squad (squad 1) was quite 'quiet' compared to squad 2, they were a real friendly bunch of people. Those experienced ones really helped me make my learning curve less steep. I must place on record my thanks to Shikai and Kelvin who taught me knots and lashings, and who clarified my doubts about some of the procedures in NPCC.

An overview of the two weeks in the course:

The day before the course, i was down with a flu! was on medication. got ready my uniform and all and, when i was about to leave for hall, mum asked me if i was sure i wanted to go for the course and advised me not to neglect my studies.

One the 1st day of the course. I could only get to sleep around 2am, due to excitement. woke up at 6am to catch 151 down for what would be the first of many course days.
Course Opening, officiated by Commandant, DSP Geraldine Tan, who welcomed us warmly to the Corps. I was heartened to know that just like some of us (myself included), DSP Tan had no NPCC background when she first joined NPCC as a HO years back. After that got to chat and get to know some of the other new HOs - Jeremy, Aubrey, Zainuddin to name a few. I got to touch a gun (revolver) for the first time, during what we call dry practice. Thus ended the first day of the course.
The following days of the course included hard skills training like campcraft (knots and lashings), drills (including armsdrill, sword drill and baton drill) and soft skills training like conflict management, brainstorming and team building.
I also went for my very first range, having been deprived of the opportunity to do so during NS. and boy, it WAS a great experience. my shooting wasn't that good, only got 47 out of a perfect score of 200. (the best shooter got 175.)