My Story

Story continues..

Name: Neville Oosthuizen
Location: Uitenhage
Date: 2009-10-30 23:35:07

Neville Oosthuizen's Story:

This is the 2nd part of my story, begun in July 2009.

And so... we arrived in Oudtshoorn to the thundering voices of Sergeants and Corporals, all trying to intimidate us and at the same time get us off the railway station and into the camp. And for some of us they achieved their goal!

Arrived in camp; bundled through the ever-present documentation, and then ushered into our bungalows. For me, and all my 'buddies' from Middelburg, this was the first time that we would be sleeping in the army in a building, and not in a tent.

They re-issued us with kit where necessary – yet the one thing they didn't issue (and which we soon found out would be sorely needed in Oudtshoorn), was the wonderful old army “Grootjas”.

Then our training started. Or so we thought! It turned out that we redid basics, from the start, because so many of the guys from other units had been sitting around doing nothing, just waiting to be shipped of to JLs (Junior Leaders training). This was, despite having to do what we'd already completed – with success I am adamant in saying – a time of growth and of enjoying what the army and its discipline could be. Our platoon, consisting in the majority of ex-Middelburg guys, excelled at our tasks, especially drill. Although it was hard work, the parade ground became a place where we could stand out.

I still clearly remember one sunny day when we went for our regular session to the parade ground. Our timing, our combined discipline and action, was so well practiced, and we were enjoying it so, that our platoon Sergeant began bragging with us. He stood at a distance, a good 70m away from us, giving orders and directions, which became single sylable sounds; and at these we performed the exact action which he wanted. The other platoons on the parade ground stopped and watched us. I don't remember how long we drilled that day, but I do remember us leaving the grounds tired but in extremely high spirits – it had just been so lekkkker. To put it the way we described it back then... “Jy't sommer lekker gekry tot in jou hol!”

Next came the time when we actually got down to doing some shooting.

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