me in BDA with field pack (5 kilos!) :D 

*scroll right to view whole pic* (L-R) C/MAJ DELOSO, C/COL PEREZ, C/MAJ CALAQUIAN, C/1Lt PINEDA: 1Cl on Hill 370 :D

holding guns with live ammunition :D 

wonderful view on Hill 370 (Taklang Damulag) 

commendation

it's been quite a while since i last posted an entry... been quite busy lately having meetings left and right as well as lately things have been just a blur and rarely do i get the chance to reflect on new insights... fortunately i was given a sort of day off from being busy... i just came back from a trip to Nueva Ecija at Fort Magsaysay... the commanding general there is my uncle and he was hospitable enough to accommodate me and my fellow officers...

the day started at 3am when i had to wake up and go to the ADAST to report... i got there at about 4am almost and picked up the rest of the officers... luckily i had a driver with me so i was able to sleep on the way to Fort Magsaysay... it was a long three hour and a half drive and we got to the fort at about 730am where my uncle was already waiting for us... he promised us a tree planting activity and several other activities that he deemed would be unforgettable... what he didn't mention was that we had to trek for 45 minutes up a hill with an elevation of 370 meters above sea level... it is more commonly known as Taklang Damulag... anyway the trek would have been easy if it weren't for the field packs we had to carry on our backs which weighed 5 kilos... it contained rice husks which were to be used in the tree planting... after leaving the commanding general's quarters at about 830am... we were able to reach the peak at about 945am... when we got there the view was spectacular... i will post some of the pictures in this blog later... we rested a bit and started to plant trees after which we took a lot of pictures even carrying guns that carried live ammunition... after which we started on our descent which was much faster yet a little dangerous because we cut through the hill using the steep slopes as shortcuts... we got down at about 11+am where my uncle was waiting for us already to give us a tour of the rest of the fort...

well this is where i got my wonderful insight that i was able to reflect on... my uncle showed me what they were doing with the rest of the land in the fort... they were replanting the denuded forest and they had a program in which each and every soldier had to plant twenty tress as an initiation and well for every soldier that had to retire had to plant twenty trees too... this was to make sure that every soldier was able to contribute something to the beautification of the fort... they also had a drip irrigation system involved as well as their dams were able to supply water to their crops using gravity instead of pumps... it was astonishing to see what the military could do with the manpower that they had... their achievements seemed much commendable than that of DAR and DENR... considering those two are departments of the government and are run by civilians... at least the contribution of the military was not only measured in warfare... but now even in agriculture... while the civilians at the departments bummed around and probably even took advantage of the money that tax payers gave them... during the tour i couldn't help but think that the military was an underdog when it came to media bias... apparently all the media could show was their bad nature... which eventually trickles down to all the other military institutions... why haven't they bothered to show the good side... part of me was enraged that all i heard about the military was about corruption and political matters that were very discouraging... i believe my uncle is onto something here in the sense that he has showed how the military can indeed contribute to society... apparently there are people who are willing to change this point-of-view and for that i am very happy...

after the tour we went back to my uncle's quarters where we served a very sumptuous lunch where all of our viands were beef since my uncle had a cow killed... after eating he said that we had to run through the obstacle course so that it will be our passport to be able to have a marksmanship lecture in the firing range... the officers agreed but after the meal we were too full to be able to run the course so we were able to bargain to go to the firing range first before the obstacle course... it was quite a while since i last fired an M-16 but it seems that some things don't easily fade with time... i was still able to shoot with precision (had to fire three initial shots then the gun's crosshair was adjusted to calibrate it to hitting the center) and accuracy (14 shots all went to the two inner circles which represented the main target for the exercise)... the training officers recognized that we were quite good despite not having any real military training... they said it was all about the basics and after you master them you can even teach others to fire...

so that we would fulfill our promise to take on the obstacle course so that we could gain access to the firing range... we went to the Division Training Unit (DTU) where they trained the candidate soldiers (future soldiers of our country)... this is where the rappelling tower was... it stood 44 feet off the ground which according to my uncle was probably a way to fight the phobia of heights... all of the officers got a turn to rappel down the tower while our corps commander was able to go on the slide for life it was a zip line that run from the top of the tower down to the ground... you had to hold on to a handle bar and slide down to a rope which is supposed to stop you from overshooting the end line... your wrists will be tied to the handle bar just in case you accidentally let go... it looked fun... unfortunately since we weren't able to sign waiver forms we were not allowed to try it... so i promised to myself when i came back i would try it...

finally we went through the obstacle course... it was a menacing course... we tried going through most of them but some of them were really hard so we just bypassed them... at some of the challenges my muscles cramped up from the lack of stretching... but the adrenaline was still there so despite the pain i still tried the other activities on the course...

unfortunately all good things have to end... after a day of fun yet tiring activities we ended it with dinner at my uncle's quarters... again beef was served... that was a lot of protein for one day... good for muscle training... after dinner we were called one by one and given certificates of commendation by my uncle... Major General ROMEO P TOLENTINO... i'm not too sure if he would read this entry but i would like to thank him for that wonderful day... it was really nice to get the blood flowing again... as well as feel the muscles ache every now and then... it really gives you the feeling of being alive... once again thanks tito boy...

now i guess that is enough to make up for the past weeks of not being able to write anything... hopefully i get to write more often as summer is about to end...