Section Field Camp has ended

Section Field Camp has finally ended. Very soon now, many colleagues will be posted out soon. Sigh! what a change!

Airborne Troopers and Pilots Take Away!

Charles Plumb, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, was a jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by asurface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison.

He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience. One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters inVietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, You were shot down!". "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute,"the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him,"It sure did,If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."

Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a whitehat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how manytimes I might have seen him and not even said "Good morning, How are you?" or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor. Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shroud lines andfolding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know. Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?"

Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory --- he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety. Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your parachute.

Received the 4 Armed Chenrezig Initiation from Lati Rinpoche of Gelugpa on 1 Nov 04. Rinpoche is extremely kind and wise. Hope, i can visualise better now. 

Getting Ready for Work

I must give my ORD a serious thought... what can i do after Army?
Considered the following:

a. HR in overseas firm
b. Teacher with MOE
c. Join Red Cross in HADR Operations
d. Join international security firm
e. Waiter
f. Trainer with Integrative Coporation

ideas ideas.... :P

Everybody's Getting Married

There is something abt Platoon 2. Everybody is getting married here...

hmmm.... looks like it will be a busy period in December...

Quote by Venerable Shen Kai

The late Venerable Shen Kai has an organisation known as Ren Chen. He is one of the first fews bhiksus who i am exposed to when I started learning Buddhism years ago.

He has this to say regarding the Buddhist disciples:

"All you need to do is to seek rebirth in purelands,

or accomplished buddhahood in this lifetime,

Going to the heavens, or even the hells,

Has nothing to do with you."

-Quote from Venerable Shen Kai

This short and simple message is truly to-the-point. Must take heed