Sentinel Projects: 6 SA INFANTRY (1. Daniel reported for national service in August 1. Airforce. Almost immediately he was reassigned to 6 SAI (Grahamstown), where he did basic training, and tried out unsuccessfully for the section leaders course. He went on to serve in Sector 1. Eenhana and was present during the SADF withdrawal from South West Africa - Namibia.
As commendable is that the author took the trouble to write this all in English, even though he is a native Afrikaans speaker. Please let his efforts inspire others to document and present their own experiences in such a way! PRIOR TO REPORTING FOR NATIONAL SERVICEI do not come from a very military family.
My name, Daniel, a good family name, I share with my father and an uncle of his, who died in action during the (Second) Boer War. My father was never drafted, but his brother, my uncle, was.
He was quite involved in military things. The first military rifle I remember seeing was his R1.
I remember a visiting cousin showing my father the scars on his elbows, acquired from leopard crawling in Outshoorn. With high school came cadets, of course. The most important part was parade ground drill. I bore the unprofessionality of that for a year, and the next year I joined the 'drill platoon', that took part in the regional competition. I was chosen as a kind of reserve. Half way through the next year I left the platoon, because of a clique- ishness that started among the hostel- living members of the platoon. I was also getting tired of being made fun of.
During that year, all boys turning sixteen that year were called to one classroom and given registration forms for National Service. I received my force number on my sixteenth birthday. This paragraph is about my academic career, but it has a major bearing on my national service. I left school at the end of that year, and enrolled at a correspondence college, to write my Matric at the end of that year During 1. I stayed at home, and studied for my Matric. At the end of that year I passed the National Senior Certificate examination with matriculation exemption, but I had failed at mathematics, obtaining a final mark of 3.
This also barred me from the re- examination, 4. Since I had always had in mind a career in science or engineering, I had to wait for the examinations at the end of the next year. The defence force, not getting my proof of registration as student at the required date, called me up to report on the 4th of August 1. Air Force Gymnasium, Valhalla, Pretoria. I was very glad to be called up to the Air Force.
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I knew it meant a less harsh life than in the Army, and that I would be able to study there. It also meant that I would be close to flying and aircraft, which I had loved (from a distance) all my life. I do not know why I was assigned to the Air Force; I've always had the idea that one had to have special abilities to be assigned there. There was always the debate about whether one should study first, or go to the army first. I had come to the conclusion that, to have a nice time in the army, one had to study first, and to be successful at study one had to go to the army first. Since I was more interested in study than in the army, my inclination was to the latter. During my national service, my sister, then at University, told my mother that the first year male students who had gone to the army after school were better and nicer; more mature than the third year students of the same age.
Today I would say that, unless one were to become a lawyer, a doctor, or a minister, going to the army first is the better option. This was the spoken language, also in Afrikaans.) I did not try to evade national service. I knew it to be a duty, as I was taught at school and sunday school. Nobody I knew tried to evade, possibly because of social pressures, but also possibly because I knew very few people. In preparation for National Service, I took to cycling as a way of getting fit. I cycled a distance every day trying to get my pulse rate above 6. I also did sit- ups, pull- ups and push- ups.
I do not know if it did me any good, but I know it was necessary. During all my years at school I never played at any sport, and did not do any kind of exercise that was not forced on me. This means that I was not fit enough for the army. Together with the call- up instructions, the army sent me a booklet called Diensplig/National Service 1. It was sponsored by many advertisers, and contained a lot of information on what to expect during national service. This very informative booklet told one everything one needed to know.
The most important was a list of what to bring along. The official list was very short. My mother was very helpful in making me pack, for she would insist on me taking things I would have left behind. I was glad of every one of them. Before the call- up the Air Force invited my parents and I to an information day at the Air Force Gymnasium.
There the Commanding Officer and others gave talks on what to expect. We were told that the bulk of the intake would be trained in airfield security, since the air operations depended on irreplaceable aircraft. Afterwards some refreshments were served, during which time we could talk to the officers. My mother talked to one of the chaplains. My father talked to the CO about studying.
My best preparation for the army was the Voortrekkers. This is a youth organisation for Afrikaner schoolchildren, something like the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides. During school holidays in the autumn and spring they offered camps, mostly teaching fieldcraft and campcraft. This was a introduction to living in tents, queuing for food, and sharing bathrooms.
I was never taught to pitch a tent in the army, but it wasn't needed, for I already knew. It is also the one way guaranteed to get it tight the first time.) Putting black stuff on my face was no novelty for me during basics. Voortrekker leaders had often been to the army and applied what they had learned at these camps.
The Defence Force knew that, and readily supplied tents and water carts for these camps. It was part of the total defence against the total onslaught. REPORTING FOR NATIONAL SERVICEThe morning of the day my father took me to report for National Service, my mother gave me a fried egg for breakfast.
I tasted that egg in my mouth all the way to Pretoria. I was very scared, very lonely, and very, very young; I was still more than a month away form my seventeenth birthday. When we got to the Gymnasium, there were a lot of cars, and people everywhere.
I said goodbye to my father, and walked to the enclosure where NSM were to report. Somebody in uniform stopped me and asked to see my call- up instructions. I took it out of my bag and showed it to him.
I felt it took to long to get it out, but he just looked at it and let me through. At least the first thing went right. I went and sat on the stands overlooking the sports field. It was August in Pretoria, and quite cold, but a sunny day.
On some kind of command we formed up in lines on the field. It must have been alphabetically, because the names in our flight all started with letters between H and P. We then went into a hangar, were we were asked our force numbers for the first time. Mine was quite easy: 8.
After a few more times of giving force numbers and other information a group of us were formed up in threes, and a corporal was told . If memory serves, we were about 2. Flight and 1. 0 Flights to a Squadron. Our first flight commander was Corporal Blom. He was quickly known as . I cannot remember much about him, except that he disliked me (I think), and that he made someone climb up an tent middle- pole and stay there, for punishment.
He was soon promoted to admin to do administration, and was replaced by a junior instructor named Strauss. In the Army, a platoon or troop is commanded by an officer, with the aid of a platoon sergeant. In the Air Force, during basic training, the flight commander is a PTI . The platoon sergeant's role is in a large measure taken over by the . He is more than a spokesperson, and to some extent responsible for the flight's discipline, but receives no recognition for it. Ours was called Landman, a blonde chap with somewhat of a beak nose.
He had already been to University, but came to the army when a number of his close friends died within a short time. A professor then suggested that he go to the army to settle himself. I met him again the day I went to hire the gown for my honours graduation. He received his Bachelor Degree at the same ceremony. The PTI's that acted as our Flight Commanders were all short and thin. The reason for this is, I think, that the PTI training course is very strenuous. Only small men, with a high endurance quotient, were able to pass.
We must have been issued our trommels that same day, because we slept in our beds that night. It contained bedding (sheets, blankets, pillow and pillowcase) and eating utensils (pikstel, varkpan, spoegbakkie and cup.) With it, you were an inhabitant of a base. Without it, you are in transit or operational. The next ten days were spent in administration, and forms and things. It took us some days to be issued with kit other than our trommels. Our clothes became very dirty, because only one set was recommended for clearing in. One chap remarked that he .
One thing I can remember, and did not appreciate until later, was that the sandbags on in the Gymnasium were filled with cinders, the stuff that's left after coal has been burned. When wet, those sandbags became square in a jiffy, and stayed that way. They were also much lighter than soil- filled ones. The kit issue was very well organised. When the time came, everyone was given a form, on which all items of clothing and kit to be issued was listed, and on which he had to fill in his name and number.
We then went to the tailor, where you gave the form to a clerk, got on a stand, and were measured.