As usual, I received an order stating which day and place to go to the front line. On next day, a departmental meeting was held under the chairmanship of the battalion commander, listing the army personals as the preparations for the front line, assigning responsibilities to those who will be left behind.The exact date is not yet known. But we were told that when the time comes to leave to the front line, a senior army officer will come to inspect the military readiness. We all, the divisional officers and teachers weretold to have a quick preparation, to meet the needs within their respective divisions at their best.
So, the divisional officers and teachers get to prepare, to be ready before the inspection. It can be quite daunting knowing that many soldiers werenot well equipped. It is not the end of the month, so there was no salary and no money to buy essential equipments. The battalion commanders had to collect all the necessities from the captain with a list of soldiers and make advance payments. Some soldiers owed a lot of money, so the officers and teachers had to buy themfor such poor soildiers with their pocket money.
In terms of inspection, there are some things that you have to bring with you when you go to the front linemilitary service. There are personal items you have to bring with you. There are essential items to bring with you, as well as essential items at the brigade level, battalion level, and military level. These items are listed. At the time of the inspection, everyone was lined up in the compound and inspected.Individual items were displayed in front of them, and items for each squard were displayed at a certain place and throughly inspected.In the past, there were high-ranking officers who said it is ok as long as you have guns and ammunition, but now there are more high-ranking officers inspecting everything from cotton swabs (to clean ear wax) to nail cutters.
I am not sure why some soldiers are not afraid to go to the front, but they scare to death to be inspected like this. On the day of the inspection, they ran away and could not be found, get somebody to line up for and on behalf of them. When the inspector had gone, such trouble makers came back to the base. As soon as they arrived, they were locked into the cell by the battallion commander. The next morning, they all were taken out of the cell, pulled out of the car, and taken to the front line. There are a lot of comrades who went to the front line something like that. As we were 2nd operational squard, we were assigned to operate in the frontline. The 1st operational squad had to stay at a base. As usual in the military operation, we, operation squards are ordered to go where and when. We have to clear the area if we were told to do so. In fact, the operationsquard is more tiring without a fixed location to base on.
There was a mine detection dog “Nyo Gyi” who came with us to the front line. This is the second time he has been to the front line shortly after his training. Hehad gained a lot of experiences. He is a very talented one. He picks up whatever he thinks eatible on the street and brings it to his master. Sometimes, he would pick up a pair of old shoes and a can of milk, a can of fish, etc. He thought he could eat it because it smelled like food. When we first set up a camp, his master’s tent was full of supplies that he had brought with him from nearby. We could not stop him.He was moving, he was just as tired as we are. He had to go where we go.
One day, as usual, we set a goal to reach. As we were preparing, the commander said, “Now we have to go to a place where there are a lot of mines. Wherever you look, there may be mines. All officers and teachers need to guide the troops not do anything unnecessarily. Report if anything you see strange. It would be better to die in a clash than to be hit by a landmine. So beware of mines everywhere.” But what the commander did not know was that the army would do sure if you order them not to do something.
To fulfill the abovetraditional belief, the time we arrived at the lunch stop, a soldier who had not cleared the mine, hit the mine. “Oh! no” the commander exclaimatedas soon as he heard the sound of a landmine exploding, “go and see who is there!”he shouted. When we went to the scene of the explosion, we found that the lower right ankle of Private Aung Naing Moe of squard 1 had fallen off and he fell on the ground. Suddenly, upon looking at his leg fell near him and was shocked. he couldn’t even shout. So, as usual, the paramedic carefully cut off the ankle. When the ligaments and tendons were cut, he was moaning and groaning. Blood vessels are knotted. Once cutting is done, the medic bandagedit well.
Details of the incident was reported to officers and the seniors at the base as soon as possible. The military is bad that it is rare for a commendation if good news were reported. On contraary, any senior officers are not reluctant to say bad words, swearing in case of such incidents. In this case, they all sweared the same wording, as if they all were reciting by heart “why didn’t you guys lead them, control them well. I have not ordered anything yet, but things were wrongly happening one after another. You guys are useless and I am not dare to order you!” After receivng swearings and insults, the order came for the patient to be taken to nearest camp hill, for better treatment. We wre told to wait until the escorts returned. By checking the time, the commander ordered us to stay overnight at the current location, thinking that the goal could not be achieved on that day.
So the group started to clear the mines around the area and set up makeshift tents to spend the night there. We took our allotted responsibilities: some to guard and some to cook. We choosed to cook cans of beef for easy and quick. By the time dinner was ready, except the guards, all the rest of the group were getting ready to eat, and that was where the story began.
Soldier Aung Naing Moe’s case is not over yet. His amputated ankle was buried by a paramedic far from the base. But unfortunately,our Nyo Gyi went to dig it up. I think it smelled well for him. Then he picked it up with a large pile of sand and dust and came back to his master. It was time for his master to sit down and eat with us. Suddenly I saw a big brown bite, but they did not know what it was. It looks like pork stew, or a beef steak. When they heard “bote” as the Nyo Gyi put it down to the nose of his master, wesaw little feet and toes and came to realize that it was a broken leg of Private Aung Naing Moe.
“Nyo Gyi … you are too bad! You dare to do this in the right time! Oh No! Yo mess up our dinner! Too disgusting for me!” A bunch of swearing, blaming words! I was there to see them and to smile. Not understanding what was happening there, Nyo Gyi stared us. Seemed he was thinking that they all thanked me for bringing the food in time.
“Oh Nyo Gyi … ‘’
Finally, I enjoyed beef with rice till I was so full together with Nyo Gyi. I was too full that night. Usually, food is scarce at the front linebut this time, I was able to enjoy cans of beef with the help of Nyo Gyi. “Thank you, Nyo Gyi…”
Respectfully yours
Htet Myat
(Translated into English by YuuTu)