Use a laptop to learn how to throw a grenade

In the latest use of technology for its “3G Army“, the Singapore Armed Forces is giving each new recruit a laptop – no, not to surf porn, or update Facebook on, but to learn how to strip a rifle and throw grenades. Yes, throw grenades.

I’m sure Singapore readers of The Straits Times would have read the story that first came out last Saturday, but it is still something of a shock to many of us guys who’ve already done two or two-and-a-half years of national service plus a decade of reservist call-ups the old way.

Because there was a time when you would have to actually get drilled countless times on what to do before throwing a live grenade. You work with a dummy grenade, learn that you have to pull out the pin carefully, keep your palm clasped and NEVER drop the thing.

If you screw up during training, you got a smack in the head or a yelling you will never forget – even if you are throwing a grenade 10 years down the road (Singaporeans are liable for call-ups up to 40 years old for enlisted men, and 50 for officers).

But now, recruits at Basic Military Training (BMT) will learn it through a laptop! Apparently, this is more receptive to new Net-savvy recruits, reports the Straits Times (reproduced here on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website):

‘Navigating through the slides and videos was a breeze, and we could learn and absorb the more tedious details very quickly,’ said one recruit, who declined to be named.

Another said having a laptop was helpful with revision: ‘This gives us more confidence when we go outfield, especially when we had to throw a live grenade.’

Instead of a lesson at a stuffy training shed, recruits go through reading material on their laptops and pose questions to their commander or instructor using instant messaging. I hope the instructors learn how to effectively convey their Hokkien vulgarities over IM!

Like many Singapore guys who’d done NS over the years, I welcome, if grudgingly and sometimes with a bit of sarcastic humour, improvements on training. The food is one – the vegetables these days actually don’t taste like rubber band any more.

But I’d question why we need laptops to teach people practical skills that can be learnt 1,000 times better with a live demo and countless hands-on sessions. And of course, some “whacking” from the sergeant.

There are better uses of technology and taxpayer dollars (see how passport collection is automated now, to the relief of thousands each month). But thinking soldier or no, 3G Army or not, laptops to learn BMT skills look like technology for technology’s sake.

“Poor recruits,” said one of my kakis from NS, circa 1993-1995. “Now, they got one more thing to look after besides their rifles. We end up being an Army who is more worried about losing our notebooks and rifles than being shot at.”