Military training in school...

Tweet

Did you ever join the military training in your secondary school if your school had one? Here in the Philippines we have this what we call COCC (Cadet Officer Candidate Course) exclusively, I think, for the 3rd yrs. Based from my experience in our school, it was up to us whether we like to join or not. All we need are just parent's consent and a medical certificate stating the you are healthy for this kind of activity. I was clueless at first of what it has to offer. Being a person who likes to explore and try different things, I joined in the COCC. We were numerous at first but as days went by, we're diminishing in number. It wasn't as easy as that. We get scolded everytime and be punished for every mistake we do. I can't anymore remember how many times we were ordered to be in the squat position (for the girls) and push up (for the boys), sometimes under the scorging heat of the sun or with a rifle over the girls' arms and on the back of the boys' while executing the punishment. Because some of us can't take it and find it too harsh, they decided to finally quit. There we were taught of the basics in military. After a school year of training only 40 in our batch had survived. We still have to be trained for 3 more weeks after the school year while the other students were already on their vacation. Can you imagine an hour of warm up exercises could be that rough? That was what we had experienced in that span of 3 weeks. What I like most about it was we were taught of some drills using the rifle, of course not the real one. But our experience doesn't stop there yet for the incoming school year is our turn to be the next CAT (Citizens Army Training) officers in our school. It is now our chance to showcase what we had learned and teach them to our batch mates and next batch of COCCs. Share your experiences too of what kind of military training you have experienced in your school.