I was enlisted on 5th jan 2006 to ‘W’ company. I was in platoon 3, section 4, bed 3.

On the 4th night after I had enlisted, my Sgt came into our bunk and taught us how to ‘black-taped’ our SBO and fieldpack. There were only 4 rolls of black tapes shared between 12 of us. At 1 point, I needed the tape but it is not with me, so i asked it from my friend, “Hey J, can u passed me the black tape?” He said “ok”, and he threw it towards me. Naturally, I dodge as it was coming too fast towards me. Thus, the tape went under my bed.

As I went under my bed to retrieve the tape, at the corner of my eye, I saw something. As I turned my head, I saw a dusty blue rubber ball with a smiley face.( It is those kind of ball that is commonly found in the 40s, 50s,and it is super light-weighted). In my heart, I was thinking, ” Oh crap, why was it gotta be me?”

Every night, before I sleep, I will place my buddhist book (the commpassion book, in chinese is called, da bei zhou) under my pillow for protection. On 1 night during the 2nd week of BMT, I forgot to put it under my pillow. Then the story begans…

I had a dream. My bed was in dead center of the bunk facing the main entrance and i was on my bed. Nothing else and no one was around. The bunk was dark n the corridor was litted. Then I heard a little boy giggling as he was bouncing his ball along the corridor. After that, he got very excited as he saw me. He run towards me laughing very loudly and held my hand very tight (I can’t move my hands at all) and said,” kor kor.. play with me play with me” I was quite shocked, but I kept my cool and played with him as I don’t wish to make him angry.

So we played passing of ball. once again, he was very happy and luaghed all his way. All of the sudden I heard planes flying above me followed by sounds of bombing. Then he got very worried and said,” kor kor, faster hide faster hide” Then I asked him why do I need to. Next, he got blasted by a bomb, he fell backwards, blood gush out from his head and his hand was still holding on to that blue ball. Then, I woke up. The boy around 5 years old, chinese, fair skinned,slim bodied, small eyes with a ‘oval’ face. I was thinking, well, I have just know the story of the ball and the boy might have died during the 2nd war world by the bomb blast.

I told some of my bunkmates the next day, and my buddy told me to throw the ball away. Then i got very angry and said,”hey, if i throw away, then if the boy asked me where is his ball, how am I going to answer?” Then I have told my bunkmates not to sweep my area as I will do it on my own and i don’t wish anyone to tamper with the ball. On 1 incident, my buddy swept out the ball, then I told him,” Hey, I thought I said not to sweep my place and please leave the ball alone?” He then replied,” aiya just throw the ball away la”. I got really pissed and didn’t talk to him. The next day, my buddy got high fever, he went to the medical centre and he needs to be on drip. The medic poked 7 times on 1 hand and twice on the other with the needle as he was trying to locate my buddy’s vein. However, the medic could not find it and asked my buddy to come back the next day.
Well, I guessed, this is his retribution.

On 1 day, my Sgts decided to ‘tornado’ our bunks. My bed was the only one untouched. Everyone has their stuff all over the place. In my heart, I was thinking, wow…, mayb the sgts knew about it. Then, on 1 fine day, I asked my sgt, “sgt, do u know the story of the ball?” He looked hard at me and said,”Oh, so u r the one.” Well, we never say anything after that, coz we knew that certain stuff gotta just lie low in army.

Throughout BMT, we will need to do duties, however 2 out of 50 of us in our platoon has never done duties during BMT. I was one of them.

I do believed that, it is because I had always make sure the ball is always under my bed and make sure no one else touch it and the boy had actually protected me. I would say I was quite fortunate to meet a ‘plyfull’ one as compared to my other company mates that met up with more creepy stuff.

My platoon mates saw the black soldier in FBO holding a rifled and marching by the window in his bunk, I had friend that saw long hair in toilets and some saw the white lady, there was I guy that nearly jumped off the building as the white lady told him to.

In conclusion, Be calm, say your prayers regardless of any religion and things will go well in BMT. Gd luck guys!