Short Stories and Memories about National Service.

Haley's Comet. Many opportunities only come once in your lifetime, miss them and they're lost forever. But then some just aren't meant to be. And so it was with Haley's Comet. We were doing training outside Potchefstroom in March / April 1986 at the infamous Modderfontein camp (also known as Bloekombos). The days were long and hot, and the nights were cold - that's if you weren't doing night training because then you'd be Running on warm anyway. Having done night training the one evening the Captain has a moment of philanthropy (quite rare) and decides that tonight is the night that he's going to be our "China". Well it just happened to be the time that Haley's Comet was appearing over the Southern Hemisphere. Picture the scene - it's late evening, we're tired, there's another 2kms to go to reach the base, we have to walk the 2 kms, and the Captain tells us to stop and check out the sky above us. All we can think of is our beds. Perhaps this was the right place to view such a phenomenon, considering that we were far from the glow of city lights, and there were no structures to block our view, but then sheer exhaustion does tell your body to admit : "I've had enough for one day". Anyway, he's standing out front pointing to the sky and telling us about the wonders of this amazing comet. Some are looking up and uttering : "Mmm, I see", which only encouraged the Captain to go round to the others who were uttering : "Where is it, I can't see anything." Needless to say his explanations were obviously aimed at proving his expertise at all things military because he kept on going on about ".... look up at the Southern Cross, and then look a bit that way...". We weren't too concerned with the night navigation bit because we knew exactly in which direction home lay, and besides we usually had a compass with us for the odd "lost-in-action" occasion. This went on for a while with some members saying yes, yes they see it and the rest holding out in ignorance. Eventually the Captain tires of this little attempt at education, gets in his bakkie and drives off to his home. Where did this leave us ? Still 2 kms from base camp, and even later to bed than usual. I still (honestly) have to admit that I never saw Haley's Comet.

Copyright © 2001 S. Le Roux AND OpsMedic. All rights reserved.