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EYEWITNESS TO THE BATTLE OF MERSING: 4 MONTHS ON PAKU ISLAND
Part 3: Conversations
The New Yorker Magazine, March 16, 2055.
Evelyn Lee remembered the conversations she had with Major Nur, the Special Forces officer from the Royal Malaysian Navy. To get to the peak of the island named Paku Point which was at an elevation of 1102 foot from sea level, they had to climb through a vertical metal ladder enclosed in a one meter diameter concrete tunnel encased within the granite column of the island. The climb was 800 foot high. Her two cousins, Ken and John, who were six footers and much larger than Major Nur had difficulty climbing through the tunnel. They did it once only for the view at the peak and thereafter vowed to not go through that ordeal again after suffering many bruises and scratches. So Evelyn and the Major were the two people who spent the most time together at the top. She recalled snippets of a conversation below:
"You were trained as a mechanical engineer, and yet you joined the army and became special forces? Why?" Hiang asked point blank.
It was a full moon night, clouds were everywhere, and the sea seemed to be shimmering, the moonlight glinting off its surface. Not a single warship in sight.
"Didn't see myself fit into a desk job. Engineering is a lot of desk work and looking at screens and reports. After years of studying, I thought a far more active career would be better."
"Aren't there jobs in engineering that requires physical activity? For example oil rig workers?"
"You don't use engineers to tighten valves, that's what grunts do. Moreover.." Nur said emphasizing the 'Moreover', "I sort of like the military ethos, the do or die mentality of the soldier, the 'yours not to question why, yours but to do and die' ethos."
She rolled her eyes, "Really?"
"I saw that movie 'Charge of the Light Brigade' years ago and I thought it was pretty dumb what happened to them," she emphasized.
"I didn't mean it that way. Sure question orders if you think they are stupid, but after all that, and the orders are pretty solid and have a good rationale, the soldiers obey even if it means death."
"As in when General Lee gave orders for General Pickett to charge the union lines at Gettysburg?"
Nur was taken aback. Approximately 12,500 Confederate troops under General Pickett charged the center of the Union line at Gettysburg on the 3rd day of battle in July 1863 during the American Civil War and was repulsed with heavy casualties.
"Exactly," he said. "How did you know about that?"
"I read Major," she turned around, "Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels. Even visited the battlefield."
"You're into the American Civil War?"
"Major Nur, I am into a lot of stuff."
"Am missing a wingman," Nur said.
"What?"
"My Singaporean counterpart manning this fort with me. He's supposed to show up 4 weeks ago. So am missing a wingman."
"Here take this bino and scan the other side for me, I can't cover everything," he handed her the binoculars.
"What do I do?"
"If you see anything at all besides a fishing boat, holler."
Hiang took the binoculars and scanned the south, while Nur scanned the north.
"What happened to the Singy guy?" Hiang spoke into her mike.
"Think he got caught in the fighting. Chinese had landed at Desaru too and maybe they got to Kota Tinggi before he could get past the town."
It's like the movies, she thought looking through the binoculars, everything's green.
"Tell me about Navy Seals," she asked.
"Whatever's in the movies is true. But what you don't see are the friendships formed. Very tight knit fellowship. Would die for each other. I missed that."
"Was there a minimum height requirement?"
"Nope, I trained alongside ladies that were five foot tall."
"How does that work when you are all carrying the log on your shoulders and running through the waves?"
"That's tricky. Obviously they had to group the shorter ones together and that group would carry one log. Tell me about yourself. What made you study journalism?"
"Travelling. I love to travel."
"That's your reason?"
"Yup. Not the high-profile-name-in-the-papers reason. Just travelling."
"You sound like the curious type, observing this and that."
"I am."
"Favorite musical?"
"Sound of Music."
"That 20th century stuff?"
"Gre..aat movie."
"Favorite book?"
There was silence for some time.
"Am thinking," she said.
"To Kill a Mocking Bird," she said after a full two minutes.
"You 're the social justice type?"
"Like the humor. Great writing. Best book ever written. Going back to that 5-foot lady in Navy Seals, are they expected to do everything a 6-footer does?"
"No exception."
"Are you married, have a girlfriend?"
There was silence for some time.
"Sorry, shouldn't ask," she said.
"Not married, no girlfriend. Yourself?"
"Sort of seeing someone, but nothing steady."
"Tell me more."
"Why aren't you married?"
"There was someone once."
"What happened?" she turned around to look at him.
"It was some ten years ago during university. We met at this university organization. And she was into me at first and I was attracted to her...." he paused. "To her personality," he continued, "Very vivacious, very joyful, very intelligent person. I was head over heels attracted."
"What happened?"
"Didn't work out. It wasn't meant to be."
"Details?"
"Perhaps some other time. Am wondering how the Chinese were able to build, and operate at least 12 submarine aircraft carriers without the west knowing about them?"
"You mean they didn't show up anywhere until April 6th?" she asked.
"They would have appeared on satellite photos. Hard to hide them. Then one day 12 submarine carriers each the size of the Abraham Lincoln showed up. How is that possible?"
"First strike weapons," he turned around to see her back for emphasis. "Definitely not for defense. And highly effective so far. They struck Mersing and taken over half of Johor, showed up at Manila and driven the Fillipinos to the Mindanao islands, and struck Darwin and have taken over Eastern Australia as far south as Brisbane. Four sub carriers at each spot. 200 aircraft at each invasion spot."
"Something's moving south!" Hiang cried as if she had hit a jackpot.
Nur crawled over to her side and looked through his bino.
"A troop carrier, no.... two troops carriers, maybe 5000 troops each, reinforcing the Johor theatre."
For the next few hours they tracked the ships as it stopped and anchored, and disembarked troops. The invading forces had made a pontoon pier jutting out from Mersing as far as a km into the sea. Small crafts were moving back and forth between the two troop carriers and the pier.
"What's that Arabic writing on the hatch?" Hiang asked referring to the hatch that opens up to Paku Point. The writing were on the bottom surface of the hatch.
"It says 'He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High'."
"From the quran?"
"Are you agnostic?"
"Yes I am, how do you know."
"The way you say things and you don't recognize these words."
"Should I? I barely know the quran."
"It's from the Bible. Psalm 91."
"Oh."
" 'He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty'. The full sentence."
"Are you Christian?"
"I prefer to call myself a believer. The word Christian is over-used."
"What's the difference if you are a Christian or a Believer?"
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