Atok enlisted on 24 August 1948 in the Askar Melayu. His contract was for 7 years of service and 5 years of reserve (ie. optional). Starting salary was 45 ringgit and he was stationed in PD for 6 months. He was then posted to the 3rd Batalion C Company in Pengkalan Chepa Kelantan. Later on he would be rotated within the platoons which took him to Pahang, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Johor. Until 1950, there were only 3 battalions in Askar Melayu.
Marriage
Atok and Wan married on 24/4/48. It was the second marriage for both where the earlier marriages ended in divorce. Atok was first married to Hafsah Lajan and they had a son who later died. Wan married Dolah Bin Omar.
Mak Jo was born on 7 Nov 1949 in Kg Kuala Sungkak. Only after she was 25 days old, would Atok get to see her for the first time.
Life In the Army
At Sg Ruan Pahang Atok had his first encounter with the Communist.His other encounter was at Mawai Johor when his lorry was ambushed by them in 1952. On both occasions, the Communists were hiding in trenches, yet after a short exchange of gunfire, they retreated very quickly into the jungle.
Wan and Maj Jo lived in Pengkalan Chepa for slightly over a year before calling it quits and moved back to the kampung. Wan couln't stand having an absentee husband.
INn 1951, during a 3-month operation between Batu Melenting near Gua Musang to Grik Perak to accompany English and Australina foreign surveyors to survey the land for the future highway decades later, the entire platoon almost starved. Every 4 days, food was airlifted by an army plane and dropped to the platoon in the dense jungle. Once it happened that there was a dense fog and the helicopter couldn't locate the men. For 4 days they were without food. After they had build a fire huge enough for it to been seen, would they get their food. During this operation, they also captured a woman communist who surrendered without a fight.
Atok and his Army buddies in mentakab Pahang
I may be biased but with those killer looks, he should try his luck in films rather than the army.
4 comments:
"I may be biased but with those killer looks, he should have tried his luck in films rather than the army."
We probably would not have turned out the way we are if Atok had been an onscreen heart-throb. HAHAHA
Mom, after you complete the Atok/Wan adventures, write about you and dad pulak!!! And then on to our early years....I don't remember much from pre-Houston.
Would Ayah like to come on as a 'guest blogger' and write about the Penang family history?
Yeah, Ayah must chronicle the Seeni saga pulak after this! Or at least tell it to one of us to write- Saro would make a great job of it! Or Amir could do it as a SPM English essay practice (I'm sure he'd produce witty gems we could repeat ad nauseum eg lovely nightmare)...
Atok's killer looks! But we have to remember that we mustn't be prejudiced against ugliness as well! kan amir kan amir kan amir?
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