South African Army Corps of Engineers (1983 - 1984)
Page 1 - Call-up and Basic Training
By Simon Hare

My name is Simon Hare and I spent 2 years in the South African Army, from 1983 to 1984, doing my National Service at 2 Field Engineer Regiment, Bethlehem in the Orange Free State. Age 18-20.

When I mentioned that I wanted to go to the army, all my friends told me I was crazy but they were all surfer types who went off to UCT to do psychology, marketing etc. I remember at the time not having a clue as to my future and thinking that if I have to go, then lets go all the way.

My family was fairly military minded with my father a Kommando (camper) and my grandfather was the Hon. Col. Of The Dukes, an old Cape Town Regiment based in The Castle. I guess he led The Dukes through WWII and was quite a character. My mom's families were Rhodesian farmers and all had served with various Rhodesian units during their war.

I was actually pretty eager to go as I was over high school and all it meant, and ready to start my life in any way. In those days no one questioned National Service or what it was. A few kids who had foreign parents would but it was rare.

I was up in Plettenberg Bay with friends going nuts when my parents contacted me to say our call up date had changed, so I hitched back to Cape Town with a friend and reported to Youngsfield where we boarded a train. There was lots of shouting and confusion. I was in a compartment with 6 other guys, one which was smoking pot constantly and was freaking us out as we had heard all about the crazy Afrikaner 'Korporals' and we thought any second we would all be in major trouble. Of course we found out later these guys were nothing to what was waiting for us.

Basic training
We arrived early a.m. in Bethlehem (I still had to find it on a map) and were given haircuts, jabbed, prodded and graded. We were given lots of equipment in a 'trommel' and a 'balsak' and then trucked to a 'buitebases' outside of town. It was actually very pretty there, being close to the scenic Golden Gate area. The photo on the right shows me in the valley of Piet se Gat(?), as our base was called.

The bungalows were rough zinc arrangements, with wind and dust blowing in everywhere. We were sorted out into companies and then it started. Running, yelling, screaming, crawling etc.

Initially I found it difficult as I had barely passed matric and could not speak a word of Afrikaans and would be left standing by myself on the parade ground as my 'maatjies' tore off around a distant tree. Leaving me to the mercy of 3 or 4 enraged korporals, calling me a 'soutpiel komunis' and bringing my mother into it. It is amazing how quickly you can pick up a language when you have to. At the end of the 2 years, I was fluent in the language even dreaming in Afrikaans.

In basics we learned how to be soldiers, drill, shoot, and move etc. I was in with a couple of top english guys and we pretty much laughed our way through it. I was a little shocked by the animosity of the Afrikaner boys towards us 'souties'. This has it's roots way back to the Boer War days. I know we joked about the 'Boere' and rock spiders, but In the end, we did all get along, as you have to in order to get through it.

The engineers send a bunch of troops each year to Bloem, to do the Parabats course and become Genie Bats, who are The Shit, and we all wanted our wings like crazy. When our Loot told us they were sending us to The School of Engineers in Kroonstad to do a leadership course we said: 'No thanks! We want to be Bats.' He flipped and told us they were just 'meat bombs' and rank was much better to have than wings, but we were adamant. He ordered us to Kroonstad anyway. Thank God!