for the love of uniform

FOR THE LOVE OF UNIFORM

When our training begins in academy, we started with training in mufti and PT dress. For drill we wore a combination of PT dress with DMS boots. It was referred to as JODs or joker dress by our seniors, but that’s how it started in the initial days of training.

Then we were issued with combats.  I cannot express how happy I felt when I first wore that uniform. It was just simple cloth with combat pattern, nothing to match the smart combats our DS wore but it gave me such thrills to wear that uniform.

Next came the OGs. In junior term we were issued a different colour of OG uniform. It wasn’t the standard OG that officers wear but we weren’t officers by then any way. Some seniors joked with us, “Are you in Pakistan Army?” referring to the colour of our uniform. The no 1 dress was still a privilege of the seniors and the DST pass. We just waited for our day.

On our first DST when we wore the no 1 uniform, ah that thrill again. I could keep admiring my uniform.  It was amazing.

I’ll move forward to the nearing of our POP. We had got a pair of the new pattern combat stiched along with the dark coloured officer type OG for our passing out. We had a band called combat stress for the entertainment night before POP.  When we wore those new pattern combats, our juniors were awed; it suddenly made us look like an officer from a cadet.

POP arrives, I get my pips. I should be thrilled but it was just a strange feeling, one of those you cannot explain, a complex mixture that left me blank. I cannot say what I felt then because I do not know but the pictures speak for themselves. Our eyes never shone so bright.

It is so very strange that after nine months in field when I came for the YO course and wore my OGs again I was again struck by the same thrill. Now I realise that my uniform will continue to thrill me as long as I wear it.

 Sometimes we get so used to the best things in our life that we forget the joy they brought us in the first place. The magic is in feeling the pride and thrill everyday and remembering all that we did to attain it.