Karma and Jammers
The following was written by Htet Myat, a former Tatmadaw soldier who has since defected, and translated by Yuu Tu. The story is made possible from the team behind Breaking Brainwashed.
Let me tell you about one of my funny experiences.
A jammer cuts off communications. If it is turned on, it will cut any communication channels within its range. Communication by phones or walkie-talkies is not possible when a jammer is used. It is especially used in convoys, parades and motorcades to prevent remote control mines and bombs. This is just one of the many uses of a jammer.
Due to poor management of SAC’s leaders and low fighting capabilities of soldiers, there are often lots of casualties when the battles began. Even if they send in more troops, it doesn’t do much good. Even the commander of the Bureau of Special Operations sometimes must personally come to the battle line to give guidance, so poorly trained are the other soldiers.
The higher the ranks, the more they are afraid of dying, and the more cowardly they are. So, superiors always use these jammers. They even asked if the jammers are on when they head for the loo!
There is a hall upstairs of our command center, that is some sort of a war room.
The higher-ups gather and give commands from there every day. Second Commanding Officer, Tactical Operations Commander, Battalion Commander, G1, G2, G3, etc. are all in there.
Every day, all you hear from that area are loud voices shouting and wearing. They are never satisfied. As battles go on day and night, increasing casualties become unavoidable. That always brings in a new bout of swearing.
One day, out of nowhere, our security team got chewed out. I was personally an assistant to the Second Commanding Officer. So whenever we went outside, I had to open the jammer. That day, I forgot to do that when we went to the military hospital. I only remembered when we got back. Nothing happened and we arrived back safely. But we got scolded because I forgot to open the jammer.
I was a bit irritated because nothing serious had happened. So for that reason, I turned the jammer on for the whole next day. When I checked back on it in the evening, it was really heating up. I shut it down immediately in fear of breaking it unintentionally.
Shortly after I turned it off, their war room is filled with men shouting and swearing once again. I sneaked up and asked what had happened. They said there was a battle going on for some time. The officers were calling in regularly, and there were lots of casualties on the battlefield. Only now the calls were coming in!
The frontline calls were like, “Aba. We must retreat. A lot of us are hit. We need further orders. If this goes on longer, all of us will be dead. We don’t have artillery cover fire. We can’t call the artillery division.” The officers were saying “You dog! Why do you guys turn off your phones? We cannot call them. There are attacks on our position and we’ve lost many men. Damn bloody fools.” “Yes sir. This won’t happen again sir.” And things like that. It was noisy enough to not hear your own thoughts.
Then I understood what happened. It was me! I had turned the jammer on for the whole day so they couldn’t communicate with any of us, since I had become fed up. It was chilling, thinking that it was so quiet and peaceful and there were no battles. When I turned the jammer off, all of the calls came in continuously! I carefully sneaked back down and blew air on the jammer to cool it off.
No one needs to know it was my doing. I knew I had to be smart.
The point is, don’t look down on anyone. Everyone has their value. Or they have their domain. We have to respect each other’s specialties.
The next thing is karma can bite you in the ass without a moment’s warning. My officer who chewed me out had to taste his own medicine instantly. His own superiors were threatening him with jail time! He couldn’t even sulk. All he could say was, “Yes. Yes sir. I know sir.” Well my friends, that’s karma for you. “You reap what you sow,” as the saying goes. This should be a good moral lesson.
As I told you, I was a snitch after all.