Let’s take our cue from General Robert Neller, the commandant of the US Marine Corps. He is now requiring all his marines NOT to bring their cellphones during combat operations. With cellphones, he said that they are letting their enemies easily track them down, monitor their movements, plot their positions and make them vulnerable for annihilation.

True enough! There are more negative effects than positive ones in letting soldiers bring their cellphones during tactical maneuvers. Most of all, the gadget is a total distraction and it even softens the soldiers’ will to fight!

My generation of academy graduates was born and lived to fight battles at a time when there were still no cellphones, global positioning systems (GPS) and digital cameras. Yet, we survived and were able to improvise as if we had these gadgets of today.

Without cellphones, we managed to call home by phone-patching. This is by using the High Frequency (HF) base radios, the URC 187. Whenever we wished to call home, we just went to the radio room and let our radio operator on-duty call the Division’s Rear Command Post (RCP) in Manila. Once connected, the radio operator in Manila patched his HF radio to a telephone landline and dialed our party. We could hear the analog rotary movement of the seven-digit numbers. These HF radios can only transmit in one-way direction at a time. So the persons on both ends were required to say “Over” every after their message. This is the cue for pressing and releasing the lever of the microphone. The conversation could be overheard by people waiting for their turns inside the radio room and by people at far-flung areas who were tuned-in at the same frequency. We could hear our company commander talking audibly, “Hello Sweetheart! I miss you!” Unknowingly his girlfriend, who never knew that there were eavesdroppers, would answer back, “Yes, Darling!” as their intimate conversation would progress. There were no secrets except for “wind talkers” who can really talk in codes using very rare dialects. We knew that the call was about to end when people online exchanged “I love you!” If the one on the radio was somebody else, not our CO, we could hear everybody inside the radio room shouting and urging the caller, “Say I love you na, para kami naman!” he he

Funny though! For using the phone-patch for so long and by the time I went to Manila for R-and-R, I could not shake off from my system saying the word “Over” by the phone. It may be at home or at the Sari-Sari Store payphone next door. After realizing I just did, I feel embarrassed when somebody overheard it; and just smile when I am all alone.

Without GPS, my generation had to use compass and master map reading. Now with GPS, there’s no need for rigid training in finding ones position. The troop leader can just read the coordinates on the gadget. Then, he can immediately call for fire-for-effect from his artillery support. But during my time, especially deep in the jungle, I could not see anything but trees all around me. I had to let someone climb a tree to look for any prominent points, usually Mount Tumatangis, in order for me to plot our location on the map. There were so many times that I am not too confident of my map reading and too scared to call for any artillery or mortar fire support . . .

Going back with cellphones, these electronics emit radioactive signals. Enemies have ways to detect where these emissions are coming from. Likewise, the light on the cellphone screen can be seen miles away at nighttime, just like a lighted cigarette. Ringing tones from irresponsible owner can automatically announce troop presence in the area. During firefights, cellphones is a total distraction! A soldiers are tempted to call love ones whenever hit by sniper bullets and think they are about to die.

From another perspective, there are also soldiers of different kind. The gung-ho type who are social media fanatics. They would start shooting with their cellphones’ video camera instead of their issued rifle during firefights. Then upon returning to barracks, they would post and upload their videos in YouTube or Facebook. Actually, there was already an investigation of a similar incident recently lodged by a Board of Inquiry. The soldier was recommended for court martial for “unsoldiery behavior”, for not finding in the military law the exact violation describing the offense .

From The Manila Times dated 31 August 2016, there was a news item that 15 soldiers died from 35^th Infantry Battalion in the hands of Abu Sayaff in Basilan. The news reporter wrote, “One of the slain military men, was reportedly beheaded by the Abu Sayyaf, who even sent a mobile phone message to the soldier’s family in Zamboanga City. The bandits told the relatives, using the soldier’s phone, that they chopped off the head of the infantryman. An Abu-Sayaff said, “Your son is dead. His head is gone, we cut it off yesterday.” Things like this may not matter anymore to you because you are already dead but to your families, do you want this to happen to them?

Without digital cameras or smart phone during those times, we have to go to Kodak Developing Centers at downtown to have our films developed and printed out, before we can see our product. It would take days to get the printed photos, no one-hour processing yet. Not like digital cameras, you could see immediately what you took. I remember my first bloody encounter that we had to identify immediately our killed assailant if it was really the most wanted Kumander (name withheld) the Brigade is looking for. My Brigade Commander wanted to know or see the face hora mismo. I was taking a long time to answer him back in the radio because I know that carrying the whole body would be a burden to my platoon. It would slow down our movements. But suddenly, I heard the Brigade Commander saying, “Just bring his head Dumbguard!”