For 17-year-old Kornwut the highlight of his time as a member of the Army Reserve Force Students was blasting away with M16A1s left over from the Vietnam War. Though they were only 5.56mm calibre guns and offered little recoil, they were fun to shoot and he would have done more but that could get costly _ due to budget constraints reservists who wish to practise their shooting must pay 30 baht for five bullets.
Other weapons that are the stuff of teenage boy military dreams _ grenade launchers, shoulder-fired missiles _ are nowhere to be found, a fact Kornwut bemoans.
''I'd like to fire a grenade launcher but the instructing sergeant told me that it would cost 2,000 baht a shot and that the option simply isn't there anyway, even if we had the money and wanted to do it.''
Kornwut and his best friend of several years Nattapat joined the reservists in 2010, becoming part of a tradition of young men getting a taste of soldier life that extends back to 1935. It was then that the first reserve force was formed by the Gen Poj Paholyothin (Phraya Pahol Polpayuhasena) administration under the name of the Military Youth (Yuwachon Taharn) to help defend the nation, according to the Army Reserve Command.
When Japanese forces entered Thailand in 1941 during the era of Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsongkram, a group of military youth in southern Chumporn province successfully held off a group of the enemy soldiers. The Military Youth was dissolved in 1945 with the end of WWII, but the idea was revived two years later, leading to the formation of the Army Reserve Force Students.
Although the need for an army of ''boy soldiers'' in modern times is questionable, the force still attracts large numbers of students, many of whom see it as a convenient way to avoid military conscription later in life.
All Thais aged 17-22, both male and female, are eligible to apply for the force. However, there are strict requirements for entry under the Army Reserve Command's BE 2516 Act.
Recruits must have a minimum secondary school average of 60%, not be conscripted to the Thai military and be in good health with a basic level of physical fitness.
First and second year training consists of education on military life, discipline and how to use a weapon, while the third year focuses on military strategy and techniques. Recruits must do four hours of training for 20 weeks every year of the course in addition to field training at Khao Chon Kai base in Kanchanaburi.
To pass, students must achieve 50 points in their annual exam and complete at least 80 hours of field training.
According to the latest statistics, in 2009 there were 112,439 year one trainees, 95,562 in year two and 95,589 in year three.
Those who complete the training are put in the reserve forces and do not have to undergo conscription. Recruits can choose to do another two years of training and gain the rank of second lieutenant.
Nattapat said that although he respects the profession and admires those who choose a career in the armed forces, ''We want a brighter future. We don't want to be soldiers.''
To be eligible to get into the reserves, candidates must demonstrate that they can do at least 22 push-ups in two minutes and 15 seconds (''I can do 30!'' boasts Nattapat), 34 sit-ups in the same amount of time, and run at least 800m in three minutes and 15 seconds.
Nattapat and Kornwut, who are both 17 and 12th graders in a private high school in Bangkok, found the last requirement to be the most challenging. ''The running left me totally exhausted!'' says Nattapat.
While Nattapat enjoys the firearms training as much as Kornwut, he admits that none of his shots managed to hit their target despite several attempts and adjustments to his firing style.
''I can't shoot straight. I would die if I was a real soldier in combat,'' he says, adding that the Army Reserve Force Students' motto, ''Hope for peace, so be prepared for fight. No foe is more fearless than us,'' though, is right on the mark.
''When a sergeant tells you what to do, you are fearless. If you look like you are scared, he will give you a punishment, such as doing push-ups, running for a kilometre or even standing at attention for an hour.
''They teach us how to clean guns. But they are from the World War II era and don't work any more. We also learnt how to pick up a gun and hit an attacker with the butt of it.''
All young reservists also learn how to smartly snap their rifle to their side, quickly bring it up to their face as they would when shooting an enemy, and then bring it to rest on their right shoulder.
Training is staggered for different groups around the country, and, for this pair, comes regularly each Tuesday from 1pm to 4 or 5pm, when they are excused from classes.
''There's a lot of marching. And you need to salute soldiers of higher ranks,'' says Kornwut.
His friend adds: ''We are instilled with a deep sense of patriotism in the training. We sing the national anthem at the beginning of each training day and the royal anthem at the end of each day.''
Nattapat says, ''Some of the common themes running through the speeches by the sergeant instructors are to love your nation and to not use drugs or gamble. They're usually interesting, but sometimes a few kids will doze off. So if a lieutenant or other high-ranking officer drops by, we have to throw water in the face of any reservist who happens to be sleeping at the time.''
In their afternoon sessions, the student soldiers are taught survival skills such as how to apply tourniquets and treat snakebites.
''You go through practice exercises learning how to take care of fellow soldiers who have been injured and take them to a safe area. We are also taught theories of war and how to operate a tank and practicalities such as how to move around in your unit at nighttime, and how to hide from your enemies, including by applying camouflage and black face paint,'' says Nattapat, who, like all reservists, sports a regulation crew-cut-style haircut.
The pair is excited to be heading into intensive training at Khao Chon Kai base in Kanchanaburi for five to seven days next December or January. The experience, which all reservists must endure, was the subject of the 2006 comedy film Khao Chon Kai.
''I am looking forward to the deeper bonding at Khao Chon Kai,'' says Nattapat. ''We must be able to sacrifice ourselves for our friends and country. We will be taught how to survive in the forest if we're lost, by hunting small animals for food, and reading compasses. But we won't have GPS technology. I think the experience will be very important to me. I want to know what to do if I'm lost in the forest''
The teens will be taught how to bang out ''SOS'' in Morse code, and even make smoke signals. Some of the instruction will be given by an officer who some of the reservists, mostly affectionately, call ja na-rok _ ''the sergeant from hell''. Not surprisingly, he is known for his toughness.
''Older friends of mine who have gone there, said that on that base we will learn how to prove ourselves,'' says Kornwut. ''We will have to obey rules, even more than usual. We will carry real guns. Sometimes parents are very worried, because the training at Khao Chon Kai can be dangerous. For example, we will be riding on zip-lines. But my father has told me that it's a lesson for a man.''
Napapat adds, ''My mother told me that if I get hurt, she would be hurt also.''
''The reserves is great fun and worthwhile,'' says Kornwut. ''You learn to be a soldier. You learn to be a gentleman. You learn to obey the rules. The experience makes you tougher.''
