For those who have been thru army before, they should know the significance of the date today. well for those who never been thru army before, today is SAF ( Singapore Armed Forces) Day.
And that's why I'm surprised when I pull out my Sunday newspaper and found what they called it 'A Lifestyle SPECIAL 40 years of National Service'
Must be government propaganda again, I thought to myself. Nevertheless I flipped thru the first page, start reading the first article..
The more I read, the more nostalgic I felt. Load of memories came flooding back as I read articles after articles, about BMT and botaks, about those people who are in their 50s who have already ROD and contributed their stories about national service during their time, about the current officers still in the force...etc
but the article that left me the deepest impression was the one about the pioneer batch of 1967. The first blood who went into national service and trained under the Israel army consultant. Those days were tough..as I did converse before about the treatment melted out with some of those NS-men who came back to do reservist while I was still an NSF.
The article ended with - What does remain, however, are the memories and bragging rights. As Mr Chua says: " We were the first batch. We will always be the fittest and the strongest."
Upon reading this sentence, (don't ask me why also) I almost choked back with emotion. Something struck a chord. You have to give these men their due respect, just as those who died during their service, to those who gave 20-30yrs of their life to protect the country we called 'Home'.
Perhaps that's why in the army Master and Senior Warrant officer are often the respected figure when they are around..at least in my point of view.
Looking back at my service term, I'm considered lucky to skip outfield training after my posting to the Navy. The workload was rather monotonous because we are dealing with defense and defenders don't go for overseas assignments at all. We stay in our base, did our training, had our yearly exercise etc but among all these the most important thing I picked up during my time spent in Navy was management and leadership.
Dealing with security stuffs, handling civilians and serviceman to comply to the rule, implementing orders from the higher up and getting screwed by them, issuing orders to the 18 men below every time I'm on duty to ensure everything flow smoothly and nothing goes wrong, conducting training with my platoon commander etc..It teaches me the importance of conducting oneself, never to cut corners because the CSM will definitely find out someday and unleash his fury, the value of teamwork among the sergeants and treating your men fairly so work can get easier done.
The only regret I ever had was not to understand the situations of those who were here before me when they were going to ORD soon and if I could turn back the time I'll definitely be more flexible with their circumstances.
Somehow, the naval dept have put me in this unit called 'institute of higher learning' which actually means I will not be call back for my reservist for the next 3 years. I don't know whether it's good or bad but among all the complaints that NS wasted 2 years of our life, I could have said I've mature along the way and I'm glad of the opportunity to be peform my role as guard commander follow by the platoon sergeant to practice and honed my management skill. It have indeed serve me in good stead.
Hairy moments. Celebratory tales. Pride in service. Sweat and tears. The Sunday Times celebrates how NS has bonded Singaporean men- and women- over four amazing decade.
posted by Immortali @ 10:55 pm
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