“Training to be soldiers
Fighting for our land
Once in our lives
Two years of our time
Have you ever wondered
Why we must serve
‘Cos we love our land
And we want it to be free, to be free yah.”
This past April, I was officially posted to Singapore’s Ministry of Defence Reserve (“MR”) holding list. This means that barring exceptional circumstances, I would no longer need to be called up every year for National Service.
It’s been a long time coming, since my Enlistment day many, many moons ago when I began life as a Full-time National Serviceman.
Soldiering
Conscription is mandatory for all able-bodied male Singapore Citizens & Permanent Residents upon reaching age 18.
I served my National Service in the Singapore Armed Forces (“SAF”).
These were some things I learnt, in no particular order:
- Marching commands in Malay, and how to follow orders.
- Cover & concealment, and basic fire movement.
- How to load & fire a rifle, and clean it afterwards.
- How to construct a basha (field shelter), eat combat rations, and survive multiple days in the field without a bed and sewage system.
- How heavy my fullpack weighed on a then 50-kg frame during 8/16/24km Route Marches.
- What a knoll meant, and how to charge up a hill and capture an objective.
- How quickly a platoon of 40 young men could kit out into Full Battle Order and move from the 4th floor bunk to the Parade Square, especially when the faster ones helped the slower ones.
It has been many years, but I don’t recall taking badly to military training. I vaguely remember getting some award in my Passing Out Parade, so I suppose I did reasonably.
(p/s This little snippet might bring back some memories to National Servicemen:
I was later sent to Officer Cadet School, commissioned as an Army Officer, and posted to an operational military unit. At a still-young age, I had to learn to think on my feet, and to lead and manage my fellow conscripts to discharge the mission we were assigned to undertake.
It was a privilege to have led this group of (then-)young men, some of whom came from very different backgrounds from me. It was no bed of roses, but again there was much learning.
In addition to the perhaps tongue-in-cheek list above, these were two of the lasting lessons of my time as a Full-time National Serviceman:
- To always understand the motivations of the people that we work with, and
- To do things right the first time so we don’t sabotage our friends.
In a different world, I could have been a career soldier.
However, by the time the SAF scholarship opportunity came, I had already accepted the offer from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Operationally-Ready
As it turns out, “2 years of our time” from the marching ditty at the beginning of this article is not quite true — In Singapore, every able-bodied man is required to serve 1–2 weeks of National Service (“NS”) until reaching 40 years or 50 years in age. In practice, most of us serve 7–10 years, before becoming part of the MR I mentioned.
So once or twice a year, I would report to the SAF for refresher training to stay Operationally-Ready.
I disrupted my NS for several years to work in the United Kingdom. So when I returned to Singapore, the last few years of my Service was spent with an entirely different group of fellow-NSmen.
Once more, I leant back on the lasting lessons from all those years ago:
To do things right the first time so we don’t sabotage our friends, and to always understand the motivations of the people that we work with.
There were new learnings:
- How to connect and communicate with men >10 years younger than me
- How to lead (essentially cajole & persuade) people I have never worked with before, to get the job done
- How to utilise these young men’s professional experience in their civilian lives, and not make their time back in the Army a complete waste.
I worked with fellow NSmen, who in their civilian lives are capable Accountants, Auditors, Bankers, Business Owners, Consultants, Educators, Engineers, Finance Professionals, Human Resource Professionals, Lawyers, Lecturers, Managers, Restauranteurs (one a fellow Tottenham fan 😅 ), Real Estate Agents, Startup Founders, Visual Effects Artists, etc.
There were differences to leading young full-time soldiers, e.g. a sometimes less-urgent approach and for some, not quite the same fitness levels as their 18-year old selves. But we always worked to achieve the training objectives — not cutting corners on the task at hand, and never compromising on everyone’s safety.
Now that I am in the MR, I would no longer need to be called up for In-Camp Training except in exceptional circumstances (though I think I remain liable for NS till age 50).
I also no longer need to take my annual Individual Physical Proficiency Test. I’ll miss the $500 Gold Fitness Awards, which were a good bonus (though it got harder with each passing year as my body aged and ached), but the fitness habit has been hard to break, and I am thankfully still swimming, gymming or running every other day.
(And not forgetting our band of brothers from full-time National Service days that still maintain an active WhatsApp group, sharing anecdotes and jokes. COVID had put a stop to regular meetups, but hopefully soon.)
I Wasted My Training
As the refrain goes — training is never for training’s sake.
We train to make sure we have the skills to perform a task or job. Our military training was no different — to give each and every National Serviceman the skills, if ever needed, to protect the land that we live in and love.
I’m blessed with 2 daughters — to whom I’d explained why my fellow NS men and I needed to be ready to defend our home. And they always found it interesting to see Papa leave home decked out in green camouflage, once or twice a year.
But as it turns out, I never needed to put my soldiering training into practice.
- I never needed to take up arms, nor put my marksmanship skills to use by shooting at a ‘live’ target.
- I never had to be out in the field, and face a real aggressor.
- I never needed to lead our men in a real operation.
So I suppose I wasted my soldiering training.
Yet in this particular case, I was glad! Because if I ever needed to do the above, this would mean our country is under threat.
A credible and capable deterrent military force is part of our pillars of Total Defence, and I was glad to have contributed to that pillar for some time.
But at the end of the day, I am glad I never needed to apply my soldiering training for real. I hope I never have to for the rest of my life. Something we should never take for granted as a small country, which the recent geopolitical developments have shown us very starkly.
Then again, maybe I didn’t waste my my SAF training after all.
There were some practices that I’ve never really stopped:
- I still wake up early
- My bearing is upright
- I stay active & fit as best as I can
- My desk is always neat 🙂
I’ve applied the lessons from being a (then-)young Platoon Commander to my career. In Public Service, Financial Markets, and which today centres on building ArcLab — the world’s simplest system to Upskill the World’s Deskless Workforce (whose training is never wasted).
In no particular order, these are some of the lessons I’ve put to use:
- To understand team members’ motivations
- To care for their welfare
- To communicate goals & tasks clearly
- To never ask a team member to do anything I wasn’t willing to do myself
- To push them to grow, and to never take credit for their work
- To always lead from the front
So while I never got the chance to put my military-specific skills to actual use (and I hope I never will), my time in National Service taught me skills that accompany me throughout my life.
For that — I am thankful.
“ORD
Back to Study
Got Degree
So Happy
Can’t Forget
Still Remember
With my rifle & my buddy & me”