In the wake of troubling allegations surrounding a full-time national serviceman’s death, another former Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Guardsman has taken to Facebook to share his experience — this time to defend the reputation of his unit.
The welfare of national service recruits and trainees has been pushed to the forefront this week ever since 19-year-old Dave Lee died on Monday. The Guardsman trainee died from heat-related injuries sustained two weeks ago after an 8km fast march in Bedok Camp, and allegations have emerged about how Lee’s commanders might have been at fault.
Since the tragic death, a former Singapore Armed Forces Guardsman has spoken up to reinforce the standpoint that young national servicemen in the vocation can be a little excessive in force. Joel Goh has since taken down his viral post, but you can check out snippets of it here where he highlights the toxic masculinity that persists in national service.
Another ex-Guardsman, Ryan Wu, has a different take on the issue, sharing his opinions in response to other NSmen’s negative experience and “biased views” against commanders. Wu makes three big points — nobody is compelled to do anything beyond their limits; “tekan sessions” are necessary to build up mental strength during advanced infantry training; and heat exhaustion is not easy to identify.
“Don’t push yourself beyond the limit just because someone says so,” Wu wrote. “I hope all past present and future guardsmen and fellow NSFs alike take care of themselves.”
Read the whole post on Facebook, or check out some excerpts taken below.
On not being forced to do anything beyond limits
Falling out during training is also shun upon in the unit. From my own experience, I’ve fallen out of training before, only to be questioned by my PS, PC, CSM, and OC. Even men from my platoon and other platoons asked me to push on (phrasing ” don’t keng la” in a nice way here), but that’s my judgment on their intentions. And all I had to do was to insist on falling out, even though my OC said he said I shouldn’t fall out and agree to stay back for RT that weekend.
My point here is that in 1Guards or any unit that has a high rate of malingering, there are bound to be due process to prevent malingering so as to retain the men within the unit. Nobody forced me to do anything, even though the bombardment of questions coming from every commander could seem like it. I, just like every other soldier, had a choice to make, carry on with the training or fall out.
On “tekan sessions”
This occurs mainly in GAIT (Guards advanced infantry training). Yes, everything is more or less true about the tekan sessions. Some of my most memorable ones are; mid-afternoon bear-crawl chasing my PS because some men laughed during PT, cleaning up after a dustbin that was thrown off the second floor because we didn’t put a trash bag in it, running around the parade square because we didn’t get recon 1 for technical handling only to come back after the run to get tested right away, these are just to name a few and I don’t even want to get into the name calling.
However, it’s not just all bad when it comes to these tekan sessions. Yes, as a man receiving all of this at that particular point in time, you feel like shit and demoralized, you question everything and understand nothing. But on hindsight, all these were training and necessary to build up our mental strength for whats to come, because unlike other units, guardsmen don’t have it easier after our training phase, neither do we have it easier in our second year.
The unnecessary tekan ended after GAIT. After that tensions ease a little and we work together to become a battalion.
On the difficulty to identify heat exhaustion
In the experience of my platoon’s medic, during on outfield, we were moving off after a short break, he spotted a man still ‘sleeping’ against his field pack. This guy was not conditioned to our strenuous outfield but still wanted to join us despite this fact. To make things worse, he was from another platoon, meaning to say that his entire platoon missed him (probably because it was dark and everyone was tired).
Fortunately, my medic did all the right SOPs, cutting his clothes and pouring water where necessary. This was after my medic accessed the situation, all while the company medic (a sergeant) was also present but hesitated on what to do. My point here is that heat exhaustion is very serious but not easy to spot. And the question is to who is to blame for such an accident to even occur.
alfred says
I do not agree that the organization should be targeted for the issue. It was an unfortunate accident.
Speaking from my experience after 10 years in the force and still serving my ICTs, we have already improved vastly from the past in all areas specially in the area of training safety. These are not lip service but real actions being take at all levels to prevent accidents from happening. However one must recognize that as in all activities; be it games, competition, or any form of activities, there are risks. The risks can be mitigated and minimized but cannot be eliminated.
Military training does not include the training of the physique and weaponry only; it also includes the training of the mental mind which pushes a person to achieve the maximum he can. This is accepted in all military force around the world. So this must be the understanding and baseline which all of us must accept.
No one wants an accident to happen. Be it the commanders, peers or anyone. When all possible preventive actions are taken, then we cannot expect someone to be responsible for the mishap. It’s an accident like in all accidents that happened.
With regards to details like sleep, it is critically important to have minimum hours of sleep as it is also stated in the TSR. (I am sure all of us being trained as commanders know that) But we also have to understand that missing off some hours cannot be the cause of the accident. Let us not forget that before these young men come in for their military training, they also would have missed off couples of sleep for their exams or whatever reasons. The training we have now are also no more continuous train of activities as in the past but are filled with technical breaks to ensure the trainees cope up.
Lastly “tekan sessions” are a thing of the past. It has been fully subscribed by all levels of commanders’ training to ensure that this is drilled into the minds of every commander. Less any one who is complaining was trying to explain his true experience which happened donkey years ago (which I will could have more history to tell), let us let this matter rest.
In conclusion, I would like to add that I am also saddened by unfortunate accident that happen to the young man as I also have a son just like him. But as in all post-mortem, we have to be independent and factual when we look into each and every issue.
Michael Kok says
I relinquished my commander appointment at 50 after finishing my NS obligations. I believe there are generally 2 types of commanders in SAF. One type whom I call the mature and responsible commanders who learn from the mistakes of their predecessors so there they do not repeat them. The other type whom I call the immature and irresponsible commanders who not only do not learn from the mistakes of their predecessor commanders but do even worse and vent out their anger on their trainees. This latter type is a dangerous lot.
Let`s be clear that we are not just talking tough training BUT fair and tough training, meaning training within proper parameters and rest. If not it is tantamount to hitting below the belt in a boxing match. Totally unmanly and unfair and dangerous !