Originally posted by googoomuck:
The bonus will not mean a thing to me. It's about motivation.
In the battlefield, if a general were to go forward and say to his
men to follow him, I'll fight alongside with him.
If every general is 10 km behind the front line moving figurines on
the big map in the aircon war room and I'm to sacrifice my life in
the battlefront to protect the elite and the privileged few, I'll
rather make peace with the enemy.
If an army officer is no good, he's facing enemy fire in front and
friendly fire from behind. It happens in all wars.
One must have the passion to be an army officer to lead and win and
should not be one because of the prestige or the good prospects
that it brings.
By the way, I think the NS dodger is a hero. Somtimes a hero is one
with the courage to run away. I was too timid to do
that.
You are right that "one must have the passion to be an army
officer to lead and win and should not be one because of the
prestige or the good prospects that it brings".
The other motivations to be an Officer that you missed out will
include:
- the desire to mould NSF men under your command, to ensure that
they will be given the best training that will ensure their
survival when it is time to put to use what they have been trained
for;
- the desire to attend to the security of NSF men to ensure that
they get the best attention 24 hours of the time that they are in
the SAF - watching out for the errors that the subordinate
commanders failed to note or have taken things for granted;
- the desire to shape the minds of the subordinate commanders to
ensure that they execute their tasks as honestly as they possibly
can, as diligently as they will give of themselves, as generously
as they have received the same treatment as they expect for
themselves;
- the alertness to shape and mould the unit to be a cohesive whole
that will ensure the safe and successful outcome of any mission
that the unit is trained for.
The Officer's role is a challenging one, and seldom is his role
ever forgotten - not when he has the lives of so many in his
hands.
However, the Future of the SAF is in the hands of each and every
soldier, not just the Commanders only - whether they are NSF or
Full Time Regular men.
The manner in which the SAF fight will depend on how much the NSF
men give of himself during training, and how much he will challenge
himself to tolerate the pains, the sufferings, and the tiredness of
training.
The SAF is not an abstract object or a unseen being, it is a living
and throbbing entity formed by each and everyone of Singapore
males, who are prepared to give twenty four to thirty months of
their Lives to train themselves to absorb soldiering skills and
hone their animal fighting instincts to a higher acute level.
The success of the SAF to be an effective fighting unit depends not
on the Commanders, but on the enthusiastic response to serve our NS
with pride in OURSELVES - as we discover the hidden qualities that
each of us is capable of in surviving the worst that we can find
during training to be effective soldiers.
For those who have missed NS - by either running away, or genuine
medical conditions - they will never know the inner qualities that
they possess, the extreme limits and high endurance levels of their
bodies in extreme weather, extreme conditions, and extreme
psychological and physical situations.
Through NS, I found deep friendhship with new personalities during
my time in NS that last longer then those of my childhood
friends.
The military training has also benefitted me during my travels,
which can suddenly develop into high risks situation; and with the
training in acute situation awareness never fail me even when I
conduct my work in foreign land - with the training helping me to
understand my foreign partners and allowed me to accept the
challenges to try new things that they throw at me - what can be
worst then that we have gone through during the NSF days in the SAF
?
