Not sure what " G" was my time... But I ROD'd in 1985. Wore
Temasek Green for my first 18 months of NS --- even had
the old no. 3 uniform, the one with badges and pins! Went abroad to
study and came back to do ICT in the 2.5G army ( I'm guessing
!).
Weapons.... seen the 60 mm mortar at the time it was phasing
out. 84mm recoiless, 106mm RR, M-16 / AR-15 with bipod .... we had
to strap this to our SBO and this caused a lot of cuts because some
of its edges were sharp. Useful item though... because it means
that when you prone during a laager, you had your weapon ready and
also kept it off the muddy ground.
Tekanning... pretty standard thru' my "decades" of service.
Except that when I joined BMT in 1982, some of the tekanning was
bordering on torture and bullying. Escape and evasion training had
no limits and the instructors could pretty much dream of stuff to
do to you. This was toned down towards 1984 and after , when a
number of high profile scholars became Colonels and they started to
review the training programme. Emphasis was on
training realism and not on discipline.
The other difference I saw as an "old" soldier was that some
parts of Singapore were still not developed. For example the area
around Orchid Country Club was a great area for training. Many
abandoned villages and belukar areas, meant great map reading and
section patrolling areas. You get a good feel of what would be like
across the border ( if you know what I mean !). The area around
Pasir Laba was also like this.
When I did my ICT in the 1990s, a lot of these areas were
developed/ developing. Golf courses, HDB estates etc etc. I had the
sense that our training grounds were getting smaller. Some areas,
there were no point to use NVGs, because there will be flare in the
goggles caused by the stray lighting from the housing estates. You
were blinded. The other thing I noticed that went missing in the
1990s were the " Civvy Quartermaster ". These were roadside hawkers
who drove a small van to sell sweets and cold drinks in the
training areas. They performed a great service and I suspect
they "stole" the training programmes from the camps to see which
group was training where and at what time... because they always
seem to turn -up at the right time and place !
I wonder how it is now in Singapore..... my last
in-camp was 1995 but I demobbed in the 2000s, as I am now working
overseas. I am sure the training areas are mostly gone. Don't get
much realistic environment in Singapore now.
