Our Guards are very similar to the British Paras
British Paras are proper airborne, lah. IMO Our GDS ops model
takes after the US Air Cavalry division of the Vietnam War. Their
modern version is the 101st "Screaming Eagles", but I'm not sure
how much of their troop strength is airmobile & how much
airborne.
I really don't see the difference of training between SIR and
Guards...
I sorta concur, having been attached to their exercises & as
well as with the CDO once.
But GDS does have a legit predigree, both locally & in the
larger air-assault ops. Their forefathers were the glider infantry
in WW2, which the Band Of Brothers DVD didn't dramatize but which
the Stephen Ambrose book did. (Imagine sitting in those flying
coffins, with no airborne training & no escape routes if the
plywood plane catches fire or breaks into two.) Helicopters then
took over the ferrying some in the Korean War, but airmobile
tactics would take off only in Vietnam.
Locally, the GDS & CDO units were once together in a biggie
outfit called 7SIB, then under 3DIV. That was where I was coming
from in my last post. This is really testing what I studied in NUS
but, I believe, the SAF has gone through 3-4 ORBAT phases in its
history. Apologies for any sweeping statements & errors:-
(1) 1970s, when 'Area 3 Command' (later 3DIV) & 4SAB were the
pioneering frontline legions of the fledging SAF, & followed
later in the decade by their reservist counterparts (6DIV, 9DIV,
& the armoured versions). All other combat units were
non-division. The 'superstar' was 7SIB, comprising 2 CDO units, 2
GDS units (initially as SAFGU & 8SIR) as well as ITD
(precedessor of BMTC). But otherwise there was a general rivalry
between the more conventional troops in "mechanized infantry" (SAR)
& those in "line infantry" (SIR).
(2) post-1983, with the newly-introduced 13-yr reservist cycle
(disastrous news for impending enlistees like me then ~lol~) &
a wholescale revamping (even disbanding of) active outfits as a
result. Each DIV gained a bunch of combat-support units, but would
only command the majority of them on paper. The CDOs & ITD were
already transferred out, but 7SIB retained its elite-infantry
status after 7SIR (3GDS) converted to join them to form an all-GDS
BDE. Most old-bird peng, as I recall, would immediately gave
respect whenever 7SIB was mentioned back then, rather than to the
more-hyped Best Unit competition.
(3) early-90s, under the Army 2000 plan. More troop redistribution,
but each DIV finally assumed proper command & become true
combat-arms entities. Best personalified by reservists & "ROD"
becoming "NSmen" & "ORD" respectively to reflect new ops
status. 8SAB joined 3DIV &, to me, that deflated a lot of the
old rivalry between the active-time SAR & SIR units. Still,
4SAB, like CDO, was non-divisional & could thus still claim
"independence". 7SIB was transferred out to spearhead the new 25DIV
(RDF), & got their own khaki berets.
(4) I can recall the SAF announcing a Army 21 plan near the end of
the millennium, but it appeared the post-9/11 events have prompted
a rethink. The new one is the 3G SAF, introduced last year but no
significant ORBAT changes so far.
