SAF Colonel dies during Singapore Biathlon

last SG · 2006-03-27T00:01:32+00:00

RIP Colonel Bernard Tan. [This thread will be closed].

mhcampboy SG

i think his office is in gombak. if thats the case... i think he everyday eat canteen. besides... he could always drive out and eat somewhere.

CoolMyth SG

The problem with cookhouse food is simple, does anyone really eat there everyday?

I think it's more like the stringent requirements making everyone go to canteen and eat instead of the cookhouse, not the requirements themselves got problem.

I for one, never saw the top people eating at the cookhouse. It's always the canteen. Laughing

Shotgun SG

vito_corleone SG

isn't this the bernard tan who always provides mindef's highly subject-dodging excuse-ridden replies in the papers? Laughing

juay323 SG

u've never really eaten cookhouse food have u?

Anyways, SFI is also another big WAYANG lar. My camp cookhouse had this very bad habit of serving a lot of canned preserve meats. How healthy can that get? The food also salty like hell.

True, the soldiers survey, and the food improves... for a week. Den the same ol' #@!* happens again.

Seriously, i don't blame the food for the deaths. I believe its the water and the air that we have. Singapore's air isn't getting any cleaner.

1) For the record, I have been in service for 6years. In which, i have eaten at P.Tekong, SAFTI MI, Jurong Camp, Nee Soon Camp, Hendon and Seletar Camp.

2) Yes, i do admit that the food is not perfect. But, can any other contractor or the old SAF cooks fare any better in providing better nutrition? .....i'll leave u all to decide. My point is that the food is indeed meant to be nutritious. The fact that units tolerate such misadventure by SFI to serve such oily, fattening and salty food is infact mismanagement by yr unit comd, logistics officer....they have not demanded for standards frm the contractors which they have every right to do so to begin with.

3) Lets also not deviate too much frm this topic, and be too speculative in our own assumptions on the poosible casuation of the death. Lets all be respectful to the deceased officer and his family. We will leave the postmortem to deliver the facts.

macjoe SG

General Practitioner Medical Officer.

Wink

minimalis SG

He looks familiar. Any idea if he’s served in JMPD before going back to Army?

alwaysdisturbed SG

when its time to go…its time to go…nth can stop u…

hmsg SG

nope, that's another COL Bernard Tan....

heavenlyfire SG

another army personnel....

more and more army personnels died from my cases...

is it too much of a coincidence or is there some terriosts' activity behind it?

Idea

Nikar SG

i almost wanted to ask the same question... so hes not the guy who writes response letters to the newspapers rite?

no......the previous Director of Public Affairs(the one who's always writing in the Straits Times) is called "Bernard Toh".
The current one is Benedict Tan. They hand-take-over in 2005, if I remember.

maybe next victim will be 3-star general? if really got, how? suspend NS???!!! reduce NS time? cut-short reservice requirement?(13 years ---> 10 years ---> 5 years!!!!!) Shocked

also, not i want to say, but not only should they review the whole medical system......they should also review the proficiency of the SAF medical officers.
i have always doubted their abilities.......sure, they're CPTs, but are they under-graduate/polytechnic-medical-students-in-training?????!!!!! Shocked

oxford mushroom SG

We still don't know the cause of death yet but one assumes it is a heart attack. According to the American Heart Association, the lifetime risk of having coronary heart disease after age 40 is 49% for men and 32% for women.

Maybe not so surprising after all...especially since he would have had lots of good food and wine on his salary...

cornyfish2000 SG

Haha.. nah, they are full-fledged doctors, as you can see from their prefix CPT(DR). I don't think medical students qualify to use the DR prefix in front of their names.

Not sure of the mechanism of sudden cardiac death but i don't think it's the fault of the medical system, after all, this COL probably collapsed and died on the spot. The reports did say that he was given immediate medical attention and was even shocked with the defibrillators. It's just another unfortunate incident that happens rather frequently, people collapsing and dying suddenly following strenuous activity. Neutral

cornyfish2000 SG

The risk is also related to ethnicity.. Locally, the Indians tend to have a much higher risk compared to the Chinese or the Malays. But for a fit guy to get it at such a young age, he may well have a significant family history of note.

Atobe SG

If it is not the food, how can it be the air and the water - which 4.5 Million Singaporeans depend on the same ?

It must be the rare commodity that not so many 4.5 Million Singaporeans can claim to, and would probably wish for - the $$$$$$ Monthly Wages of a SAF Coloel .

It is the good life, the good food, the First World environment that the $$$$$$ brings.

Do the Indoensians, Malaysians, Thais, Philippines, Cambodians, Vietnamese, Laotians, and Myanmese soldiers suffer the same heart disease that attack their 40 Plus adults - especially those in their Military ?

LazerLordz SG

Please keep this thread respectful.

A friendly reminder.

Incedrius SG

COL Bernard Tan was from Guards. Former CO 3 GDS, then Brigade Commander 7 SIB. My ex-Brigade Commander. He was the ACGS (Pers) at the time of his death.

RIP.

minimalis SG

Confirm, he did spend some time before his current posting in JMD as a dept head. Was LTC then.

nightzip SG

But let be realistic.
Arent all these SAF personnel knows better the infamous line,
"Before we start this evolution, is there anyone who is unwell?"

hence i think personnal responsibility comes first, (RIP Col Tan)
the organisation or ground system can only do this much,
and i even heard that the registerants had to pass a swim trial,
before they could qualify as a participants to take part.
So if we were to pin-point on the management for better handling of such incident,
arent we all have the Medical Corps line up all along the event route,
have a trial run or swim similiar to the event (if Marathon then die lar)
and all these "better" management of incidents factors will go on and on.

If you think that the race is tough for you,
wouldnt you train up for it?

If you think that the event is too tough for you,
wouldnt you walk away from it?

If you think you are not in the best form for that event day,
shouldnt you just call it off?

Lets take responsibility on ourselves, and not rely on a better system to assist,
coz end of the day, the collateral damage is felt most by our love ones.
Its our body, our life, our responsibility and our committment to our love ones.

I believe most of us and not attributing faults to anyone or any organisation....we are just finding the cases more and more frequent...somewhat like that of the bird-flu cases...sprinkling up every where in asia....

i thought that they should at least set up some medical investigative council to check out about these cases if there are any similarities (which i believe alot!) and check if it is due to some viruses, our diet (water source, food, etc), air or what....

They should also try to form alliance (medical) with other countries to pool out all the cases and check them...maybe something IS going around here...and that exercises MAY kill....even if you DO NOT have any PRIOR medical illness, VERY FIT, etc...

cause those cases i know are all VERY fit people who died and they have NO prior medical illnesses....

I mean the related authorites should have the foresight to investigate them...

ozzy-gurl SG

my condolences Sad

RIP

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