u took an SQ flight to lancer? and you sounded like you went
there all by yourself.
Huh? There's usually 3 ways of aerial commute for servicemen:
via the C130, via commercial plane "by nominal roll" (i.e. back
gate) or, more rarely, via commercial plane by passport.
I flew commercial (SIA & China Airlines) to Starlight twice
later, both "by nominal roll" with the rest of the unit. The
infantry BN did the same for Lancer, except for we attached
personnel & some senior commanders who checked in normally -
with passports - for the same flight. FYI Full access to duty-free
shopping during the return trip too, unlike the men who had to
order liquor & cigarettes through their RSM.
My attached Arty group was a hodgepodge of regulars/NSFs (a FSO
& TA from W SA, a TA from X SA, a FO from Y SA, plus a full FSO
team from Z SA) & I only knew one of them from my SOAY-course
days. So, yeah, I guess there was a lot of autonomy. The only thing
my unit did was to get a Land Rover to drive me to, inexplicably,
the rendezvous camp that was furthest away from Changi Airport!
~lol~
In fact, I ended up so "latchkey-ed" that I had to fight entirely
on my own for the owed off-in-lieu's. The senior officer of that
Arty group - one of 2 regular CPTs - verbally agreed to back up
everyone's claim for 9.5 days' off (5 Saturdays & 5 Sundays)
but failed to follow up on returning. I pleaded in vain for my BC
to contact him, while my BC in turn sought to bargain down to 2
days as a "magnanimous internal solution". Things was left in limbo
until the unit ORD'd &, as the old bird, I was able to
"manipulate" the newly posted-in officers into honoring the quota
~wink~
