It is a
well-known fact that Pulau Tekong has a number of ghosts. Some of
you readers may have read or heard about the ghost at Charlie
Company at the old basic military camp 1. Unfortunately, some
versions that I read or heard have been distorted over the
years.
Here, I
hope to set the record straight. Instructors and trainees of
Charlie Company, Infantry Training Depot during the March-June 1983
period can vouch for my version of the story. It is NOT my
intention to revive hurtful memories especially for the bereaved
family or to blame anyone, but purely to narrate facts as they had
happened.
The
starting point of this true story should be the 16 Km route march
about 18 years ago. Before the march, the Officer Commanding of the
company asked the trainees whether anyone was sick or not feeling
well. No one put up his hand. But there was a trainee among the
company, Recruit Tham W.K., who was down with flu but did not put
up his hand.
Then
the route march started. The platoons took turns to lead the
company after each break during the route march. Sometimes, the
pace of the march became too hot for some trainees, who could not
keep pace and had to fall out. They became stragglers and had to be
picked up by a few instructors walking at the rear of the company.
The landrover with the medical orderly was also supposed to be at
the rear.
Somehow,
Tham fell out and managed to slip out of view by taking cover in
the forest. He was not to be seen alive again.
During
subsequent rest breaks, there were head-counts. He was presumed to
be with the medical orderly. It was only in the evening after the
route march, when the the rifles were due to be returned to the
armoury, that they realised Tham was missing. They went to the
medical centre but he was not there. The instructors feared the
worst. Overnight, they organised a night-search party for him,
re-tracing the 16-Km route taken earlier in the day. They could not
find him.
The
next day, the entire Camp I ceased training and batches of
instructors and trainees were dispatched to find Tham. It was only
about 5 p.m. that his own platoon commander (PC) found his corpse.
Near a forest track junction, the PC noticed a half-pictched tent.
He called out but there was no response. As he neared the tent, he
noticed many flies buzzing around and detected a foul stench. There
lay before him his dead trainee, lying with one hand holding his
rifle and the other hand outstretched with a water bottle, with its
cover opened. The PC broke down in tears and wept
openly.
(A
subsequent post-mortem showed that Tham had apparently died of
stomach rupture. When his body system was still hot from the heat
of the route march, against the advice of instructors, he had
apparently gulped down massive amounts of water suddenly. It was
like pouring ice cubes into a thin glass of hot water, which can
cause the glass to crack. But the post mortem also found puncture
marks on his body, which could not be satisfactorily explained to
this day.)
It was
left to the Company Sergeant Major and his landrover driver to
drive the corpse back to camp for transfer to the mortuary. It was
twilight at that time. Inexplicably, the engine could not start.
The thought of the two of them spending the night with the corpse
unnerved them. But eventually, they somehow had the engine started
and returned safely to base.
The
late Tham was promoted to NCO and cremated at Mount Vernon with
full military honours. As the company trainees lined the road
snaking up to the crematorium to salute our late comrade, it was a
heart-breaking sight to see a distraught mother being supported by
two daughters following the hearse.
A few
instructors returned to the site where he departed from this world,
to offer incense and prayers. One instructor asked the late Tham
not to come back and haunt us, but rather to express his last
wishes in a dream so that his soul could rest in peace after his
wishes were fulfilled.
But
Tham did not listen.
