HE WAS their only child. And the parents of Second Lieutenant
Nicholas Chan Wei Kit, 21, are still unable to believe their son is
gone after his sudden death last Friday afternoon at Seletar Camp,
in which an army land rover rolled back, pinning him
underneath.
A recovery vehicle was dispatched, although the Defence Ministry
did not say how soon after the accident, to lift the vehicle off
him. But 2LT Chan died in hospital of his injuries - a little more
than an hour after he took over the vehicle.
His mother, a housewife, received a call at their flat in Bukit
Batok, telling her that 'something had happened' to her son, and
that he was in hospital. Together with her husband, an engineer,
they rushed down. But by the time they got there, it was too
late.
The family is still questioning what led to 2LT Chan's death.
After all, he had been on military trips to Brunei and Taiwan, and
had always returned safely.
His mother said she is still too distraught to probe much into
the details of her son's death.
But one thing they want to know is whether any other military
personnel were with their son at the time of the incident. The
family said Mindef has told them that it cannot reveal this now as
the matter is still under investigation.
What little they know is that 2LT Chan - a newly commissioned
officer - was a Motor Transport Officer based in Jurong Camp. He
had gone to the Seletar camp that day to collect the vehicle.
It is also not known if he was alone at the time but his mother
said he could not have gone to collect the vehicle alone because he
did not have a driving licence.
In between sobs, she said that her son would come back almost
every night to the family home to have dinner before heading back
to camp. She had been expecting him as usual last Friday evening -
but he never showed up.
2LT Chan's cousins described him as a 'happy-go-lucky' and
'playful' person, with a keen eye for fashion. He had a passion for
clothes, they said, and even chose to specialise in retail
management as a student at Temasek Polytechnic.
Close friends also called him a 'cheeky and happy' man. Said his
former Basic Military Training platoon mate Audi Khalid, 21: 'He
was the life of the platoon.'
--ST