For those who wanted to know what happened on P.Tekong, I dug up
my old post and cut-and-pasted it below. Kinda long as I included
quite a bit of background info.
Story slightly edited, also, some details were removed.
**********
This happened around December 2002, in our dear Pulau Tekong.
Wasn't a personal experience, but it's close enough i think.
**********
I was in an Infantry Bn that was going to P.Tekong for an 5 day
exercise. I suspect the sole purpose of the mission was to tekan us
sec-coms and the men, for all we did was SBD after SBD, with the
occasion platoon mission. At night we would move to another area in
FBO to another part of Tekong to dig in and con, then repeat the
cycle again next day.
Mind you my bn was already operational, gone to brunei, and had
already done quite a few battallion exercises, so WHY the bn HQ had
funny ideas of training section movement for 5 entire days is
beyond me. Furthermore, in ALL my bn exercises right up to my ORD,
I had never even once fought in section level, it was always
platoon level and above.
I'm going out of point, anyway suffice to say, we were all very
tired by wednesday night having been doing drills since Monday.
Now, that night after we finished our drills, we were supposed to
move to another area to con, but for some reason, we were held at a
training shed till ~11pm. Frankly then, me and my fellow sec-coms
didn't care why, we were just glad to get some rest.
A while later, news filtered down to us that X coy's sec-com (let's
call him Sgt A) had gone missing during his FIBUA mission. Bn HQ
was starting to worry and subsequently, the entire battalion was
activated to search for him since X coy had not suceeded in
locating the Sgt despite having been searching and combing the area
since 7pm.
We took 5-tonners to the BUA village where Sgt A was last seen, and
carried out a mass combing. Entire companies were formed up in an
extended line, and we moved forward to search, all the while
calling out Sgt A's name. However by 2am, our Sgt A was still
missing, and we had combed more than 2km from the BUA village.
Those unlucky ones even bashed through the vegetation to search for
him. All to no avail.
By this time, us Sgts were joking among one another, cracking
jokes. We were horsing around saying Sgt A was hiding somewhere on
purpose so we had to search for him, and as a result, the Bn
exercise would have to halt. We even made up a mock plan as to who
was next to hide, where to hide, and how much rations he should
bring in order to sustain a hide till friday when mission would
cut. 
At around 2.30am, Thursday early morning, the search was finally
called off. Sgt A had been found.
We didn't carry out our mock plan, and our exercise went on with
the exception that we woudn't have to dig in that night as it was
too late already 
. We carried out our last mission on thursday
afternoon and gathered at the BUA village (where Sgt A went
missing) at CO's orders.
**********
There, the CO addressed the battalion and told us what happened
...
On Wednesday evening, Sgt A was point section of his platoon to
attack a BUA building. The exercise was a simple one, RV somewhere
in the vegetation about 70m away from the building, then move
towards it and carry out the usual drills.
It was getting dark then, and the platioon was lagging slightly.
Sgt A told his men he would move ahead and check out the front, and
instructed them to wait for the platoon. However, when the platoon
arrived, Sgt A wasn't there. Not sensing anything admiss at that
time, the platoon carried out the attack without Sgt A. Maybe the
PC decided to question Sgt A when he came back.
It was nearing 8pm, and Sgt A still hadn't come back. The PC
ordered the platoon to search for their Sgt. Soon the search
expanded involved the Coy, and finally the whole Battalion.
Sgt A was eventually found at the Malay School by a mortar/scout
(details are foggy, don't remember which exactly) section at around
230am. For those who don't know, this Malay School place was some
distance away from the BUA village where Sgt A had gone missing. He
was unconcious and suffering from mild hypothermia when discovered,
and was immediately sent to the BMTC medical center for
treatment.
Sgt A initially refused to tell anyone what exactly happened, but
after some time, he finally told his side of the story ...
That evening when Sgt A went ahead of his platoon alone that
evening, he saw a white, seemingly female figure. This figure told
Sgt A to follow. For some reason, Sgt A felt compelled to follow
and couldn't resist. He also mentioned he seem to be viewing
everything from a 3rd person perspective from behind ie. he was
somehow looking at himself from behind following the white
figure.
Sgt A (and the figure) arrived at the Malay School Tekong.
There, the figure asked Sgt A to kill
himself.
Our CO then mentioned that it was fortunate that we train with
blanks instead of live rounds.
**********
Maybe it's wasn't Sgt A's time yet, so to speak. Maybe it was pure
survival instinct that Sgt A didn't commit suicide despite the
white figure telling him to. Maybe that particular being didn't
have enought "power". Or maybe it was the lack of lethal equipment,
as he didn't have live rounds to shoot himself with. In any case,
it's was fortunate that we didn't lose a life over the
incident.
For the skeptics out there :
If you don't believe Sgt A, please remember he had no need to
reason to lie and cause a big hooha that would eventually involve
the entire batallion of 400+ soldiers. If he was sick he could just
have fallen out. I didn't know Sgt A personally as I was a spec in
another coy, and furthermore I was from a older SISPEC batch that
passed out earlier. But his fellow coy specs with whom i was more
friendly with told me that Sgt A isn't the "chao keng" type, more
of the hardworking type (A was a regular btw).
It's also highly unlikely that Sgt A got lost in Tekong and
invented the story to "save face". All Infantry specs spend 8
months "playing" in Tekong and are quite familiar with at least 75%
of tekong ground having done exercise/torpor extensively on the
island; and Sgt A was a fresh spec that had graduated out of SISPEC
not too long ago before the incident. Furthermore, all Sgts have a
damn map/compass set and are proficient using them.
Lastly, he was less than 100m from the BUA. If he needed medical
help, it was 100m away. He was 100m away from all the light and
noise that the rest of the coy was making in another part of the
BUA ...
*end*
