Recent news articles on Army training deaths

Viper52 SG

Some articles that appeared in the Nov 16 edition of Sunday Times, on the recent incidents in the SAF and it aftermath.

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Dunking in army started 5 years ago
By David Boey And Li Xueying

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4386,220290-1069019940,00.html?

Dunking in army started 5 years ago
By David Boey And Li Xueying

THE training tragedy in August in which a 19-year-old soldier drowned in a combat survival course was no freak accident.

Unauthorised dunking sessions like the one he suffered date back some five years, with the water getting progressively deeper, the Ministry of Defence admitted yesterday.

They started in some combat survival training courses in 1998 and 1999 and were carried out regularly from 2000.

Since 2000, four such courses have been held each year, and each normally draws more than 50 soldiers. So, several hundred men could have been put through this unauthorised 'water treatment'.

Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean said that as early as 1998, trainees had their heads placed under a running tap and their faces submerged in a washing bay where the water was 7cm to 10cm deep. Then in April this year, instructors started using a tub, where the water was 50cm to 1m deep.

New instructors followed what their seniors did, instead of the training manuals, so bad habits were perpetuated.

These startling revelations of the events that culminated in the death of Second Sergeant Hu Enhuai on Aug 21 were delivered at a press conference yesterday.

Rear-Admiral (NS) Teo had called the press conference to give an update on Mindef's independent inquiries into the deaths of 2nd Sgt Hu and two other SAF servicemen in unrelated training incidents in August and September.

The Chief of Defence Force, Major-General Ng Yat Chung, and the Army's Assistant Chief of General Staff for Operations, Colonel Hugh Lim, were also there to talk about the army's review of its training and safety management.

The review will look at training methods to ensure that they comply with lesson plans; the training of instructors; the auditing of training activities and the adequacy of medical support during training.

Unauthorised training practices from the course attended by 2nd Sgt Hu were uncovered by a Higher Board of Inquiry convened by Mindef after his death.

Rear-Adm Teo noted that the first combat survival training in 1993 included 'water treatment' but trainers were only allowed to douse trainees with cold water.

But from the late 1990s, trainers started to deviate from the lesson plan. The deviations were not detected despite a review of the lesson plan in 2001.

The course, run by the Commandos, teaches soldiers how to survive and how to escape, resist and evade the enemy, and prepares them for how they might be treated as prisoners of war.

2nd Sgt Hu died as a result of near drowning and suffocation, and six other men that same day needed medical attention but survived.

The developments have been closely followed, especially by parents with sons due to enter national service.

Madam Teresa Koh, 54, a retired school principal, has already had two of her sons go through national service. They are 23 and 29. Her youngest son is 18 and will start NS in January.

She said: 'It's sad that it takes an incident like this to uncover what's been going on all this time. But I'm very glad that it was discovered before my own boy goes in.'

Viper52 SG

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4386,220282-1069019940,00.html?

Aiming for safety

Reforms in the SAF announced yesterday are part of the most comprehensive review of safety practices since 1997

By David Boey

- SAFETY HOTLINE: For soldiers to report safety breaches and bad practices, expected to start in six months

- AUDIT: External agencies may be engaged to audit army's effectiveness of its safety and audit systems

- LIFE SAVERS: Plans to buy many automated external defibrillators, equipment used to revive those who get heart seizures

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EXTERNAL agencies may in future audit the effectiveness of the Singapore Armed Forces' safety and audit systems to spot practices that may be unsafe, the SAF said yesterday.
A safety hotline will be set up in every formation. This means, for example, that artillery gunners will be able to report safety breaches and bad practices directly to artillery headquarters. It should be up within six months.

Also, a full review is continuing of the combat survival training course that led to the death of a national serviceman after he had his head forced under water four times by his commando instructors.

That course remains suspended. When it resumes, 'neutral officers' from non-commando units will be deployed 'to guard against safety violations' in certain parts of the course.

The SAF is taking all these measures to ensure that training for national servicemen is tough and professional but safe, said Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean.

At a briefing yesterday, he gave an update on what has been accomplished since he promised a complete overhaul of military training practices last month, after the deaths of three soldiers in separate training tragedies.

The SAF, he said, will buy a large number of automated external defibrillators to revive people who suffer from heart seizures.

The reforms are part of the most comprehensive review of SAF safety practices since 1997.

And that was also triggered by a training tragedy, but in New Zealand. A shell had exploded in an artillery gun during a live-firing exercise, killing two full-time national servicemen and injuring several others.

Yesterday, the Chief of Defence Force, Major-General Ng Yat Chung, apologised on the SAF's behalf for the three recent training deaths.

He said that he has directed the Army, Air Force and Navy to pay special attention to reviewing training lesson plans to ensure they are current.

They must ensure instructors are qualified and kept current on techniques and methods, and do not deviate from lesson plans and training safety regulations.

Colonel Hugh Lim, Assistant Chief of General Staff (Operations), revealed that army wide, all high-risk activities have already been thoroughly reviewed. Moderate- and low-risk activities are still being reviewed.

'This review will help us to ensure that our training control and safety measures are appropriate and adequate,' he said.

It will be matched by efforts to reinforce the General Staff Inspectorate, the army's inspection arm, allowing it to audit military training more often and make more surprise inspections on military training.

NSmen welcomed the news, but stressed that SAF servicemen should not follow orders blindly. Mr Sean Chua, an anti-tank gunner from an armour unit, said: 'It could be a couple of months down the road before inspectors appear after you call the hotline. Soldiers must act more like thinking soldiers rather than go through the motions or blindly follow what is dished out to them. Soldiers must be alert enough to protect their own safety.'

Mr Mike Yeo, a vehicle mechanic with an NS unit, argued that the hotline may not be effective as most NSmen do not know what's permitted and what's not under training safety regulations.

He added: 'It's hard for the military culture to allow people to speak up there and then on the spot. They've already knocked it into our heads that they are boss and you are not.'

Maj-Gen Ng said callers to the new safety hotline can't be completely anonymous because 'we need enough specifics to know how to act'. But its aim, he said, is to encourage a 'safety culture in the SAF'.

The SAF chief also had this to say of the commandos, who train soldiers in combat survival: 'I have had the opportunity to visit the new chief of commandos and he's said he's determined to make sure the review is done properly.

'He's determined to make sure that the course will continue to be tough and realistic but safe.'

Viper52 SG

Two deaths likely due to rare heart condition

AN ECG was done on Recruit Chew after he complained of chest pains, but the result was normal.

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4386,220286-1069019940,00.html?

THE two soldiers who died in September after training runs were probably felled by a rare condition that causes the heart to beat irregularly, Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean said yesterday.

With cardiac arrhythmia, oxygen cannot be supplied effectively to vital organs such as the brain, kidneys and the heart.

It had not been detected in Second Sergeant Rajagopal Thirukumaran, 25, and Recruit Andrew Chew Heng Huat, 20. Both had undergone electrocardiograms - ECGs record the heart's electrical activity, and are used to detect heart muscle damage.

No abnormality had shown up in the ECG of either man, according to the Defence Ministry.

Chief Army Medical Officer Surya Kumar said cardiac arrhythmia was rare and hard to detect. He added the two men 'were normal before they had this arrhythmia and effectively their ECGs were normal. You couldn't detect that prior to their collapse'.

Mindef said Recruit Chew was put through an ECG after he 'complained of chest pains'. Though the result appeared normal, he was given light duties and excused from strenuous military training. This was just two weeks before he collapsed on Sept 23 during a 2.4km run.

2nd Sgt Thirukumaran 'asked for a medical check-up on his own accord' and had an ECG done. The results were normal. He died on Sept 3 after a 5km run.

Rear-Admiral (NS) Teo said while the State Coroner had yet to determine the cause of death, both men probably had 'a sudden cardiac arrhythmia', in the opinion of a forensic pathologist from the Health Sciences Authority.

Official inquiries found no evidence of foul play or negligence that could have led to the death of either man.

David Boey