A last wefie before Andrew steps into military life
6th October 2017 marked another milestone for our family, my younger son, Andrew was enlisted into National Service today. Just shy of his 20th birthday, he dutifully did his part by shaving his head and preparing mentally for the day - which was yesterday.
All enlistees will serve their National Service for 20 - 21 months approximately (1 year 9 or 1 year 10 months) and the first station is normally the Basic Military Training Centre at Pulau Tekong camp for recruits.
Barracks at BMTC
Cupboard for each soldier
The day began early by all of us (wife, myself and Andrew) waking at 6.00 am, having an early breakfast and leaving the house by 7.00 am. Taking the Pan Island Expressway, the pickup point for all new enlistees is the Pasir Ris Bus Station. When we reached the destination at approxinately 8.00 am, we were ushered into buses and brought to the ferry terminus at Changi Point. The Singapore Armed Forces nowadays is very organized and provides staggered enlistment dates and times to cater for the logistics and seamless point to point movement of enlistees, their family members and friends.
A balanced lunch of protein, vegetables and carbohydrates
On the ferry, we watched videos of the early days of National Service, with flashbacks to our then Prime Minister Lee Kwan Yew, and Defence Minister Goh Keng Swee making impassioned speeches on the necessity of having defence for the nation.
From then on, we went to visit his camp, had a peek into a typical bunk where he would be putting up for the next 6 weeks, had a lecture about what type of training he would undergo (he has several medical conditions, so he is within a lower PES category), the vision for the Armed Forces, safety aspects, typical day (reville is at 5.30 am, and all recruits will need to rest for 7 hours no exceptions). The Commanding Officer of the camp also make a talk highlighting the camp's expectations of the recruits, the adherence to discipline, and made available all means of communication with the camp through email, twitter, facebook and of course fixed line.
Finally, we witnessed our boys taking the oath to the nation ; this event made me especially proud because like they say, every Singaporean son goes through this rite of passage where they transform from boys to men. I am proud to have served my part years ago and very proud to see both my boys off into their next phase in life.
We had a meal together, a rather poignant moment to appreciate our bond and yes, undiminished love. He is a good son, and will one day become a father (we hope) like me. Now he has to do his duty and we see him back home in 2 weeks with his first stories of what recruit life is like.
Eating the Cookhouse food ; Not bad, and a balanced diet
At about 1pm, the new recruits were asked to fall in in rows of 5 and with a sombre wave, and a right turn , they marched into their new phase of life.
We went home feeling very proud and thoughtful that National Service is such an integral part of all our young men, regardless of race, religion or gender affiliations (that nonsense about transgender rights from the dysfunctional West). Every male from 16 + years onwards of age will serve National Service for 20 or 21 months.
While doing their duty, we hope that the service will instill values such as discipline, honesty, integrity, leadership, competitiveness and hard work which will be so important in the later years of their lives.
The batch of recruits falling in before they go into their barracks
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