(Updated on 15/10/17)
Disclaimer: I still have about 4mths to ORD. I will probably edit it and publish a 2nd edition when I am closer to ORD. Please enjoy.
In an blink of an eye, I am in my final few months of NS. Honestly, as much as I want to ORD, I am a little unprepared to return to reality. I am still undecided on my University course, and have not reach my desired level of self-development. Nevertheless, army has been a meaningful journey and I learned a lot about myself, human nature and Singapore. Hopefully, you agree with what I mentioned, if not feel free to let me know otherwise.
1 National Service (NS) is like taking a gap year
Our generation is obsessed with the idea of taking a gap year, taking a break from studies and traveling around the world. But instead of getting a gap year after Junior college, the guys are forced to serve the nation. Most guys dread enlisting as NS takes away 2 precious years of our prime and delay our education and career progression. However, I realised NS can actually be thought as taking a gap year, instead of simply wasting our lives away. Of course, NS won’t be like a gap year where you have the freedom to spend it traveling, exploring, learning skills that you are interested. But NS do share similar effects as taking a gap year – Learning about yourself, Learning about your interest and most importantly, taking a break from life.
During NS, I was constantly pushing my comfort zone and there were many first. I was fortunate to go Taiwan for a oversea exercise as well as embark on my first oversea trip with my friends to Bangkok. Furthermore, I learned how to dress up better, visited a club for the first time and discovered my interest in exploring. The long road marches, fighting up hills and long nights spend in the jungle, made me realised that I can do so much more. Most importantly, I learned to converse with people of various backgrounds and learn a great deal from their experiences.
With new found freedom and a decent income, it will be tempting to spend your book outs clubbing, drinking and enjoying life with your friends. It maybe good to enjoy the 2 year break, but there should be some personal-growth along the way. I feel that putting in more effort into NS and maximizing your precious off days can make NS a rather meaningful journey.
2 Hard work doesn’t matter, but should matter
This is the most important and saddening lesson that I have learned from my army experiences. Outcome matters much more then the effort. In so many occasion, I have seen people put in the extra effort to improve their army capabilities. However, the people who gain the welfare and rest time are those who have certain strengths or are street smart enough to chose the important activities.
For example, I have Trooper A who achieved his IPPT gold and attended the important outfields but often skips out on Sai kang (Logistical jobs), training and parades. On the other hand, Trooper B is physically weak (IPPT Pass) but attends all the training, helps out with Sai Kang and participated in every activity. Trooper A gets promoted first, gets to rest during PT training compared to Trooper B who puts in the extra effort. In the end, most people only recognised the results and abilities, not the amount of hard that was put in. Sure there are people who say hard work will reap results, but with limited time, not everyone’s effort are sufficient.
When people who put in their blood,sweat and tears fails, and their effort fails to be recognised, they will start to give up. This experience made me realised that as a leader of any scale, it is necessary to recognize people’s effort. This will make them feel appreciated and encouraged to put in more effort to try again. Therefore, hard work doesn’t matter in reality, but it should matter in the hearts of any leader.
3 Army is going to be unfair, you just got to accept it
Some people are born with a silver spoon, some with great physical appearance and some with high IQ. If you ever thought life is unfair during your schooling days, army is worse
People’s security clearance and education levels will determine their vocation and rank which determines their life for their 2 years of service. How much you are paid, how hard you need to work and how much precious free time you have for yourself is largely decided the moment you enlisted. I have friends who stays in the office with a 8-5 schedule, but are still being paid more than the infantry troopers who spend their days training in the jungle. For people with lower education background, they are usually not given a chance to prove their abilities and even if they did work hard, their education limits their posting. To further illustrate the inequality, my troopers are paid $700+ and work 4.5 days out of 6 days while our SPF counterparts who do the same job, earn $1200+ but work 1.5 days out of 4 day.
Although, in the real world, your birth do have an impact on your life, but you have the opportunity to improve it. You can work extra hard in school or even learn a skill that help you succeed. But in the army, your “Career” is already per-decided and unlike the outside world, you can’t leave your situation (unless you down PES).
There is little you can do about the inequality, it is perfectly alright to complain but it should not become your excuse to escape hardships and challenges. These challenges will help you to grow as a person. At minimal, you will be prepared to face greater unfairness in the working world.
4 People will show their worst side during NS
Beyond the BMT phase, when everyone is still trying to get leadership positions (E.g. Sergeant, Officer and even 2IC) or win awards, people have little motivation to work hard. Since there are little to no rewards for their efforts, many people will just try to siam and avoid as much work as possible. This is when people get really selfish in everything, even in small things like hording the nicer night snacks, or falling in late to use their phones for that few more minutes. Especially in outfield, when everyone is exhausted, you will see your “Buddies” refusing to help out in anything even small things like collecting food and water.
During your NS, your values will be tested (unless you are an asshole, then skip this point). When you are exhausted after marching 20km, will you help your struggling buddy to lift his bag or just leave him behind? When you still be punctual after waiting for 200 times, or simply try not to be the last? When you work very hard, but your more outspoken but lazy friend got promoted earlier, will you still put in the same effort? There will be days when you decide it wasn’t worth it and become and asshole yourself. But will your worst side be only shown during your NS journey, or stuck with you forever?
On the bright side, there some with a sense of responsibilities and a genuine concern for others. These are the people that you want to befriend and hopefully they will inspire your best side. However, overtime they may feel unappreciated and being taken advantage. Eventually, even the nicest person may just give up and just try to live out their remaining days in NS.
You will know your worst side and decide if you want to embrace or deny it.
5 Sergeants are a mentor, a baby sitter and a father
There are 3 types of sergeants in the SAF, the all powerful ones in Tekong, the ones who deal with administrative work and the ones with men under them. I am not the first 2 kind, but I believe this portion is not applicable to them. I am the third kind, a Mentor, a Nanny and Father to 26 guys.
Being a Mentor is the most straight forward and obvious role of a Sergeant. It is our job to ensure that our troopers acquire the skills and knowledge needed to do their job. After spending 6mths on course, we are supposed to soak up the knowledge that the troopers will learn across their 2 year journey. Subsequently, we help to conduct training for our troopers and check their progress on a daily basis. For myself, this means dragging my troopers for extra PT sessions, checking if they are doing their security duties properly, and testing their reaction to fictitious scenarios.
“Sergeant, I forget to bring my helmet”
“Sergeant, I am hungry, what time can we go for lunch?”
“Sergeant, I am feeling sick”
“Sergeant, why do I always have to clear the trash?”
“Sergeant, I can’t clean this part of the rifle , can help me do it?”
“Sergeant, this is unfair”
These are some of the thousands of questions, demands and concerns from my troopers over the past 1 year. We, Sergeants have to deal with every single one of their concerns or unhappiness no matter how small or unreasonable it may seem. From important things like duty schedules, sickness to minor things like how to clean a stain or fold their uniform, we are expected to answer all of their concerns. On a daily basis, we have to wake them up in the morning, bring them to lunch, bring them to the Medical center and pay attention to their mood. We indeed nothing short of their Nanny.
I am sure you remember the times when you come home late and your father scolds the hell out of you. Or the times when you skip school and your father will beat the crap out of you. Our parents do it to make sure we grow up being a decent human being. Similarly, we are like their Father trying to enforce discipline in our troopers to make them better soldiers/people. On a daily basis,we scold them, K.P.K.B. and punish them for their mistakes. Throughout my 9months as a Sergeant, I have learn to be meticulous and and complain about smallest details like extra threads on their uniform, their mood swings and specks of dust at the edge of the window.
6 You either become an Officer or be a Man, don’t be in-between
When I was in BMT, I didn’t quite agree with this saying as I genuinely preferred to become a Sergeant who is more hands-on , closer to the men, instead of doing administrative work. I loved the idea of forming strong bonds with my guys, hearing their stories and fighting alongside them. BMT also did a get job pushing the idea that officers and sergeants simply have different job scope. After being a Sergeant for 9 months, I can say Sergeants are treated as inferior to officers.
First off, there is no denying that Officers have to go through much tougher training during their command school days. But after the training phase, their key job scope is planning and administrative matters, with little time for their platoon affairs. However, they hold all the power, the ability to dish out punishment like book-out late, extra duties and charging the troopers. While, ironically, we sergeants who are suppose to be keepers of discipline, we can only give 20 push-ups and verbal warnings. Officers are also the one who decide on rewards like promotion, awards or even small things like canteen breaks. While we are the ones making the trooper do the dirty work, we have little say in terms of the rewards that they get. Furthermore, learning how to plan events and negotiate with higher ups are definitely beneficial for future workplace. Hence, if you want to make a greater impact and have a more meaningful experience, be an OFFICER.
In terms of welfare, NSF officers sometimes have more benefits then regular sergeants. In most units, officers have the benefit of staying-out and they can go for nights out whenever they are free. Whereas for sergeants, we are stay-ins and can only go a certain number of nights out upon obtaining permission. Officers can also avoid the dirty work and stay as the “good guy” while the sergeants have to become the devil. The many annoying things that we sergeants do in point 5, are out of a officers job scope as well. In terms of outside recognition, having the officer rank will definitely help you more in terms or university and jobs application. The Sergeant rank has little recognition and honestly, our work have little relevance to the outside world.
In general, I have no regrets in becoming a Sergeant as I still learned a great deal and I do take pride in being a Infantry Sergeant. But, I know at the end of the day, I will never get any recognition for my efforts. For those who haven’t enlisted, I will recommend you to either become a Officer or just be a Man
7 People respect you for what you can do for them and not who you are
Nobody really cares what you have done. You may have fought up multiple mountains, survived a thunderstorm while training in the jungle, or even have a herculean physical fitness. But your troopers and your outside friends don’t really give a shit about your abilities. Unless you are wearing a Red beret, a khaki tab or holding a Long Sword, nobody will feel anything about what you have done in army. People cannot fully understand the emotions and the pain that you have undergone during your training. Hence, your only consolation is your personal pride of your achievements and those beautiful memories.
To the troopers, having graduated from SCS, having extensive vocational knowledge or even strong physical fitness means nothing to them. They only respect commanders who are able to fight for their welfare like early book outs, smoke breaks and rest time. They will only follow you if you have proven to be able to keep your promises. Conventional textbook leadership ideas of leading by example don’t work in the army (not sure if it does in the working world). People don’t need a capable leader, they need a leader who can fight for their needs.
Don’t lead by example, lead by service
8 Sex,Drugs and Gangs are common in Singapore
Coming from Junior College, I was already living in a shelters and protected environment. Furthermore, I am a Nerd who spend my days studying, learning about the world and hanging out with my like minded friends. After entering my unit, I was exposed to a different side of Singapore. Many of my guys had exciting relationships and some even become a parent temporarily. Apparently, drugs and weed is also easily accessible. Gang fights and earning fast cash were also a integral part of their exciting and regrettable past.
Listening to their stories, made me realised that the world was much bigger and there are many more things to experience. Not that I would be embarking on those “exhilarating” experiences, but I need to more with my life.
Do check out my other post “The Other Singapore” for more details about my trooper’s experience.
National Service has been a eventful 2 years. I am extremely grateful for my amazing platoon mates, my sergeants and my fellow commanders who shaped my NS journey. Time for my next phase of life…..
*Additional points*
9 You don’t always have the time to prepare, sometimes you just need to figure out along the way
Since young, I believe that planning in advance was necessary for me to succeed in anything. Before every activity, exams and even confession ,I will mentally simulate the event and develop a thoroughly thought out plan in advance. This has worked pretty well in school (except for romance) and has brought me where I am today. However, after going through this 2 years of a pseudo working working environment, I realised that planning ahead is a luxury you rarely get. Furthermore, even if you got to plan ahead, the real world is too complex for you to account for all the different variables and scenarios.
In the army, everything is last minute. There were numerous times when I was briefed on a lesson that I had to conduct on the day itself, living little time for me to recap or even clarify. Even the day before our exercise, there were last minute changes to the items and equipment that we had to bring on the mission. I was selected as the Marshalling OIC, who is in charge of the traffic flow when Duman High School visited my camp for their N.E tour. I was only informed of my roles 2 days before the event and they were still undecided on the event flow, manpower allocation and there was no training conducted for my Marshall.
My experiences in army have trained me to think on my feet and come up with the best plan with whatever time and information that I have. This is probably one of the most useful skill that I learn from the army. The real working world will be even more complex and difficult to predict, leaving me with lesser time to execute a more difficult task. I am really glad NS has taught me this skill that will greatly aid in my transition from a student to a working adult.
10 Your past achievements is your foundation for future success
11 Sergeants have to do their job without any power or authority.
12 Singapore’s Security is nothing more then a deterrence, an successful bluff
Joel 