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BASIC TRAINING
153
EIGHT
The Basic Training POP reception for ‘B’ Company in the company dining hall.
Though not yet a household name, a select few among the public, those associated in one
way or another with the trainees, were now familiar with SAFTI. Many had visited the camp
from the third to the sixth week of confinement to camp and after that, had helped their
relative or friend to recuperate and recharge during the weekends or done laundry service,
as precursors to the thousands of households which would do the same when NS was
introduced a year later. Others would have come across the media coverage of the official
opening of SAFTI on 18
th
June that year. For the Singapore Government, however, the
completion of the basic training phase of the first intake was a milestone that needed telling
to a larger audience, both locally and regionally. A major political decision was evidently
paying off.
Rehearsals were woven into the training programme and the parade was choreographed and
supervised by WO1 Sng Cheng Chye, RSM, SAFTI. It would take what the trainees would
realise was a standard form, with a march past in review order by each of the six platoons,
an advance in review order to end with a salute to the Reviewing Officer and a second march
past in columns of threes. The Reviewing Officer was Dr. Goh Keng Swee, till then mostly
a legendary figure seen from afar except on the occasion of the official opening of SAFTI
on 18
th
June. There were prizes for the best shots, the best in physical fitness and the best