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THIRTEEN
IX. CONTACTS WITH SAFTI HQ STAFF
was a permanent fixture up front. There was also diminutive Edward Chan who could bring
a vehicle convoy to a screeching halt with one glare directed at the lead driver, but was always
way ahead of the game. FMC graduate Syed Ibrahim was super-fit, immaculately turned out
and guaranteed to add a two-kilometre run to the end of any exercise in the SAFTI vicinity
for the sake of physical fitness. Goh Lye Choon was the affable, combined-school athlete
whose rolling gait and spoonerisms belied his outstanding fitness and competence. And,
John Morrice, OC ‘A’ Company for both the initial and the officer cadet phases, who, for all
his bow-legged drill and hair-trigger temper, never took his eyes off the ball. Then, there was
Albert Tan, with his helicopter vision, who would have taught the German General Staff a
thing or two about staff work. There was also Royston Desker, the roly-poly FMC boxer and
hockey player who was ready for anti-establishment prank as long as he had his ten bottles of
Coca-Cola a day. There were many others: Peter-Panish Naranjan Singh who could scoot up
the steepest hill and not break out a drop of sweat, but could also lose part of his little finger
after sticking it into the mouth of a python he was teasing; ebullient Abdullah “Dollah”
Ghani, with his deep bass voice and hyperactive hormones, for whom Adjutant SAFTI
thoughtfully reserved a week or two of extra duty every three months; the soft-spoken Shari
Ngaimin who moved with the grace of a panther and, as they would say at a later age, had
‘pects’ to die for; the intense and conscientious Surjit Singh who was always prepared for
his lessons and led by moral suasion; the equally conscientious, weedy Alan Lie, probably
the friendliest instructor in camp, who as one wit would have it, would not get wet if he ran
sideways through a rain shower; the ever cool, gravel-voiced tactician, Jagrup Singh who was
never in No. 3 dress when field fatigues would do and whose idea of military spotlessness
was to scrape yesterday’s mud off his combat boots with a stick while cadets were being
inspected for turn-out at the company muster parade; the gregarious, introspective James
Chan of the restless, seeking mind; the dapper, unpredictable Robert Wee, whose generous
soul always invited manipulation by cadets; George ‘GPMG’ Ho Yat Yuen, whose staccato
speech style must have been influenced by the general purpose machine gun in burst fire, of
which he was a specialist; and ‘A’ Company 2 I/C, Daljeet Singh, who had levelled the score
as the leader of the platoon that first made contact with Indonesian guerrillas who had killed
nine soldiers from 2 SIR. And many platoon Seconds-in-Command and section instructors,
who left their indelible impressions, but are too numerous to list.
There was one group of officers and NCOs from among whom the trainees had direct contact
only with a few and that too, infrequently: the HQ staff, including Director, SAFTI, then LTC
Kirpa Ram Vij, his Second-in-Command, MAJ John Tan; Adjutant SAFTI, initially CPT R.
Ramachandra and later, CPT Thomas Teo Teck Hee; WO1 Sng Cheng Chye, first Regimental
Sergeant Major SAFTI; the Doctrine Department Staff headed by CPT Edward Yong; Training
Department staff including CPT Michael Seth, Chief Instructor and CPT Kesavan Soon; the
photographer, 2LT M. Jeremiah and cameraman Staff Sergeant Harris and the Physical Training