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STAFF AND TRAINEE DYNAMICS
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THIRTEEN
had started above the gypsum board ceiling when for the second time during the course,
somebody from the same section had let off a Verey Pistol round while cleaning it. The SOP
fire drill had been initiated. All the platoons had fallen in outside their respective barracks.
Platoon 3’s roll call showed that two cadets were missing. They arrived soon after the fire was
put out, which was done in short order by the Fire Brigade and the company fire-piquet, but
in the meantime, Section 11 had had to explain to the Platoon Commander and its section
instructor why the cadets in question had missed the roll call. The matter would have ended
there had the section instructor not mentioned the incident in the Officers’ Mess. It was
apparently picked up by an Advisor who appears to have presented the lack of attention to
a personal rifle as something to be dealt with sternly, never mind that the owner had taken
immediate action to recover it when he realised the situation. Against the inclination of
local officers, the Advisor pressed for disciplinary action. The upshot was that the cadet was
denied his commission with the First Batch and reverted to Sergeant at a summary trial. He
was enrolled in and commissioned with the third batch of officer cadets.
That was a lesson the first intake could have done without. It raised too many questions.
All the section’s rifles had been laid aside while the cadets were carrying out an order to sort
out training stores. Cadets had divided the task of loading up the 3-tonner among themselves
as a group effort. No individual was responsible directly for any one task. The rifle had not
been lost, but administratively separated from the owner while he was carrying out another
given assignment. He had himself realised the situation and taken remedial action. The
section instructor involved had not seen it as an offence; indeed all the local officers from
the Platoon Commander of Platoon 3 to OC ‘A’ Company had seen the incident as an
administrative oversight by the whole group. For this incident to be used to send the message
that each soldier should look after his rifle was highly contrived, while the more serious
incident of the morning was allowed to pass without retribution.
There should have been 118 graduates and not 117 in the First Batch. But, it was to be the
only occasion when the Advisors were allowed to hold sway in the judicial affairs of the SAF
and so perhaps the cadet’s sacrifice was not in vain.
Endnotes
1. Please refer to Appendix II at page 363 for a first-hand account of the First Instructors’ Preparatory Course
by a trainee of the course, COL (RET) Goh Lye Choon.