One of a Kind (2nd Edition)

CREATING THE SINGAPORE ARMED FORCES

THREE

College, Sandhurst, although two officers had gone for the Camberly Staff College course

(COL Ronald Wee and MAJ Edward Low).

There was no military training institution as such in Singapore before SAFTI was setup,

though Volunteer officers and NCOs (both regular and volunteer) were trained in military

camps in ad hoc courses with help from the British forces stationed in Singapore. SAFTI, the

acronym for Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute, was conceived as a central school

for the SAF, although the initial preoccupation was with land forces. The Advisors strongly

argued in favour of “every course—basic course or specialist course, the maximum that we

can concentrate—in one school…. The more we learn these, the better it would be in order

to get more coordination and make sure that people are speaking the same language.”

This

concept has been largely maintained, though in the 1960s it was somewhat ahead of its time

as the arms and services were being individually raised from scratch, while subsequently, to

promote interoperability, it was necessary to conduct joint training at various levels along the

career path in SAFTI after specialist training in facilities set up elsewhere.

The Advisors also advocated strongly that officers be groomed from the ground up by

going through an intense recruit stage and an NCO stage before being selected for officer

cadet training, with on-the-job training as NCOs before the officer cadet stage, if possible.

But there were limited active units to absorb all the provisional cadets for on-job training

as NCOs. Besides, there was a sense of urgency to staff the units for the introduction

of National Service. So, except for those deferred to subsequent batches of officer cadet

training, the first cohort of trainees sent to SAFTI went through the three stages lockstep.

The deferred trainees were posted to units, some designated as provisional officer cadets

and the rest as NCOs with the exception of those who had chosen to resign at that point.

However, while NCOs are still selected for officer cadet training to this day, the SAF chose

early—as a policy—to feed through potential officers from recruit to officer cadet training

without break for various practical reasons associated with the National Service cycle.

Given that the First Instructors’ Preparatory Course commenced on 15

February, 1966, the

planning for the induction of the first intake of officer cadets must have occurred between

the Advisors’ exploratory visit in November 1965 and that date. The task was assigned

to Director of Manpower, Mr. Herman Hochstadt, who headed a team which included

both military and police personnel. Using as much of the SMF regulations, with terms and

conditions as they could adapt, they put together a promotional brochure called

SERVE

WITH PRIDE.

They blitzed the universities, the (single) polytechnic, schools, statutory bodies

and civic organisations with the brochure in a crash recruitment programme that found its

way into the mailboxes of some 2,500-3,000 trusting young men.