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SETTING UP SAFTI
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FOUR
The undeniably apt words ‘Towards Excellence’ was added to the scroll below the crossed
scimitar and torch where originally only the word SAFTI appeared, by LTC (RET) James
Teo, Director, SAFTI, from December 1974 to November 1975.
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SAFTI was in fact, the turnkey project on which the future SAF was predicated,
notwithstanding that a primarily National Service order of battle had yet to be agreed. The
two regular infantry battalions and the Volunteers who made up the Singapore Military Forces,
the SAF’s predecessor, represented a Singapore insulated by erstwhile security guarantors,
who expected Singapore only to provide token forces. With sovereign independence rudely
thrust upon it within an unsettled geopolitical environment, the tiny republic, the world’s
Popular names for SAFTI locations – Graphic courtesy of LianHe ZaoBao.