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TRAINING THE TRAINERS
71
FIVE
Endnotes
1. Terh, Leslie, Sons and Officers. Life At Prestigious Military College,
Singapore: Sea Sky Books Enterprise, 2000, pp. 141-149.
2. Interviews with LTC (RET) Daljeet Singh (10 February 2004), and LTC (RET) Kesavan Soon
(24 February 2004). The former was the first Second-in-Command of “A” Company, SAFTI, while the
latter was a senior staff officer in the Training Department in SAFTI when the first intake was enlisted,
and later became Head Training Department.
3. It is frequently observed in various publications that there were two instructors’ preparatory courses. In fact
there was only one. But in September 1967, a “familiarisation course” was conducted for several officers
so that they would be aware of the new training methodology and doctrine. The mistake is partly due to the
fact that the course photograph for the single full-fledged preparatory course is captioned
“1st Instructors Prep-Course”.
4. The Advisor had a background as an armour officer. He was, however, very focused on infantry operations as
well. Following the Instructors Preparatory Course he helped develop training in SAFTI.
5. Interview with COL (RET) John Morrice, trainee on the course and the first Officer Commanding “A”
Company,SAFTI, on 1 August 2005.
6. Mindef records.
7. “Skeleton Battle Order” (SBO) excludes the backpack (with its standard contents), entrenching tool and
ground-sheet that would be required of the full battle order (FBO) dress-code.
8. Interview with LTC (RET) Kesavan Soon, op. cit.
9. Interview with COL (RET) John Morrice, op. cit.
10. Interview with LTC (RET) Daljeet Singh, op. cit.
11. Transcript of interview with the Chief IDF Advisor over 18. 22 and 26 July 1977.