A reader's comment on my blog"
I served National Service from 1984 for two and a half years and went on to serve my 'reservist' liabilities up to my ROD (or ORD as they now call it).
And yes, I do not get a single cent from the recent announcement. Period. But this is not an issue for me, the money announced by LHL as a matter of fact is an insult to our loyalty to my country, totally meaningless.
I used to serve "for my country and my people". The "my people" has a totally different meaning now. It is no longer my fellow Singaporeans anymore.
We risk our lives digging defence foxholes and staying in them for days and nearly got buried alive due to daily heavy rain in the training area with some of the softer grounds giving way to the heavy downpour. And we had incidents of soldiers buried alive during defence exercises.
We have bullets flying over our heads in live firing exercises when we charged up hills during "attack". And there were actually incidents of soldiers killed by live bullets in peace time training.
We marched for 60 kilometers with full battle order to form up for a subsequent attacks, many of whom suffered heat stroke and dehydration along the way. And there were soldiers who died as a result of these injuries.
We have to undergo tough obstacle courses as part of our training and many soldiers were injured as a result of these tough training. And we had incidents where soldier sustained injuries which which they are today still living with these injuries.
There are many training incidents that many of us do not know, from the Army to the Navy to the Air Force. Many soldiers sacrificed their lives as a result of this once 'necessary' tough training. All because we hold dear to our heart a belief that we are doing it to protect our beloved country. Many of these incidents/accidents can be found in the legendary TSR or the Training Safety Regulation. the TSR is written with soldiers blood and sweat, and most importantly, with many soldiers' lost lives.
And now Mr LHL is telling us some of these is valued at $9,000??!!
Poooooi!
Who are we truly protecting now?
The Officer Cadet School used to have a slogan "To Lead We Dare, To Excel We Will, All the Way..." Is this still applicable for the current scenario?
From
A soldier of the 80's