Thursday, December 24, 2009

An open letter to the 24th Battalion, Singapore Artillery (24 SA)

Many of you are too young to remember Staff Sergeant Lee Guek Sin.

He was a gunner with your battalion who died in New Zealand more than 10 years ago when his Land Rover overturned during the work up period for Exercise Thunder Warrior.

Upon his death, his wife became the head of household who had to bring up two daughters and one son.

She did not have to do it alone. Gunners from 24 SA rallied behind the Lee family and started a donation drive. This wasn’t a one-off effort triggered by a burst of transient sympathy.

The gunners were determined to help SSG Lee’s children complete their education and they accomplished this mission commendably more than a decade later. I am told the children's education expenses were paid by their father's former comrades. Gunners dug into their pockets and contributed to the Lee family's education fund every year since that fateful day robbed the family of their 36-year-old father but won them many doting godfathers.

I understand that earlier this year, Madam Lee informed the gunners who had been supporting the family that their task was done. The family had saved enough from all those years of donations.

To the best of my research, this act of goodwill was never publicised in any Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) publication or made known to the Singapore media. I understand the news blackout wasn't due to national security reasons. Put simply, it was an act of goodwill performed by a group of soldiers to help a family in need.

The gunners did what needed to be done. Publicity was neither courted nor needed nor was any publicity plan required to sustain donor stamina all these years. That the fund raiser went on for years is, in my opinion, remarkable and heart warming.

I believe more should know about this deed because the fund raiser shows that your battalion and the Singapore Artillery has a long-standing tradition of caring for its soldiers.

That spirit and tradition is precisely what’s needed as 24 SA undergoes a period of soul searching after the Best Unit incident.

Just a day before the Singapore Artillery held a change of command parade to welcome its new Chief of Artillery, your former Commanding Officer, S3 and artillery specialist stood before the SAF military justice system. They paid a price for lapses in judgment.

Gunners, it is now time for your battalion to move on.

The incident will stay with your battalion for years to come just as the 1st Commando Battalion has to live with the stain of the 2003 Best Unit incident.

But even as the Commandos weather jibes and unkind remarks, those in the know will probably concede that the Commandos are the best warfighters the Singapore Army has in terms of fighting spirit, aggression and combat capability. The Commandos don’t need a Best Unit trophy to underline that fact.

Every year, more than a handful of SAF Commanding Officers sit through the Best Unit award presentation with absolutely no vested interest in the annual competition's results. Their units have not been barred from the contest. Combat capabilities in their respective battalions and squadrons add to Singapore’s deterrent edge by sharpening the island republic's secret edge capabilities, which, alas, cannot be talked about.

Like the Commandos, officers and men from these units do not need any Best Unit trophy to verify their combat prowess.

In my view, 24 SA is unique. Your battalion is the only one in the Singapore Artillery that will go into action without big guns to pound the enemy. Swift and precise battlefield information is your weapon.

Long before the SAF made a big deal about using information as a weapon, the battlefield radars fielded by your battalion were doing just that. Be proud of this legacy.

Some of 24 SA’s artillery hunting radars are now deployed on the frontline overseas. Combat experience your gunners will bring home will serve as a rich and invaluable source of combat intelligence on mortar and rocket barrages. The operation is not without risk and the dangers your gunners face daily in the combat zone of operations is not something a Best Unit assessment can quantify.

I have learnt that many defence observers view your unit’s capabilities with pride - even with full knowledge of the recent Best Unit fiasco. They are confident 24 SA will deliver and respect the decision taken by your former CO.

As you move on, resist the urge to sweep things under the carpet by erasing all institutional memory of the recent Best Unit incident.

Future gunners - not just those who serve 24SA - must learn from it and the Singapore Artillery will come out better off.

3 comments:

  1. General Boey speakth the moral message!

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  2. Regarding 1 CDO in 2003, I was supposed to take over the particular array of equipment forming part of the discrepancies in 2004, but was deployed overseas before I could. My OC, who bore the brunt of the investigation, and whom I wound up being a PA for several months before heading overseas, was probably the most hardworking officer I have ever seen in the SAF. He would be working till at least 7pm on most days, and since I lived in-camp, I would sometimes keep him company. I have gotten emails from him and other staff officers in the battalion timed at 3 or 4 in the morning requesting certain work to be done. Note that this was not during an exercise or 24 hr manning, but in normal operations. Apparently, they had been up late together and decided to head to work for a while before going to bed. In addition, my OC would also return on most Saturdays and some Sundays to keep working. His working hours were not because he was incompetent, but because we just had a lot to go through.

    I have the utmost respect for him and honestly hope that the SAF has retained him as an officer.

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  3. I had the privilege to serve with Guek Seng when I was posted to 24SA as a shave tail 2LT. A kind and humble man who never hesitated to lend a helping hand. His family can be proud of the legacy that he has left behind.

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