Friday, February 3, 2023

Tribute to Ms Alyce Pekors, US Navy Office, Singapore


Hi All,
I joined Instagram recently. Find me at @davidboeypix
I will use Instagram for mainly pictorial content. I set it up as a backup to Twitter, which I still value as a news aggregator.

Here is a tribute I posted on Instagram for Ms Alyce PekorsPukul Habis readers might recall seeing the name as one of the United States Navy characters in the chapter on Storm Watchers.
 

Visit to USS Carl Vinson, Man-of-war anchorage, Singapore harbour, 1988: Thanks to a family friend, Alyce Pekors, I got to visit United States Navy warships in my teens. This was long before I became a journalist. Seen here are my junior college mates with me (so skinny back then!) aboard USS Carl Vinson. Carrier air groups were much more diverse and colourful back in the 80s.

The visits arranged by Ms Pekors left a deep impression on me. This was the 80s, with no internet to learn about war machines and when reference books were expensive.

Ms Pekors cheerfully took my (landline) calls and never gave a hint of how busy she was (the days ahead of a port visit are very busy spells for the USN office). Whenever I asked if it would be possible to visit a big deck I saw offshore, she would reply: “Let me see what I can do”.

Like a doting aunt, she always delivered. Every. Single. Time. I would be told to show up at Clifford Pier. My name would be on the roster and off we went on the ferry to the Man-of-war Anchorage. I learned so much speaking to pilots and sailors on carriers, a battleship, amphibs and the then-new Aegis cruisers.

I never knew she was the longest serving American civil servant working in Singapore. I never knew how deeply respected she was by her coworkers. I only found out after she died in 2008 and her ashes were scattered in Sembawang Wharves - where her beloved US warships frequently docked.

I miss her so much. I honoured her memory by naming a USN character in my book, Pukul Habis - Total Wipeout (a story of war in Malaysia & Singapore) after dear Alyce Pekors. Gone but never forgotten by those who loved her
💔💐

1 comment:

Kathleen said...

My father always said that Ms Alyce was the best in the "business
She stayed at our house for awhile in the early sixties- until she could return to Singapore. She, and my father, "swapped lies" and enjoyed each other. One year she gave each of us a Dice cup which our mother said they were really "good pencil holders!" even though she taught us how to roll the dice. My father always said she was the best.

kay Godel