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EPILOGUE
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SIXTEEN
I. BREAKING IN THE FIRST BATCH
It had not been planned for the new officers from SAFTI to replace or otherwise sideline
the existing corps, but to complement it. Looking back at the chronology of the creation
of SAFTI, the fact that National Service was officially mooted only in November 1966
and legislated in Parliament in March 1967, suggests that the officer output from SAFTI
had been intended to initiate and sustain Dr. Goh Keng Swee’s original idea of about 12
infantry battalions and the supporting arms and services they entailed rather than lay the
foundation for National Service. Likewise, while some of the pre-First Batch officers of the
SAF may have been anxious and perhaps instinctively right in the long term about SAFTI
graduates displacing them, there is no evidence to suggest that this was an official strategy.
The existing officer corps was mostly well under middle age and except for the few graduates
from among the 2,500-3,000 who applied for SAFTI’s first intake, its educational profile
was comparable. In fact, counting the mobilised Volunteers, there was proportionately a
stronger representation of higher education than the pre-National Service batches from
SAFTI. As the First Batch filtered upward through the SAF, their predecessors moved up
correspondingly through the ranks and assumed command of the new establishments that
were created, though inevitably, several were bypassed.
But in July 1967, the First Batch officers only had the vista of endless possibilities before them.
They were savoring the status of being commissioned officers with responsible assignments,
staffs to supervise, the Officers’ Mess to socialise in and the privilege of individual quarters
in the camps they were assigned to. Several had already applied for the generous government
loan to buy cars, while some were contemplating matrimony and purchase of homes. All
were running in their new personalities as leaders. And, all were finding that dealing with
their fellow-officers as superiors, peers or subordinates rather than trainees could be both
a rewarding experience and a bruising one. Even the solidarity they had become used to
from amongst their erstwhile barrack-mates in ‘A’ Company was breaking down and being
replaced by subtle jockeying for advancement.
A large proportion of the First Batch was posted to the basic training courses for officers
for Artillery and Armour, for which SAFTI was the temporary venue. The School of Signals,
School of Infantry Support Weapons and the School of Physical Training, also in SAFTI,
absorbed some. SAFTI’s new cohorts of officer cadets and section leaders—‘A’, ‘B’ and
‘C’ companies—got another piece of the First Batch pie and several others were given
staff officer assignments in SAFTI HQ. The bulk of the remainder was sent as Platoon
Commanders to 1 and 2 SIR, and the newly formed 3 and 4 SIR. There were no assignments
to the Navy, the main consideration being that a conversion course for commissioned
EPILOGUE