One of a Kind (2nd Edition)

EPILOGUE

331

SIXTEEN

Another First Batch officer, Quek Koh Eng attended the Advanced Intelligence Officer

Course in Australia in 1968 and then returned to attend the SAF Basic Intelligence Course.

Victor Lam and Low Yong Heng specialised early in physical training. Victor and Yong

Heng attended a basic PT course in the FARELF School of Physical Training in Tanglin

Barracks and Yong Heng also attended a Keep Fit course conducted in SAFTI. Both helped

then CPT Kesavan Soon, who had represented Singapore in athletics at the Melbourne

Olympics in 1956, set up the School of PT in SAFTI. Victor later attended the Advanced

Physical Education and Recreational Training in Aldershot, UK while Yong Heng did the

same course with the Royal New Zealand Air Force in Auckland.

In August 1968, one year after being commissioned, all the First Batch officers were

promoted Lieutenants, following the British practice and the rest by 1

March, 1969. By

end-1968, the School of Advanced Training for Officers (SATO) had been setup in SAFTI

and had conducted its first course. The students included COL Kirpa Ram Vij and other

senior officers, but also 12 officers from the First Batch, followed by more in the subsequent

courses. On 1

October, 1969, 21 First Batch officers were promoted to Captain. In the

meantime, one of the graduates had already resigned as a Lieutenant and left to work in

the motor industry. One of the other graduates decided to leave within a month of his

promotion to Captain, while he was on the SATO course. There were several other early

resignations among promising First Batch officers in the next few years. Their grounds

varied but some included migration to other countries and all who left entirely on their own

volition must have felt that the military life they had courted hard enough to cope with the

training in SAFTI, had somehow lost its gloss. On the other hand, by 1970, Gurcharan Singh

had become the Senior Engineer Officer, an early title for the head of a service, sometimes

referred to as SSSO or Senior Specialist Staff Officer. In May 1970, Guru and Kwan Yue

Yeong were promoted to Major, the first among the First Batch. Yue Yeong appropriately

became CO, Officer Cadet School that year. He was given command of 6 SIR in May 1971.

In 1972, he was appointed honorary ADC to Princess Anne when Queen Elizabeth II visited

Singapore—for the first time. Eng Song King, the Nantah graduate, was promoted to Major

in 1971 and given the command of 1 SIR in 1972. A further batch of First Batch officers

was promoted Major in 1972, while in that exercise Guru was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel.

The professional standing of the First Batch officers in the SAF, perhaps not universally

subscribed to, was reflected in the selection of five First Batch officers to participate in

the high-visibility Exercise Bersatu Padu (Solid Unity) in 1970. Under the command of

then MAJ James Teo, with MAJ Naranjan Singh as his 2I/C, Captains Chin Chow Yoon,

M.C. Pillay, and Dennis Tan Eng Joo were appointed rifle Company Commanders. Then

LTA S. Purushothaman was appointed Support Company Commander, along with CPT

Balbir Singh as the Battalion General Staff Officer in 5 SIR. By the time of the actual

exercise, Balbir switched places with Chow Yoon. Another First Batch officer, Khoo Hung

Kim, then Lieutenant, was the Intelligence Officer. The umpire organisation headed by