I have seen 2 instances of fatalities in my 2.5 years of full-time and during my 10 years of reservist. The first fatality was tank overturn in armour unit. A regular sgt was killed. He was all of 25 years old.

The second case was during my reservist, he collapsed during 2.4km IPPT during ICT. He was 32.

NS changes. Those of us who survived yet. Hurray. Those who are killed by it, rest in peace.

The point is, NS sucks. It sucks worst during reservist as not only it is your livelihood that becomes at risk due to foreign talent grabbing your jobs/opportunities while you are doing your ICT. Good luck to all of us NSmen.

Mindef reserve loh, dun need to do this NS sh** any more.

Personally, I believe we should make the best out of the situations that we are in. Since we have to go through this 2.5 years… why not see how we can make the best out of it.

There are always people that we can learn from… from those screwed up Officers, learn not to be like them… etc.. I was in a highly operational unit, and I certainly toughened up physically and mentally from the experience.

And in case you are wondering, no, I am not pro-government, I am just pro-Singapore.

A lot of my friends lost their relationships in the army. A lot of my friends changed, from the goody two shoes to the havoc kind. It is a sad fact of life. Unfortunately people who do not go into the army (girls etc) do not bother to see things from the NSFs point of view. As for those guys who make a move on the girl…well the world is full of such people and thats the way of it.

1) losing a girl during army or even university days is really no big deal. there are better girls out there. really. Men always have the advantage on such matters especially when time is always on our side.
2) even if you do get your dream girl, believe me, you will regret it. because there will always be better ones. take it from all my classmates and friends who have been married over these years.
3) focus on dating and learning how to treat a girl right. it is part of growing up. but focus on learning life skills that will be useful to the real world out there. never commit before 28. for most men, we really don’t know what we want in our lives even when we reached 30.
4) date someone who is not from Singapore and make a comparison. you will realise that the world is so much bigger out there and there are a lot of beautiful women out there.
5) the pressure to conform is strong in Singapore. you go through phases. Need to get a girl friend by 18, a steady before you graduate, a HDB flat before 25, first car by 27 etc. but if you survive it, you find that it is fine without all those stuff. that doesn’t mean you are a loser. you just have different priorities.
6) you got to start thinking about your reservist that is coming up. If you work in private sector, especially in high paying jobs, in the finance, investment bank etc, it works against you regardless what they say. If i were you, I would work abroad or do my postgraduate overseas. you will find that it is difficult to serve any reservist at all once you are abroad.

good luck.

The red IC was the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen, when the time came to live a new life outside the army’s gates.

ALPHA!