Frankly, I was very surprised by this official statement issued by our Minister for Defence, Mr. Teo Chee Hean on 12 June 2008, 1500 hours:
“I would like to express my deep condolences to the families of the late REC Andrew Cheah Wei Siong and the late OCT Clifton Lam Jia Hao.
I am saddened by the loss of two young and precious sons of Singapore.
I support the decision of the SAF to take a time-out on physical and endurance training for 3 days. This will allow the SAF to review and refocus on such activities to ensure that proper procedures are in place and being followed, before such training resumes.
While the SAF needs to carry out realistic training, this will be done without compromise to safety.”
My condolences go out to the family members of the two deceased soldiers as well. It is indeed sad when young lives are lost in the army during the course of training.
Still, I am rather intrigued by the strong reaction from MINDEF this time to implement a three days physical and endurance training time-out at all levels. My friend, Nick and I have actually booked our IPPT for 4pm today and were both quite puzzled when we received phone calls and SMS on Thursday, informing us of our IPPT cancellation. This was an unprecedented move from MINDEF.
In any case, I am hoping MINDEF will decide to scrap IPPT altogether (fat hope, I know) for unfit NSmen like me and Nick who are permanent RT fixtures every year. Not everybody are born health nuts lor. I enjoy the regular swim, around two times a week and some light exercises, but that doesn’t mean I can do well for 2.4km run, chin-ups, etc.
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