SAF sends help to tsunami-hit areas
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the NEWS is reporting all these figures. and realise they are reporting similar figures for countries which have come forward to contribute. and realise again, they did not point out countries which have yet to do so. if there is anyone advertising, it should be the news. japan also gave out similar figures for their deployment of their self-defense force, plus the whopping $500m they have pledged. whos complaining?Originally posted by Aces09:I think its good that SAF is sending troops to help out in the disaster. But the thing i don't like is that why the government reports that it costs $20 mil just to send them for a 2 weeks period after people question the government on the lack of support to the disaster strucked countries. I mean if you want to help others, just help
, theres no need to advertise how much you spend. trying to show others how "much" they are contributing? 
and who complained about our lack of response to our neighbours? i just heard the news that we were praised for our swift and substantial response. -
The S$20 million is meaningles without context. The Qn is how much would they be spending if they had not sent those soldiers over?
Would the soldiers still be paid? Would the helicopters still be flying? Will the ships still be maitained?
I'm sure they spent MORE, but the qn is how much more.
As of now, not impressed. Anybody knows how much they spent at NDP? I saw before but i dun remember. It was in the millions though. Adn i dun think that inclided salaries of soldiers, etc. -
FOr your info, the BRITISH PUBLIC has so far raised 60 million pounds. That about 1 pound every person.
Just some context before we start jerking ourselves off.
Re The fact that singapore has been praised for swift response, c'mon you should know that's customary. Again, doesn;t tell us much about singapore's actualy response. -
Channel News Asia(CNA) operates in vacuum in Aceh.
Majority of Singaporean would like to see our Singapore troops in action in Indonesia, many do not log on into cyberpioneer or MIW to get their news.
So far, CNA is just showing past clips and the most incredible part is that there are video clips of the USS ship harboured near Singapore moving humanitarian aids. However, there is no coverage of the LST equipment and men onboard it.
No video of our Singapore chinooks doing their job except from the print press.
It will be a sad day when BBC and CNN shows videos of Singapore troops doing their humanitarian aid in Indonesia while we are getting about how congested the airport in Aceh. -
Wuming78 -
A lot of nations (noticably the USA &, for me, Taiwan) who announced their aid contributions were embarassingly caught out by the scale of the disaster too. Sweden was the only one who stood out with its high financial commitment. But many countries have significantly increased their donations upon realizing the reality, so it's all good.
Today's ST has the Thailand tourist authority projecting their total losses at $871m worth of baht money. Mind you, their damage is considerably limited & localized when compared to Aceh or Sir Lanka, each of whom probably need billion dollars for reconstruction. [That's why I thought it's so tragic to have the Land Rover guy lost his life in a scenario that's coming under control, & on the other hand how relatively dangerous our servicemen are venturing towards the earthquake epicenter & with Indonesia still suffering from hundreds of aftershocks.]
Lwflee -
Funny how you proclaim being unimpressed & then inviting others to build your argument for you. Back you what you say.
FYI The NDP is budgeted yearly at $6.3m (source: TODAYonline.com), so your point is ...?
Kudos to the British for their generosity but, for "context", the S'pore Red Cross - alone - has raised $15m so far. A lot of it are corporate contributions, but nonetheless the figure averages out at $3.75 for every local person (based on a population of 4 mil). Not impressive enough for you?
"Re The fact that singapore has been praised for swift response, c'mon you should know that's customary. Again, doesn;t tell us much about singapore's actualy response." => Oxymoron.
Yes, the SAF get to "exploit" its servicemen for "manual labor", be it with NDP or the SEA Games. However, the distinction with humanitarian missions, as they were with Iraq & Timor Leste, is that they're built around volunteers. Those going over could've stayed at home instead & continue drawing on the same salaries.
All things considered, I expect the total SAF expenditure to be audited at over $20m (easily) for this mission. That's a lot of money, based on a combined troop strength of around 800 so far. 800 men is equivalent to 2-4 combat units, & if they'd gone for the normal Lancer or Crescendo or Starlight training then IMO the total costs would've been around $2-4m. [Yes, it's that expensive to train overseas, which is why they were fairly rare during my time but which the defense budget can more than afford nowadays.] -
for those wanting to know more about SAF's Relief Efforts in Tsunami-hit Countries. u can click the link below for daily updates.
http://www.mindef.gov.sg/index2.asp?cat=SAFTsunamiReliefEfforts -
sometimes i wonder how much money is actually being given to the refugees. 3 guys from my unit have been sent to aceh today, they're recieving US$100 per day and they might be there for 3 months.
apparently the BWO volunteered the entire unit to go. but then only 3 guys went, excluding him. guess he got angry, considering all the stunts he pulled last night. -
The meat of my argument is this: 20 Million is meaningless because we dunno how much more they have spent. If for eg. they would have spent 15 million anyway just by having those ships stay in base, then 20 million doesn't sound so impressive does it?Originally posted by Moxie:Wuming78 -
A lot of nations (noticably the USA &, for me, Taiwan) who announced their aid contributions were embarassingly caught out by the scale of the disaster too. Sweden was the only one who stood out with its high financial commitment. But many countries have significantly increased their donations upon realizing the reality, so it's all good.
Today's ST has the Thailand tourist authority projecting their total losses at $871m worth of baht money. Mind you, their damage is considerably limited & localized when compared to Aceh or Sir Lanka, each of whom probably need billion dollars for reconstruction. [That's why I thought it's so tragic to have the Land Rover guy lost his life in a scenario that's coming under control, & on the other hand how relatively dangerous our servicemen are venturing towards the earthquake epicenter & with Indonesia still suffering from hundreds of aftershocks.]
Lwflee -
Funny how you proclaim being unimpressed & then inviting others to build your argument for you. Back you what you say.
FYI The NDP is budgeted yearly at $6.3m (source: TODAYonline.com), so your point is ...?
Kudos to the British for their generosity but, for "context", the S'pore Red Cross - alone - has raised $15m so far. A lot of it are corporate contributions, but nonetheless the figure averages out at $3.75 for every local person (based on a population of 4 mil). Not impressive enough for you?
"Re The fact that singapore has been praised for swift response, c'mon you should know that's customary. Again, doesn;t tell us much about singapore's actualy response." => Oxymoron.
Yes, the SAF get to "exploit" its servicemen for "manual labor", be it with NDP or the SEA Games. However, the distinction with humanitarian missions, as they were with Iraq & Timor Leste, is that they're built around volunteers. Those going over could've stayed at home instead & continue drawing on the same salaries.
All things considered, I expect the total SAF expenditure to be audited at over $20m (easily) for this mission. That's a lot of money, based on a combined troop strength of around 800 so far. 800 men is equivalent to 2-4 combat units, & if they'd gone for the normal Lancer or Crescendo or Starlight training then IMO the total costs would've been around $2-4m. [Yes, it's that expensive to train overseas, which is why they were fairly rare during my time but which the defense budget can more than afford nowadays.]
Good taht that charity donated 15 million. Compare it to the 20 million the SAF projected. Albbeit it is the projected cost for only 2 weeks, but again, we do not know tha exact magnitude of the SAF's commitment.
NDP you say costs 6 million. I doubt that includes the wages of the Division of men, specialists and officiers involved for at least 9 months. Not counting logistical support like Food, vehicle maintenance, etc.
I suspect is you factor in those costs, the final figure will be greatly inflated. Just like i suspect the 20 million is greatly inflated.
Creative accounting only serves to hide the real picture.
Note: Good that ppl volunteered, kudos to them. But imo, it would have been justified to force them to go as they would in times of war. Just my view though. -
1stly, the $6.3m figure wasn't picked out of the air by me.
2ndly, give up on using the NDP budget as a contrast, lah, cuz the more you're spewing about it (wages, food) the more ridiculous they sound. Heck, I didn't 2 NDPs & a Military Tattoo in my time & the joke used to be that the only things they spent extra on us were the torchlights to wave about (compared to the million $s set aside for the fireworks). Whenever we complained then, it was more about burnt weekends - cuz they were scheduled with the normal training timetable.
$15 million for the ships to stay in base? Creative accounting only serves to hide the real picture? ~lol~
LHL didn't specify whether the $20m is total overheads costs so I'm not gonna do the clarification for him. But I note that the civilian humanitarian task forces budget for hundreds of millions in funds even as they expect their volunteers to pay their own expenses, carry own equipment, etc. - so these initiatives are obviously costly expenditures. For our servicemen involved, they won't be compensated extra but otherwise it's noticeable that, aside from the SCE people, we're deploying mostly medical & logistical troops - or people who wouldn't have the chance to go overseas. So I'm guessing we gotta budget extra for them (however spartan), as must for the LST sailing distance (IMO equivalent to heading to Vietnam) &, probably most crucial of them, equipping everyone enough to function some 20 consecutive days on the field (how many NSFs or regulars experienced that before?). -
Sidetracking: I thought David Boey's ST account yesterday of how the SCE built a landing point from scratch was brilliant stuff. Some of the updated info are welcoming (like the actual fatalities) though there's still bits of anyhow-hantam stuff. For example, today's account mentioned how a TNI unit 2km from the coast was wiped out but another a further km in was spared - yet, yesterday there was a quote about how boats were tossed up to 6km inland. I measured the latter distance on a S'pore map: it'll be equivalent to the waves reaching Paris Ris from Tenah Merah jetty, or MacRitchie Reservoir/Bukit Timah Road from Clifford Pier/Keppel Harbour!
Very nice to see the dress discipline of our troops on the ground too. Granted, they were likely aware of the media & VIPs around on some occasions, but there were also some more-discreet photo shots & film recordings & they still showed our guys in training #4 attire with SBO. I thought they stood out against the TNI soldiers - particularly during the joint-effort unloading of goods - who were in vest-&-sacks or with American-style rolled-up sleeves.
I do think we can aim for more consistency with our headgear, though, perhaps imitating the SCDF personnel more. Instead, our SAF servicemen were were wearing their various Formation berets, jungle hats, jockey caps & - I thought I saw this yesterday - a Smokey Bear hat (looks like a signaller; he wore a S'pore-flag patch). -
Seeind dead bodies still not so bad. Its the smell that many dread
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Hope our guys there remain safe.
I recieved a message from an Indonesian friend, that of a minor standoff between the GAM rebels and TNI forces at one of the aid stations yesterday. -
from the straits times Interactive
Jan 5, 2005
PM Lee flies to disaster spots for first-hand look
He visits Banda Aceh and Meulaboh, where a big Singapore relief operation is under way
By Zuraidah Ibrahim
POLITICAL EDITOR
SUMATRA - PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong flew yesterday to two of the most devastated spots in Indonesia for a first-hand look at the scale of the tsunami disaster and the Singapore relief efforts rolling out on the ground.
Mr Lee, who leaves for Jakarta this evening to attend tomorrow's summit to chart the international response, spent nearly 16 hours in Sumatra.
'We have seen the images on TV, but it's not the same as being there, talking to the people, seeing first hand the devastation, the houses that have been knocked down, and the towns that are no longer there, and the people pulling themselves and getting back on their feet again,' he said.
Accompanied by Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean, he also rallied Singapore's men and women in uniform, who had been catapulted from the comforts of home into nightmarish scenes of death and destruction.
After landing in Medan, where they were received by North Sumatra Governor Tengku Rizal Nurdin, the Singapore leaders took a Chinook helicopter to Meulaboh, a focal point of relief efforts.
There, just 50km from the epicentre of the Dec 26 earthquake, personnel from the RSS Endurance continued to clear the land to create a hub for relief supplies, working closely with the Indonesian military (TNI).
'What additional resources do you need?' was the first question Mr Lee had for the SAF men.
The response from the joint chairman of the joint humanitarian aid taskforce there, Colonel Tan Chuan-Jin: So far, things have been proceeding well, but let's assess each day as it comes.
Mr Lee stressed the need to work closely with the TNI men and others on the ground in order to know the local needs. Col Tan replied that they were in constant touch.
Singaporeans form the main foreign presence in this town of about 40,000, which has had about 10,000 of its residents decimated.
'It's our responsibility,' Mr Lee said when asked by reporters about the extent of Singapore's help. 'We are an island, but in fact we depend on the world, and if we don't help out when other people have problems, we can't expect other people to help us when we have problems.'
The SAF first established an air link and has now opened a sea link to ensure supplies to this otherwise marooned town that had lost its two bridges to Medan.
'It's a turning point in our operations,' said Defence Minister Teo.
Slowly, Meulaboh is picking up the pieces, as both Mr Lee and Mr Teo noted. Villagers are streaming to the field hospital set up by the TNI and SAF, with residents wading through their flattened homes and belongings, now shoved to the sides of streets and piled metres-high.
The Indonesians who met the Singapore leaders had nothing but thanks for their neighbours. Coordinating Minister for Social Welfare Alwi Shihab was among those who accompanied them.
Mr Lee, who had proposed tomorrow's summit, said it should look into galvanising sustained and coordinated aid for the long haul.
At each of his three stops in Medan, Meulaboh and Banda Aceh, he chatted with the Singaporean men and women on the ground - men like full-time NSman Second Sergeant Yeo Boon Hock, 21.
A week ago, he was in his barracks. Now he is in Meulaboh, clearing debris in the scorching sun.
In Banda Aceh, Mr Lee visited the SAF medical unit. 'We are proud of you. You are flying our flag for us,' he told them. -
3 Jan 05
Troops from the SAF are also providing communication and security assistance on the ground.
From a shore of jagged rocks facing the fast landing craft, the SCE work together with TNI to form a human chain to stack sandbags.
In less than three hours, the landing site is prepared for the projection of more vehicles
4 Jan 05
SAF construction engineers in the midst of removing concrete slabs and crumble rock pieces.
5 Jan 05
The flight deck of RSS Endurance can now allow one Super Puma (SP) to land at any one time. This is a significant step forward for air operations as it means that SPs can now refuel on the Landing Ship Tank (LST) anchored off the waters of Meulaboh, instead of flying to back to Banda Aceh and Medan.
More pictures of our guys at the relief effort
-- iMINDEF -
I dunno if I should ask this, but here goes: are these combat engineers standby personnel who had been activated? (I mean, as opposed to volunteering.) If they went over there as a unit, I think it may get a formal commendation once the mission is over. It should then be the 2nd such honor for the Formation, since I recall they got one after the Hotel New Collapse.
David Boey's account of how the SCE people landed & attempted to build a new landing point reminded me of what the Allied engineering/logistical elements did at Normandy (post-storming of the beaches, which were devastated as well). -
dude. US$100 a day is alot.Originally posted by Moxie:For our servicemen involved, they won't be compensated extra but otherwise it's noticeable that, aside from the SCE people, we're deploying mostly medical & logistical troops - or people who wouldn't have the chance to go overseas. So I'm guessing we gotta budget extra for them (however spartan), as must for the LST sailing distance (IMO equivalent to heading to Vietnam) &, probably most crucial of them, equipping everyone enough to function some 20 consecutive days on the field (how many NSFs or regulars experienced that before?). -
Actually there will be some element of policing (peacekeeping ) involved. When I was active in reservist, one of the things told to us was that the aftermath of any disaster (man-made or natural), there is the potential for " lawlessness". There will be criminal and desperate people trying to take advantage of the situation. In a war for example, you may have won the battle but your supply chains through devastated areas will be under threat from hungry people, from criminals who are trying to steal or rob or even murder for profit. Same thing with a natural disaster like this.Originally posted by mr_sotong:i tot they need medical attention not peacekeeping?
Over here in the UK, we already receive news reports that young Thai children are being targeted for kidnap by criminal gangs who are going to sell them to westerners for whatever reason (e.g. illegal adoption or paedophile rings). -
from the straits times interactive
Jan 6, 2005
LETTER FROM TEO CHEE HEAN
Thank you, SAF
He praises the troops for their role in relief missions in New Year letter
By Goh Chin Lian
DEFENCE Minister Teo Chee Hean praised Singapore's military and Ministry of Defence personnel for their relief efforts in various parts of the world in his New Year's message to the troops.
The aid is on a scale never seen before here. Three of the Singapore Armed Forces' four helicopter landing ships are at sea, two off Sumatra and one in the Gulf.
Many of its transport planes and choppers, including half of its fleet of Chinooks, are flying daily relief missions.
More than 1,200 personnel are on overseas missions, with more than 1,000 in Indonesia, 50 in Thailand and 180 in the Gulf.
At the same time, the military is keeping its anti-terror guard up at home and continuing with its routine training, including hosting a 10-day exercise between Singapore and Malaysia.
The annual event started yesterday with six ships from both navies engaging in coordinated maritime surveillance in the Malacca Strait.
'This is the largest number of overseas missions that we have undertaken simultaneously and the largest number of SAF personnel we have ever deployed on missions overseas at any one time,' Mr Teo said in a Jan 1 letter on www.miw.com.sg, a Web portal for national servicemen.
SAF regulars, national servicemen, including full-timers, and volunteers are working 'shoulder to shoulder', and many others who did not go have also been hard at work preparing for the deployments, he said.
'I know that there are many who were not deployed who have worked very hard, and continue to work very hard, to plan, prepare, support, sustain and monitor each mission so that it will be carried out successfully.'
He praised the SAF for acting swiftly and effectively. Standby teams were ready to go within 24 hours, and teams assembled for the relief missions within 48 to 72 hours.
'Our people showed a high level of professionalism and commitment, working around the clock to get the teams ready,' Mr Teo said.
The Asia-Pacific editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, Mr Robert Karniol, described the deployment as commendable.
He said it was not surprising, considering Singapore's military capabilities have become sophisticated over time, that it has been moving to show it is prepared to be more active in the international front and that the scale of the disaster requires such a response.
Defence analyst Andrew Tan of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies does not believe the unprecedented scale of deployment is too big for the SAF to handle, as it has been sending its troops overseas for training over the years.
Dr Tan, who also teaches at the Safti Military Institute, said that officers at the very top level have been expecting the SAF to be involved in peacekeeping and humanitarian missions, and subjects related to this are being taught to its personnel.
He believes the SAF will be able to build up new non-combat skills, such as dealing with natural disasters and a traumatised population. -
dude. US$100 a day is alot.
Fair enough, if they do pay out that much. Lemme see: 800-900 personnel multiply by 2 weeks' deployment at US$100 daily, with $1.7 in exchange rate, works out to be ... some $2m in pay, right?
One-tenth of the $20m budget then ~lol~
If only such generosity existed when I kena the NDPs ..... -
2 weeks?
what i heard, the guys from my unit will be there for 3 months. -
A lot of people seem to be taking the cost of the SAF's relief effort to heart. However, I, for one, believe that participating in such relief operations provide a win-win situation for the SAF.
Besides the fact that participating in such operations is a good deed in itself, the experience gained by our troops dispatched overseas would be well worth the cost.
Imagine, every person dispatched would return not only as better human beings for helping those poor souls, but also as better soldiers. Here are some examples:
1) Participating in establishing landing sites and clearing debris would be extremely beneficial to the combat engineers. Performing these tasks, they would be gaining actual experience out in the field solving REAL problems with effective solutions. No amount of exercises or simulated scenarios would give them this. At the end, they come back better at their jobs: better soldiers.
2) Participating in the relief effort, combat medics and MOs would receive an immense amount of knowledge. Back in Singapore, at max, they would care for a few hundred soldiers a month? There they would receive a few thousand different patients each with their own problems. According to the press, they're even treating children! Coming back, they might well have more experience then every other medic or MO in Singapore.
3) The mindef.gov.sg portal states that SAF communications specialists are assisting Telkomsel, the indon phone company, in re-establishing the GSM network. Signallers involved, would be helping to set up a GSM network from scratch! Where can you get that kind of experience if they had been left in Singapore?
4) Also, a Mobile Air Traffic Control tower is being sent over there. CAAS and RSAF personnel will be helping to set up and will work with Indon officials to operate it. An RSAF WSO (C3) working there would be gaining experience about running a control centre on a bare air field without help from any of the other air traffic control facilities like in Singapore.
The list goes on... RSAF pilots get flying time, landing in conditions not normally found at home, RSAF technicians get to work for extended periods on RSN ships. RSN sailors and RSAF airmen can fine tune interoperational issues.
Moral of story: Every dollar spent would be worth it in what we gain in return. ie. An immense wealth of knowledge. In the end, no good deed goes unreturned.[/b] -
double post
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Originally posted by aerozapper:
true. and well said .
A lot of people seem to be taking the cost of the SAF's relief effort to heart. However, I, for one, believe that participating in such relief operations provide a win-win situation for the SAF.
[b]Besides the fact that participating in such operations is a good deed in itself, the experience gained by our troops dispatched overseas would be well worth the cost.
Imagine, every person dispatched would return not only as better human beings for helping those poor souls, but also as better soldiers. Here are some examples:
1) Participating in establishing landing sites and clearing debris would be extremely beneficial to the combat engineers. Performing these tasks, they would be gaining actual experience out in the field solving REAL problems with effective solutions. No amount of exercises or simulated scenarios would give them this. At the end, they come back better at their jobs: better soldiers.
2) Participating in the relief effort, combat medics and MOs would receive an immense amount of knowledge. Back in Singapore, at max, they would care for a few hundred soldiers a month? There they would receive a few thousand different patients each with their own problems. According to the press, they're even treating children! Coming back, they might well have more experience then every other medic or MO in Singapore.
3) The mindef.gov.sg portal states that SAF communications specialists are assisting Telkomsel, the indon phone company, in re-establishing the GSM network. Signallers involved, would be helping to set up a GSM network from scratch! Where can you get that kind of experience if they had been left in Singapore?
4) Also, a Mobile Air Traffic Control tower is being sent over there. CAAS and RSAF personnel will be helping to set up and will work with Indon officials to operate it. An RSAF WSO (C3) working there would be gaining experience about running a control centre on a bare air field without help from any of the other air traffic control facilities like in Singapore.
The list goes on... RSAF pilots get flying time, landing in conditions not normally found at home, RSAF technicians get to work for extended periods on RSN ships. RSN sailors and RSAF airmen can fine tune interoperational issues.
Moral of story: Every dollar spent would be worth it in what we gain in return. ie. An immense wealth of knowledge. In the end, no good deed goes unreturned.[/b][/b]
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Originally posted by aerozapper:
imo You are t3h correct! But then imo the infantry needs to get in on the action. They keep losing out on these goodies.
A lot of people seem to be taking the cost of the SAF's relief effort to heart. However, I, for one, believe that participating in such relief operations provide a win-win situation for the SAF.
[b]Besides the fact that participating in such operations is a good deed in itself, the experience gained by our troops dispatched overseas would be well worth the cost.
Imagine, every person dispatched would return not only as better human beings for helping those poor souls, but also as better soldiers. Here are some examples:
1) Participating in establishing landing sites and clearing debris would be extremely beneficial to the combat engineers. Performing these tasks, they would be gaining actual experience out in the field solving REAL problems with effective solutions. No amount of exercises or simulated scenarios would give them this. At the end, they come back better at their jobs: better soldiers.
2) Participating in the relief effort, combat medics and MOs would receive an immense amount of knowledge. Back in Singapore, at max, they would care for a few hundred soldiers a month? There they would receive a few thousand different patients each with their own problems. According to the press, they're even treating children! Coming back, they might well have more experience then every other medic or MO in Singapore.
3) The mindef.gov.sg portal states that SAF communications specialists are assisting Telkomsel, the indon phone company, in re-establishing the GSM network. Signallers involved, would be helping to set up a GSM network from scratch! Where can you get that kind of experience if they had been left in Singapore?
4) Also, a Mobile Air Traffic Control tower is being sent over there. CAAS and RSAF personnel will be helping to set up and will work with Indon officials to operate it. An RSAF WSO (C3) working there would be gaining experience about running a control centre on a bare air field without help from any of the other air traffic control facilities like in Singapore.
The list goes on... RSAF pilots get flying time, landing in conditions not normally found at home, RSAF technicians get to work for extended periods on RSN ships. RSN sailors and RSAF airmen can fine tune interoperational issues.
Moral of story: Every dollar spent would be worth it in what we gain in return. ie. An immense wealth of knowledge. In the end, no good deed goes unreturned.[/b][/b] -
Aerozapper,
Nice sentiments (which I concur wholehearted with) though I must disagree with some of your inferences.
1stly, this whole HATF (that's what the MINDEF refers to the mission as in its website, compared to "Operation Lion Heart" in Phuket) isn't really a combat campaign, so there's a limited interpretation of what being better soldiers entail.
2ndly, no dissession with the experience gained but, for military expertise itself, I'll have to contend that our troops involved have already acquired an excellent measure of it prior. That's what being operational-ready means: the constant repetition of drills so that proficiency becomes second nature, complemented by problem-solving skills during regular overseas training to internalize a can-do spirit. (Applicable for both RSAF flyboys & SAF ground troops.)
So IMO the quip about "No amount of exercises or simulated scenarios would give them this" doesn't really hold. In fact, in many ways those on the ground over there are doing the same sai-kang work that servicemen complain about locally - but of course with a desperately-urgent purpose now.
3rdly, I just made time to read through miw.com.sg's various reports closely & it appears that relatively few NSF soldiers went to Aceh (different from the DART teams, which use a lot of conscripts). For example, it's reported that some 350 of the 472 on the RSS Endurance are military personnel, & only 63 are said to be full-time NSF's. (TCH said it was 90 in his media briefing). In other words - roughly 20% of the total personnel; no breakdown yet of the 196 on the RSS Persistence that I could find.
Also, the ST reported that "45 combat engineers" went ashore to clear to the debris & pack sandbags for the new landing point, so my guess are (a) it's possibly a standby SCE company or detachment that went over instead of the whole unit, & (b) 45 of 63 (or 90) suggests the bulk of the represented NSFs were from that Formation. Of course, none of these conclusions negates what a medic or a signal spec is contributing there - but if valid then it's generally more about what we can do for them (rather than gain back in reverse).
4thly, I'm sure the extended multiple-week field deployment is nothing like what's experienced in normal SAF training but, in another sense, their daily grind ends earlier as well. For example, the medics finish work by 3:30 in order to commute back to camp; the chopper crew chews up incredible mileage but doesn't fly at night; ditto for our ground troops cuz things are streetlights aren't repaired yet. That said, there's still night briefings & repacking of stores to be done, so no attending to personal stuff (like phone calls back home) until 21:00-22:00.
The biggest reward we're getting out of this is meaningful work, period. As far as professional knowledge gained, I say it's the SAF planners over here, & the various liaison teams over there, who've benefitted most. In other words, military bureaucrats being more than pencil-pushers - unlike what we're starting to hear about the inefficient Indonesian counterparts. It wasn't "customary" (as someone cavalierly suggested) to assemble 600+ different-skilled men within 48 hours, even though existing SAF components like standby personnel & Joint-Staff coordination helped greatly. But such institutional efficiency & preparation don't magically appear out of the air; they're rather the results of what generations of servicemen strove for during NS, no matter how minor their roles.
By all means, give everyone a medal when they return safely home! ~lol~