Injury Medical Leave: 1 NSF & 1 Regular Commando @ Thailand
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Not just one, but two Singapore Armed Forces personnel were injured in Thailand two months ago by a villager who was out hunting.
MediaCorp understands that a full—time National Serviceman was one of two who were accidentally hit by gun pellets — believed to be the first time SAF soldiers have been shot by a civilian — during a proficiency test conducted by the Army Training Evaluation Centre.
The other victim reported on Tuesday in the media was 25—year—old First Sergeant Woo Teng Hai, a regular from the 1st Commando Battalion, and was said to be still on medical leave.
MediaCorp understands that the second victim has completed his medical leave and should be returning to his duties soon.
The incident occurred in a designated training area within Kanchanaburi province, some 130 kilometres west from Bangkok, during a routine training exercise on the night of March 13.
Since then, the SAF has received full assistance from the Royal Thai Army for the investigations into the incident.
Preliminary findings have found that the shooting was an accident.
The two militaries are continuing to work closely to inform villagers about the training areas which can also be used by Thai armed forces. — CNA/vm
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MINDEF did not disclose that a second soldier, a full-time national serviceman, was also shot in the same incident. The news of the second shooting only surfaced when a relative of Private J. Pritheery Raj contacted The Straits Times.
In the first report on May 24, a Thai farmer had fired his shotgun at 1st Sgt Woo Teng Hai while the latter was out on a night exercise in Thailand. The regular commando is said to have been blinded in his right eye.
The Defence Ministry only admitted yesterday (May 25) that Private Raj had also been hurt in the same incident. The NSF still has two shotgun pellets lodged in his cheekbones and right shoulder. He has been on medical leave for the last two months.
In the STOMPer's email:
"I read the news about the second soldier shot in the news today with surprise.
"Why didn't MINDEF give full disclosure about the second soldier who was also hurt?
"Is it because he is 'just' a NSF Private?
"Apparently the relative of the poor Private had to contact the media directly after reading the report about the commando being shot by the Thai farmer." -
sad to hear of this.
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Crescendo?
While I was doing topo exercise at Crescendo a few years ago, I remember coming across villagers with shotguns.
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Originally posted by fudgester:
Crescendo?
While I was doing topo exercise at Crescendo a few years ago, I remember coming across villagers with shotguns.
wah luckily nothing happened to u. -
Originally posted by -StarDust-:
wah luckily nothing happened to u.Well, the villager in this case was out hunting, and the shooting was accidental.
I would say that the villagers are a peaceful lot so long as you are respectful and don't make a fool of yourself. I'm sure that the other guys here who have done Crescendo before might have come across shotgun-armed villagers as well.
Anyway, I was out with my company's 84mm/Coy HQ section.... there were fourteen of us, and I don't think those two shotgun-armed villagers we met would want to mess around with us even if they wanted to...
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the hunters are good. damn good.
shd hire them to protect our country. -
Since they were outfield for exercise, they should have been equipped with at least 1 smoke grenade, and loaded blanks. The first reaction coming under fire being drilled into every soldier should be shout out and throw smoke. Let off a few blanks for effect. At least it might scare the villagers away from firing more shots.
But we dunno what the situation was like, because all stories from the SAF reported in the news are ahem quite dunno what to say.
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Originally posted by ditzy:
Since they were outfield for exercise, they should have been equipped with at least 1 smoke grenade, and loaded blanks. The first reaction coming under fire being drilled into every soldier should be shout out and throw smoke. Let off a few blanks for effect. At least it might scare the villagers away from firing more shots.
But we dunno what the situation was like, because all stories from the SAF reported in the news are ahem quite dunno what to say.
when you're out exercising with blanks, or on a topo exercise not expecting any contact, suddenly, BANG ! and a chap beside you screams and fall for real .... what would your most likely reaction be ?
most prob the villager was shooting into the bushes, violating a cardinal hunting rule ..... or it was a stray shot .....
after all, chap was hit only with one pellet .... if it were an aimed shotgun shot the head might have been taken out already ....
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Originally posted by Fatum:
when you're out exercising with blanks, or on a topo exercise not expecting any contact, suddenly, BANG ! and a chap beside you screams and fall for real .... what would your most likely reaction be ?
most prob the villager was shooting into the bushes, violating a cardinal hunting rule ..... or it was a stray shot .....
after all, chap was hit only with one pellet .... if it were an aimed shotgun shot the head might have been taken out already ....
I was one unfortunate chap who kenna trip flare and ambushed while out on topo. First thing I did was shout, and throw smoke, and returned fire. I had a hard time explaining why I had to use those items when I RTUed, even served one confinement for it.
So from then on, I didn't really put any effort into exercises anymore, coz look what it brought me.
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I also had a comical mexican standoff with a farmer too during a topo exercise in Crescendo. Apparently some do not like SAF soldiers to walk around or near their crops or homes. Luckily it was defused quickly somehow or 4 of our asses will get peppered with shotgun shells.
They also like to burn down their crops and blame SAF for it. Not surprisingly we were not allowed to light tripflares and smoke grenades near or in their areas. i also once heard a story about an arty unit killing a cow in life firing, not sure true or not.
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Shoot back at the villagers lah
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why were they allowed to walk in???didnt farmer get intercepted by commandos?anjd why was farmer allowed tp walk out alive?who is the commanding officer?
and what the heck are u afraid of farmers for??are u commandos or rice farmers???why dont u just make farmer vanish?people vanish in thailand all the time??
some commandos u all make!!!!
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today's paper reported that there's 1 more serviceman injured!
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Haha i was there when that happen. Atec somemore last battalion mission. Heng ah, mission stop half way arh boh dunno muz walk how long
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Originally posted by Chester_Lim:
Shoot back at the villagers lah
wa.peacetime murder is chargable offence
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omg
commando kena shot by some
villager...
thought commando is one of the best
elite forces in SAF?
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Originally posted by Hitman Terminator:
why were they allowed to walk in???didnt farmer get intercepted by commandos?anjd why was farmer allowed tp walk out alive?who is the commanding officer?
and what the heck are u afraid of farmers for??are u commandos or rice farmers???why dont u just make farmer vanish?people vanish in thailand all the time??
some commandos u all make!!!!
wat thinking you? -
SAF is = Singapore acting force
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Originally posted by small-man:
SAF is = Singapore acting force
something went wrong with the commandotraining ?
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shit happens lah.. anyway surely got thai rangers with them, t translate and lead the way. Think they all tio sabo. Anyway Cresendo the camp dunno still got CS and dota anot.
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for all u know, it could have been some hostility between the villagers and soldiers for trampling on their crops, walking into their territory etc. such issues should be debated in parliament as it concerns our troops there. Many are also children of parents here.
Now it's dismissed as a one off accident. So only god knows. So many accidents and deaths in SAF every year, how many are reported. Some reporting in the papers does not reflect the actual no. of incidents every year.
I remember my time in armour, there was a capt who died while in ex wallaby. He was in the Bionix commander's position, head out of tank and he crashed into a tree branch. Died on the spott. Was not reported in the papers at all.
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wat's new w/ 'one time incident'?
Not just MINDEF, lots of govt stat boards also can dismiss things as one time off.
No one gives a hoot to review procedures anymore.
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Originally posted by Rock^Star:
for all u know, it could have been some hostility between the villagers and soldiers for trampling on their crops, walking into their territory etc. such issues should be debated in parliament as it concerns our troops there. Many are also children of parents here.
Now it's dismissed as a one off accident. So only god knows. So many accidents and deaths in SAF every year, how many are reported. Some reporting in the papers does not reflect the actual no. of incidents every year.
I remember my time in armour, there was a capt who died while in ex wallaby. He was in the Bionix commander's position, head out of tank and he crashed into a tree branch. Died on the spott. Was not reported in the papers at all.
actually training and real time battle is totally differentremind me of the m16 range training
i mean why will an enemy wait for u for few secs
waiting for u to aim and shoot at him
pretty stupid right
In wartime just upload ur m16 and begin to shoot to protect
for ur own life , where got time to apply for those fundamentals
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yes.....me likes those range that pop out target every second and staying there for 1 second......i luv the excitement of hittinmg them like in amusement park beat the mole game:)
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still useful la bro.....many times solders need to carry their rifles on high alert position and having range sessions improve the aiming. Even when in prone position, it's useful too.