Yes, red is the toughest colour of them all...
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GOH CHIN LIAN goes to the home of the Red Berets in this last instalment of The Straits Times series on elite forces in the military and the police
THE Red Berets wouldn't exist today if not for Project Toothpick, a secret plan hatched more than 35 years ago.
Spearheaded by then defence minister, Dr Goh Keng Swee, the plan was to assemble an elite unit of land and naval commandos to counter would-be saboteurs using unconventional warfare and guerilla tactics.
The first intake of 30 regulars in December 1969 has grown into an army formation made up of battalions of regulars, full-time national servicemen (NSFs) and NSmen.
Their status as an elite airborne combat unit today is signified by the winged bayonet on their crest.
They take only the best.
Said Chief Commando Officer Yeo Eidik, 44: 'We look for people who can take challenges. We don't want people who sit back.'
But superhuman fitness isn't a recruitment must.
'Nobody is born to dive, parachute or to run fast. As long as they have a few physical and mental attributes, most people can be trained,' he said.
Every six months, they try out a fresh crop of 1,000 NSF enlistees with good eyesight and health. About 250 are chosen for three months of basic military training at the Commandos' base, Hendon Camp in Changi.
Then follows two months of training to teach them how to operate boats, rappel down from heights, plus demolition and other skills.
The top 30 per cent train as section leaders and the others specialise in combat medicine, signals and support weapons, for example.
Of that 30 per cent, the top 20 per cent go on to train as officers.
Another three months of platoon and company-level training for all follows.
They also learn to parachute in full combat gear, training that only the Commandos and members of the Naval Diving Unit are put through.
They get to know one another really well, said Corporal Sim Zhi Wei, 21, who will finish his national service in May.
'We recognise each other by our footsteps, by the way someone drags his slippers, and by our silhouettes when we go out for missions by night.'
After more than 10 months of training, the finale is a 72km route march that ends with them receiving their red berets.
But of the initial 1,000, only 160 will make it that far.
The training does toughen you up, said warrant officer Wong, 36, a commando for 19 years. He's done more than 300 free-falls.
Once, he said, his equipment wasn't hooked up properly and came loose in mid-air. His rucksack banged about so wildly he couldn't regain control. He vomited into his oxygen mask.
'I had no time to think of the vomit. All I wanted to do was to land in the drop zone so I could stay with the team and not be a burden to them.'
He made it and completed his mission.
Many Commandos go through the Ranger course, reputed to be the SAF's toughest, where they get little food and sleep for 65 days.
Ranger-trained Major Goh, 29, has been in the service for nine years. 'It's the closest reality to war.'
Commandos are trained to operate behind enemy lines. Usually in teams of five, they recce and strike at key targets, unlike conventional forces that are organised in larger units to fight battles.
Champion snipers and pistol shooters, some have won international honours and one has even trekked to the South Pole.
Some of the Red Berets have even topped training courses for America's elite troops, the United States Navy Seals and the US Special Forces, from which hundreds of dropouts are commonplace.
They also learn from regular visits by foreign special forces, including those from France, Australia, the US, Thailand and Indonesia.
Their training is dynamic and an upcoming change is a switch from taekwon-do, a Korean martial art, to its Japanese cousin, jujitsu, which has a more lethal edge.
Monitoring security threats, wherever they may come from, and preparing for them, is part of the drill.
When Chechen rebels seized a theatre in Moscow and took more than 700 hostages in 2002, for example, the Commandos trained in a theatre here to deal with a similar scenario.
Col Yeo said that his men must be nimble and flexible enough to handle uncertainty, and that means 'always changing the test questions, no model examination questions, and coming up with different scenarios for training exercises'.
It is not a matter of learning to deal with what terrorists came up with in their last operation.
He said: 'Our challenge is to anticipate new tricks by terrorists, and ask, do we have an answer?'
These 'silent' warriors are trained to operate behind enemy lines. Usually in teams of five, the Commandos recce and strike at key targets deep in hostile territories.
--ST
see related[/img] -
Aiyah..... i would rather be a commando after becoming a rifleman.
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Originally posted by jacobs:Aiyah..... i would rather be a commando after becoming a rifleman.
well. not everyone can be one and haf the chance to do so. -
Looks like the commandos are pulling their act together and presenting themselves as a elite, professional unit willing to fight and die for singapore compared to the pre Sgt. Hsu case of "we're the best, join us or get lost" attitude. The unit has learnt humility.
Cool. -
hm.. ST is doing this series on our elite forces mah. so o cos theres a scoop on them. i guess they r now on sensitive and wanna put a forth a face of humility and servitude rather than portray an image of arrogance and pride in the past, after those incidents. prob to do wif the new chief too.Originally posted by SingaporeTyrannosaur:Looks like the commandos are pulling their act together and presenting themselves as a elite, professional unit willing to fight and die for singapore compared to the pre Sgt. Hsu case of "we're the best, join us or get lost" attitude. The unit has learnt humility.
Cool.
or mabbe jus our own misperception? -
But i was nearly a diver.Originally posted by wuming78: well. not everyone can be one and haf the chance to do so. 
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the death of Sgt Hu is not the fault of the battalion..Originally posted by SingaporeTyrannosaur:Looks like the commandos are pulling their act together and presenting themselves as a elite, professional unit willing to fight and die for singapore compared to the pre Sgt. Hsu case of "we're the best, join us or get lost" attitude. The unit has learnt humility.
Cool.
it is the fault of an individual or a group in the battalion..
seem that with one death in the ground force..the whole Army are to be blame..
but when it comes to the issue of FF by pilots...its not their fault?
not even one pilots are at fault? -
Yeah, we had some tough hombres in those parts. I think almost everybody there would remember one chap who used to get back into camp at three after drinks, and then be out for a 10K run at five every morning.
However, if there was one key factor in the unit's philosophy, it would be preparedness rather than toughness. Typically, we would run about 20-25 rehearsals for our exercises - each run-through would be different, with different elements taken out of the company and everybody else covering their jobs. As much as was possible, we worked out how we could complete the job using every permutation and combination. At the same time, every man was given a shot at the leadership role, so that in the absence of a designated leader, we could still function normally as a unit. -
It's about high time the cdo.s got an image makeover... and it seems like they got it.
The problem with many elite outfits is that the prevalance of code redness, where they cover up for each other whenever something goes wrong, even if whatever happened was wrong. The tendency is to forget that ones loyalty belongs to one duty to uphold ones oaths and vows before ones loyalty to each other. Such an attitude if led unchecked can lead to a increasing tendency for deviant behaviour in disregard for SOP until something really bad happens.
Of course being a commando does not make one automatically guilty of this, but the atmosphere for a liberal, self-protective place where breeches of SOP can go unchecked must be eliminated, as it should in any normal unit.
In the US Marine Corps, the Gunnery Sarge holds an almost legendary status even with those who outrank him, hence the onus to inpart the proper example and ideas to those under him is extremely important.
That's why those instructors and the chief got burnt very bad in the aftermath of the drowning.
Such was the case before the incident. Now that MINDEF has snipped it in the bud, you can say that the cdo.s have been given a shot in the arm and have rebuild themselves pretty well.
Of course, the cdo.s where not the only ones who had a makeover, the entire SAF is currently going a shakedown following some unfortunate incidents. -
As indicated in the article, where 30% of the trainee are selected to become leaders, and 20% of them went to become officers.
I hope the other SAF arms adopt this method of selecting officers too. Coz' IMHO there are far too many incompetent officers who wayang their way into OCS.
For those in combat vocations, do you trust your CO or RSM more? hehehe... -
As a matter of fact, the bar is even higher in the air force. When an F-16 gets into trouble or does something it wasn't supposed to do, the air boss has to answer for it.Originally posted by NathanG5:the death of Sgt Hu is not the fault of the battalion..
it is the fault of an individual or a group in the battalion..
seem that with one death in the ground force..the whole Army are to be blame..
but when it comes to the issue of FF by pilots...its not their fault?
not even one pilots are at fault?
Anyway, Sgt Hu's death was no routine accident, it was a completely preventable death. The reason why this was a stain on the whole of the cdos. is because this was no simple accident, it was just a hair short of murder, and was no act of a deviant individual trying to be rambo. To their horror, MINDEF discovered that most instructors thought that this was the norm for improvised, creative training.
Is it any surprise that the chief got the sack allowing such a large laspe to happen on his watch? I suspect the cdos. before and after the incident are quite different now in the way the operate, think pre and post SARS Singapore.
If FF was determined to be the fault of the pilot, as in he skipped SOP or was just plain incompetent, he would be in very serious trouble as well...
Of course, we haven't have much FF incidents on our own part to see how MINDEF would react, but do you think they'll just sit back and let the pilot or those related in letting his actions happen go away?
I doubt it.
Unless he's a white horse of course, or royalty of the Lee dyansty. -
i think its quite difficult to do it this way for the other cbt arms, cos of operational requirements. the time and resouces spent on such selection process is much higher. o cos u get higher quality officers.Originally posted by 12qwaszx:As indicated in the article, where 30% of the trainee are selected to become leaders, and 20% of them went to become officers.
I hope the other SAF arms adopt this method of selecting officers too. Coz' IMHO there are far too many incompetent officers who wayang their way into OCS.
For those in combat vocations, do you trust your CO or RSM more? hehehe... -
True, I dont see any good Logistics officer yet, I swear. Some i seen were scholars so they were more administrative than effective. Better ones I seen were seconded from combat arms sides...Originally posted by wuming78:i think its quite difficult to do it this way for the other cbt arms, cos of operational requirements. the time and resouces spent on such selection process is much higher. o cos u get higher quality officers. -
in the old thread on Sgt Hu death..Originally posted by SingaporeTyrannosaur:As a matter of fact, the bar is even higher in the air force. When an F-16 gets into trouble or does something it wasn't supposed to do, the air boss has to answer for it.
Anyway, Sgt Hu's death was no routine accident, it was a completely preventable death. The reason why this was a stain on the whole of the cdos. is because this was no simple accident, it was just a hair short of murder, and was no act of a deviant individual trying to be rambo. To their horror, MINDEF discovered that most instructors thought that this was the norm for improvised, creative training.
Is it any surprise that the chief got the sack allowing such a large laspe to happen on his watch? I suspect the cdos. before and after the incident are quite different now in the way the operate, think pre and post SARS Singapore.
If FF was determined to be the fault of the pilot, as in he skipped SOP or was just plain incompetent, he would be in very serious trouble as well...
Of course, we haven't have much FF incidents on our own part to see how MINDEF would react, but do you think they'll just sit back and let the pilot or those related in letting his actions happen go away?
I doubt it.
Unless he's a white horse of course, or royalty of the Lee dyansty.
yes its a stain on the Cdos..the stain is cause by some idiots...the black sheep in the battalion..
same thing in Airforce...there are black sheep among pilots..
if u have been watching Rambo movies..the story is about a green beret tryin to makes thing right again..for the thing that they done wrong in Nam..so leave John Rambo out of it..
the fact that we are not enagaging in any war now..
aint it too late if a FF happen?
accident which can be prevented still happen now...can u imagine what will happen if we are engage in any war? -
Don't forget "code redness" (A Few Good Men) and that piffle about gunnery sargeants (Heartbreak Ridge?). I showed the post to some of our boys - they pissed themselves laughing and said that our boy here is living in fantasy land. That's what you get when you don't get out much, I suppose.Originally posted by NathanG5:in the old thread on Sgt Hu death..
yes its a stain on the Cdos..the stain is cause by some idiots...the black sheep in the battalion..
same thing in Airforce...there are black sheep among pilots..
if u have been watching Rambo movies..the story is about a green beret tryin to makes thing right again..for the thing that they done wrong in Nam..so leave John Rambo out of it..
The truth? HE COULDN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!