Under the Enlistment Act, all male Singapore citizens and permanent residents (PR) who reach the age of 16 1/2 years are liable for NS. They are required to serve 2 or 2 1/2 years of full-time service and up to 40 days of National Service every year until the age of 50 (for senior officers) or 40 (for junior officers).

Darius, being a Singaporean male, will thus be obligated to serve National Service unless there are medical implications (which hopefully, he will have none). Having gone through it myself, I would certainly want him to go through the experience, despite I being reluctant to participate in my annual In-Camp-Training (ICT) and Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT) sessions nowadays.

As young males, I believe that going through the National Service will benefit them as they transit from boys to men, and become more independent and matured (minus the exposure to vulgarities, though I’m not sure if this is still the case for enlistees nowadays).

Though it is still a long, long way before Darius even come close to being enlisted, the recent news regarding the Army’s new combat uniform (aka No. 4) has caught my eyes, mainly due to my subsequent ICTs and the thoughts of what National Service will have become for Darius when he is of age.

There have been several significant changes over the past few years, such as the outsourcing of the food in the cookhouse (or do they call them cafeteria now instead?), more welfare and safety measures, changes in training regiment (I’ve heard there’s no longer a need to perform rundown for Standard Obstacle Courses) etc. So it’s no surprise that the next change is on its uniform. Afterall, the Ministry of Defence is striving for what they have proudly called the ’3G Army’ (3rd Generation Army).

Here’s a preview of the new uniform (first one of the left, with the current uniform in the center) (taken from MINDEF’s website):

Maybe it’s just me, but I will probably be a bit reluctant to don this new uniforum, especially in the public, which I now do on my way to and back from the ICTs — it’s just a little too ‘luminous’ to feel comfortable in, despite this new uniform being much more effective in camouflaging to avoid detection.

Some might have taken the considerations of its appearance a bit too far (source):

Dear all, I’m an army wife and my husband is a SAF regular army officer.

One of the many primary reasons I married my husband is because of his dashing uniform. We were fixed up by someone we knew mutually and had many email conversations over a month before we met. He sent me a picture of him in his no.4 uniform and immediately, I fell in love with the way he looks in it (i didn’t say i fell for him immediately). I felt myself swooning.

When we began dating, he invited me once to a parade in his camp and when I saw him in person in his no.4 uniform, I was sure and told myself I will make this man my husband. The whole get-up made my knees weak. On our wedding, he wore his no.1.

Anyway, I was horrified to find out that SAF was going to change the no. 4 uniform. What was worse is that the new uniform is unspeakably ugly. It looks like pyjamas and the camo print is hideous. The colours are gross too, with a lot of brown, very weird, looks like crap. The colors of the current one are perfect and manly. And the camo print of this current one is perfect too. The cut, lapels, badges, collar, cutting are perfect.

I don’t understand why they would change such a nice and flattering uniform. The current SAF army no.4 is the nicest and smartest and manliest army combat uniform throughout all the armies in the world.

I would like to ask if wives are asked for their opinions before this change was decided? Who decided this? As wives of our regular soldiers, we are in close contact with the uniforms as much as the soldiers are. And it is also a large part of our lives.

I fell for my husband because of the dashing and manly no.4 uniform. Many many other army wives believe that uniform is extremely flattering and sexy.

Can we seek some explanation or redress in some way?

Hopefully our local ladies will gradually start to appreciate the ‘beauty’ of the new uniforms, or our national birth rates may continue to face a decline despite the recent incentives (see Incentives… for Working Mums Only).

This statement by the Chief of Staff (COS), HQ 9 Division/Infantry, COL Tan Chor Kiat sums up Ministry of Defence’s priority (source):

“The survivability of the soldier is of top priority to us,” he emphasised. “And when I talk about survivability, cover and concealment come to mind straightaway.”

So while some of us continue to lament on the appealingness of the new uniform, these new attires will nevertheless have to be worn on our fellow countrymen and someday, people may begin to appreciate its existence when our loved ones return alive from the warzone.

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