40 YEARS THROUGH OUR PIONEERS' EYES

Hitting the big 4-0 this National Day, we take a walk down memory lane to revisit the good old days, piecing together recollections from six past and present PIONEER staff.

As conscription added more soldiers after Singapore's independence in 1965, there arose a need to inform parents what was required of their sons in National Service. In came National Pioneer, the original version of PIONEER.

Launched on Singapore's fourth birthday by then-Defence Minister Lim Kim San, the magazine also set out to educate the public about the importance of nation-building and having a strong defence force.

Said Mr Lim in his foreword of the first issue of National Pioneer: "There are now a few thousand young men and women in our Armed Forces. There is, therefore, a need for a medium through which our men and women in the Armed Forces can be enlightened and entertained."

Later in 1971, under the instruction of the new Minister for Defence, Dr Goh Keng Swee, National Pioneer was revamped and relaunched as PIONEER, with both English and Chinese editions.

Today, the editorial mantra of the magazine has not changed, but it has evolved in form and presentation to keep up with the times.

Name: Lee Cheng Heng
Worked in PIONEER from: 1978 to present
Appointment: Chinese typist (1978), clerk (1995)
Age: 59
Current Occupation: Clerk

Ms Lee, PIONEER's longest serving personnel, began as a Chinese typist. Since then, her job scope has expanded from typing letters and stories in Chinese, to being part of the Chinese PIONEER editorial team, and uploading content on the web.

"Although I literally 'sold' my youth to PIONEER, this is where I have the opportunity to constantly upgrade myself. Usually people my age are not so tech-savvy, but being in PIONEER, I'm always learning about new technology."

Name: Chin Boon Lian
Worked in PIONEER from: 1975 to 1990
Appointment: Photographer (1975),
chief photographer (1990)
Age: 59
Current Occupation: CEO, Chin Photography

Mr Chin joined PIONEER as a photographer during his National Service and continued for another 12 years as a regular staff. He covered numerous exercises and his favourites were those which included live-firing.

"I enjoyed the operational part of my job, being able to witness the Army, Air Force and Navy in action. These are things people don't usually get to see."

Finding a permanent home

For most of the "pioneers", one change that stood out was the numerous relocations PIONEER went through before finally settling down at its current home in Defence Technology Tower B in 1993.

The story began at Pearl's Hill in 1969, while the magazine was under the charge of the Ministry of the Interior and Defence's Education Department. Describing the place as "an old colonial type of army camp", Mr Tan Cher Peow, who joined PIONEER as its Chinese Editor in the early 1970s, said the entire team of six was housed in a single room.

In 1972, PIONEER moved to Tanglin Camp, where the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is today.

"The place used to be where the British soldiers and their families stayed. The kitchen was used as a dark room by the photographers," recalled Ms Lee Cheng Heng, who was a Chinese typist on the team then.

In 1979, PIONEER became part of the Ministry of Defence's (MINDEF s) newly formed Public Affairs Department, based at Dempsey Road. However, due to space constraints, PIONEER was temporarily located at Gloucester Barracks, where the present Normanton Park is.

The team was reunited with the rest of the Public Affairs Department in 1982 when two freight containers, which housed PIONEER s layout artists and writers, were added beside the Public Affairs block in Dempsey Road.

Moving from the containers in Dempsey Road to Paterson Road in 1988, PIONEER occupied the ground floor of a commercial building converted from an old school.

In 1989, PIONEER moved to MINDEF's new Gombak Headquarters before finally relocating to its current location at Depot Road.

Name: Tan Cher Peow
Worked in PIONEER from: 1971 to 1988
Appointment: Chinese editor (1971), Managing Editor (1980), Member of Editorial Board (1987)
Age: 63
Current Occupation: Retiree

Beginning his career in PIONEER as a Chinese editor, Mr Tan led the team in creating a magazine that engaged National Servicemen, and helped their family members understand what NS was all about. Under him, PIONEER won the Best In-house Newsletter competition for three consecutive years. When he left PIONEER, it had the largest circulation among in-house magazines in Singapore.

"Being a science graduate who majored in mathematics, I was not trained to run magazines, so it was quite a challenge for me. But it was fulfilling knowing that I was trying to produce the best magazine for soldiers to read."

Name: Jennifer Teng
Worked in PIONEER from: 1984 to 1994
Appointment: Layout Artist
Age: 51
Current Occupation: Animator, Defence Information Television (DiTV), MINDEF.

When Ms Teng joined PIONEER, she was an Army Regular. During her time with the magazine, she put together visuals and words into eye-catching layouts.

"My time in PIONEER was when I learnt the basics of graphic design. Although I had to start from scratch, I found my job both challenging and enjoyable. It helped me in my switch to animation work."

Keeping up with technology

Besides the numerous relocations, Ms Lee, the magazine's longest-serving staff to date, also witnessed various technological changes within PIONEER.

Recalling her early years working on a typesetting machine to type Chinese letters and stories, she said: "I had to go through training before I could use the machine. Plus, I had to memorise where the characters were on the typing pad, which stored hundreds of Chinese characters!"

Before the advent of computers, former layout artist Jennifer Teng shared how the team had to painstakingly paste text onto layout sheets, while leaving blanks for photographs to be added in later.

"Back then, photographs were really just slides. We would project photographs on the layout sheets, crop them and trace them by hand," she said.

Despite those primitive days, PIONEER was a forerunner in the publishing field as it had its own photography studio. It won the National Best In-House Newsletter Award given out by the National Productivity Board for three years in a row, from 1983 to 1985.

Added Mr Tan: "We were the only in-house magazine in Singapore then to have all the facilities of a photography section and dark room to develop the photos."

In more recent times, former editor Eugene Mok talked about the constant upgrading of equipment after the move to Depot Road: "We upgraded our Macintosh equipment regularly and introduced the use of Adobe Indesign to make our layouts even more attractive."

For Ms Lee, all this meant moving from the typesetter to the computer. And more recently, she even moved on to uploading stories to the cyberpioneer website via a content management system a feat not many of her peers can boast about.

Name: Eugene Mok
Worked in PIONEER from: 1998 to 2008
Appointment: Writer (1998), Editor (2000)
Age: 35
Current Occupation: Executive Sub-Editor, The New Paper

Being a PIONEER writer was Mr Mok's first job. He personally saw the magazine through numerous revamps and an upgrading of its desktop publishing system. His 10 years in the team were all spent in PIONEER's current location at Depot Road.

"When I was a writer, I was part of a team that went on a 12-day assignment to East Timor. I still remember how the C-130 was fully loaded with equipment, and I was seated sideways for hours, with no opportunity for a toilet break!"

Name: Ivan Fernandez
Worked in PIONEER from: 1972 to 1974
Appointment: Feature Writer
Age: 58
Current Occupation: Editor, The New Paper

Although appointed a writer, Mr Fernandez performed various tasks during his two years in PIONEER, including field assignments, copy-editing, cover designs and cartoons.

"We felt our task was to go behind the scenes and make the activities on the ground, the people behind the units and the operating culture come alive for our readers. We wanted to show that there was more to the armed forces than the steely, highly disciplined and perfectly timed performances seen at the National Day Parade."

Holding on to the memories

Recollections relating to their scope of work were perhaps the most memorable to the "pioneers".

Former chief photographer Chin Boon Lian remembers being the first photographer to arrive at the scene when Hotel New World collapsed in March 1986.

"Upon receiving a call from my editor about the incident, I rushed down to the site in the SAF s general purpose car... It was heart-wrenching to see people struggling to get out, but it was heartening to see so many Singaporeans helping," he said.

Mr Ivan Fernandez, editor of The New Paper, who served his National Service in PIONEER as a feature writer, reminisced: "We felt our task was to go behind the scenes and make the activities on the ground, the people behind the units and the operating culture come alive for our readers."

He added: "So, we took it upon ourselves to experience it all, so as to add authenticity to our reports."

Taking the next lap

PIONEER has progressed from an informative newsletter to a magazine that seeks to engage its readers. Today marks the unveiling of the new PIONEER, complete with vibrant colours and enticing new columns, to make it a better read than before.

While continuing to inform readers of the latest happenings in the Singapore Armed Forces, PIONEER also aims to be a magazine read not just by National Servicemen, but by all Singaporeans.

This is a memory the current batch of "pioneers" hope to take with them as they strive for greater editorial excellence.

PIONEER's Timeline

1969
Launch of SAF's official defence bulletin, National Pioneer, on 9 Aug

1971
Magazine revamped and relaunched as PIONEER.

1972
Hand-drawn cover pages, unique masthead for every issue
Size reduced from A3 to A4
PIONEER moves from Pearl s Hill to Tanglin Camp at Harding Road

1977
Cost of magazine subscription at 20 cents per copy introduced
PIONEER changes to glossy paper

1979
PIONEER moves from SAF Education Department to newly established Public Affairs Department and is relocated to Gloucester Barracks in Ayer Rajah

1981
Inside pages go full-colour
Subscription cost increases from 20 cents to 30 cents

1982
PIONEER relocated to Block 11 at Dempsey Road
Subscription cost increases from 30 cents to 40 cents
Regular contests introduced

1983
PIONEER wins Best In-house Newsletter award

1984
PIONEER wins Best In-house Newsletter award again

1985
PIONEER wins Best In-house Newsletter award a third time

1987
Introduction of Junior PIONEER section

1988
PIONEER relocated to Paterson Road

1989
PIONEER relocated to Gombak
PIONEER moves from manual art production to desktop publishing

1991
PIONEER revamped with new design
PIONEER delivered to homes of in-service personnel and NSmen

1993
PIONEER relocated to Defence Technology Tower B at Depot Road

1996
cyberpioneer launched in July

2007
cyberpioneer Bahasa Melayu launched in June

2008
cyberpioneer photos go on Flickr
cyberpioneerTV videos go on YouTube

2009
New PIONEER launched in August