A WARM 'THANK YOU'

It has been more than half a year since the tragic tsunami hit the shores of our neighbours and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) mobilised its forces to help in the relief operations.

Among one of the personnel sent to Indonesia was Staff Sergeant (SSG) Muhamad Azam bin Aziz of 7th Singapore Infantry Brigade (7 SIB), who served as a liaison officer.

SSG Muhamad Azam recalled an incident where he helped make arrangements for an Indonesian lady to fly to Banda Aceh to reunite with her family.

"She found out that her family had been taken to Banda Aceh for an operation, so she asked if we could take her on our Super Puma and fly her to see her family because she couldn t get any help from other agencies there," he recounted.

"She was really grateful that the SAF helped her," he added.

Army personnel like SSG Muhamad Azam, who had participated in the relief effort, received the SAF Tsunami Relief Operation 2004 Medal on 25 Jul.

Their family members watched with pride as Chief of Army, Major-General (MG) Desmond Kuek, presented the medal to the deserving men and women from the Singapore Army who had participated in the largest humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operation ever mounted by the SAF.

The hall of SAFTI Military Institute reverberated with cheers. But for the men and women of the Army, gratitude from the tsunami survivors was sufficient reward.

"I feel very proud and grateful, not because of the medal, but to be able to help in the tsunami relief itself," said SSG Muhamad Azam.

On the same day, about 350 men and women from the Republic of Singapore Navy were also presented with the medal in a separate ceremony.

Captain Edwin Tan, Executive Officer of RSS Persistence, said that while he felt honoured to receive the medal, "the important thing is we did our job".

"The crew worked together with great enthusiasm and team spirit for this noble cause," he said. "We made a difference to the people in the affected areas."