ACES OF THE SAF

PIONEER talks to three of the unsung winners of this year's Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Best Unit Competition.

Every July since 1969, the SAF sieves out its finest through the Best Unit Competition.

While the big winners this year include 1st Commando Battalion, 145 Squadron (SQN) and RSS Valiant, which won the Best Combat Unit, Best Fighter Squadron and Best Ship awards respectively, other gems have also emerged from the annual competition.

This year, we turn the spotlight on the winners in other categories who have demonstrated a high degree of operational readiness, excellent resource management and administrative efficiency.

Read about their winning ways and find out how they bested other contenders to come up tops.

Personnel from 6 AMB, led by ME5 Rai (front, centre) are proud to have contributed to the unit's first Best CSS award.

Best Combat Service Support (CSS) Unit

6th Army Maintenance Base (6 AMB)

Yes, they can!

We can! That is 6 AMB's slogan. "Sounds like 'weekend', doesn't it? Maybe that's why our guys get motivated just shouting our motto," Commanding Officer (CO) of 6 AMB Military Expert (ME) 5 Sima Rai joked.

The unit performs engineering and maintenance work on various equipment which include Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.

ME5 Rai attributed the win to the unit demonstrating high proficiency in soldier fundamentals such as scoring Band 1 in ATP (Advanced Trainfire Programme).

Another factor was the unit receiving this year's Ministry of Defence Excellence Award (MEA), which looks at how a unit manages its people, processes and partners.

An innovative people

Full-time National Serviceman and Welfare Clerk Corporal Abdul Hafiiz was proud to have contributed to winning the MEA by doing a good job in administrative work. He said: "Having a CO who stresses a people-oriented culture makes us motivated to work hard."

Being innovative also helped the unit to receive the award; the unit created a cooling kit for the Skyblade III UAV to prevent it from overheating in the field.

On winning the Best CSS award, Electronics Master Technician Military Expert (ME) 2 Roger Low, who designed the cooling kit, said: "We now need to keep working hard to maintain the standards that we have set for ourselves."

126 SQN, led by LTC Teoh (centre, in No.3 uniform) celebrates the squadron winning the Best Helicopter Squadron award.

Best Helicopter Squadron

126 SQN

One team, no barriers

126 SQN celebrated its birthday early as it clinched the Best Helicopter Squadron award this year.

The squadron, which turns 20 in September, operates the Super Puma helicopters for Air Force missions as well as in support of the Army's and Navy's operations.

It also juggles peacetime standby duties and was involved in counter-piracy deployments in the Gulf of Aden in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

Bagging the award meant that the squadron is not just operationally ready, but also efficient and well-trained.

Pilot Captain (CPT) Lee Hsiang Wei also believes that the close-knit working culture played a role in the win. "When the juniors join the squadron, the seniors will mentor them to bring them up to speed... It's this 'no-barrier' kind of environment that helps the juniors to level up and gels everyone together."

Driving force to improve

On winning the award, CO Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Teoh Chun Ping recognised the efforts of his servicemen and women, and paid tribute to family members of his squadron for showing support during their overseas deployments.

Having been in command since June 2011, he also credited his predecessors: "We worked very hard for the past one year, but how we got such a good team was the work of the many COs."

RSS Supreme, represented by (from left) ME1 Goh, SLTC Hsu and ME2 Huang Zhong Xing, is the Navy's marksman this year.

Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) - Top Gun

RSS Supreme

Serious marksman

Rocky waves, rough winds and a target that is hardly visible to the naked eye makes firing out at sea a challenging task.

CO Senior Lieutenant Colonel (SLTC) Tommy Hsu explained: "The weapon systems we use on our ship are designed to be very accurate, but as they're projectiles, they are subject to environmental conditions."

Despite the difficulties in firing, RSS Supreme bagged the RSN Top Gun Award this year. They were the first frigate to receive the award. On the win, SLTC Hsu said: "We achieved six shots on target in a surface-firing we did with the LSTs (Landing Ships Tank).

"Getting one or two shots is already quite an achievement, so I think we performed very well."

Taking firing seriously

Attributing the award to sheer hard work, SLTC Hsu said: "We're serious about firing because being able to fire well is a good indication of our fighting capabilities."

Military Expert (ME) 1 Jimmy Goh, a Weapon Control System supervisor on RSS Supreme, took it upon himself to improve his skills at firing the ship's A-Gun. "I looked through the results of my firing last year and studied ways to fine-tune my techniques. We also did dry runs in harbour and at sea," he said.

SLTC Hsu summed up how he felt about the win: "We weren't aiming for first; just aiming to do the best we can."