BUILDING CHARACTER IN THE JOURNEY TO OFFICERSHIP

"Work hard."

Officer Cadet (OCT) Lester Leong's grandmother told him this before he returned to Officer Cadet School (OCS) after a weekend.

And those were her last words to him before she passed away a week later.

Besides taking a toll on him emotionally, the passing of his grandmother three-quarters into his Officer Cadet Course also resulted in him missing five days of school.

OCT Leong, who is a Regular in the Republic of Singapore Air Force, said: "As the pace of the course is very fast, I missed out on a lot during my absence. To catch up with my peers, I revised and trained at night when everyone was resting."

Heeding his grandmother's advice to work hard, he emerged the top student in his Command, Control and Communication course and received the Sword of Honour at the Officer Cadet Commissioning Parade.

The parade, held on 14 Jan at the SAFTI Military Institute, saw 472 officer cadets commissioned as officers of the Singapore Armed Forces after 38 weeks of rigorous training to hone their combat, planning and leadership skills.

President Tony Tan, who officiated at the parade, addressed the newly-minted officers and reminded them of their responsibilities as commanders: "You will have to imbue in your men a deep sense of mission and purpose, and mould them into a cohesive and effective fighting unit. Help them understand the significance of their contributions to the defence of Singapore.

"Train them well and push them hard. But even as you demand high standards from your men, look after them well and always have their safety at heart. Lead by example," he said.

For many of the officer cadets, the past nine months of training can be considered the toughest phase in their young lives.

According to OCT Nair Manish, the Sword of Honour recipient from the Infantry, the training often put him in difficult situations. One example he gave was being in the jungle for 10 days with very little food and water, and having to walk more than 30 kilometres every day.

"It's not natural for human beings to go through such conditions, so that was one of the greatest challenges I went through," he said.

Midshipman (MID) Jonathan Ng, who was the Sword of Honour recipient for the Navy cohort, commented that the training was mentally taxing as well: "Coming in fresh into the Navy, we were expected to gain competencies in such a short period of time. It was an intensive period where everyone of us was truly tested."

He added: "Besides gaining domain competencies and knowledge, the training has built my character. It has shaped my thinking and made me more resilient."

OCT Manish agreed that his stint in OCS has changed him. He summed up his experience: "It's through such tough training that you have to push yourself beyond your limits and go beyond your comfort zone...It has helped to develop my character, and I'm now more confident than I was before coming to OCS."