COMMITTED TO NATIONAL SERVICE AND WORK

It's not easy to teach. It's also not easy to be a military commander.

But Captain (CPT) (NS) Eddie Lim seems to have both down pat. The teacher was one of 27 National Service (NS) officers who graduated from the 8th NS Command and Staff Course (CSC) on 16 Nov.

CPT (NS) Lim's story is one of commitment and sacrifice. As Head of Humanities at Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Secondary School and a Deputy Brigade S4 in the Singapore Armed Forces, he finds himself laden with responsibilities both in the civilian world and in the military.

Recounting the challenges he faced in the course, he said: "In the correspondence phase of the course, we had assignments to do. It was tough managing school work and 12 people reporting to me at work, as well as special projects."

The residential phase of the course came just after the school examinations, where CPT (NS) Lim had to mark test papers. He said: "I remember the first weekend of the residential phase - I didn t sleep for two nights, marking the papers so that I could get the them back to school."

Despite these challenges, CPT (NS) Lim was undaunted. The 35-year-old stepped up to the plate and, as this year's youngest graduate, hit a resounding home run.

Graduating from the CSC has rekindled the fire in this young NS commander, who wants to bring national education (NE) directly to his students.

"I've got all these NS commanders whom I'm going to invite to the school to share their experiences," he said. "You see all these fantastic advertisements on TV and all these pictures, but I don t think anything really beats having someone tell them the SAF s real capabilities."

NS officers graduate from top military course

A total of 27 National Service officers graduated from the NS Command and Staff Course at a ceremony held at the Istana on 16 Nov.

The annual course is conducted by the Singapore Command and Staff College to groom NS officers who demonstrate the potential for higher command and staff appointments.

At the graduation ceremony, Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen congratulated the graduands, while informing them of their future responsibilities.

Their leadership, Dr Ng said, will "determine the effectiveness of [their men's] training, the quality of their NS experience and whether their time as citizen soldiers has been well spent".

Highlighting the "critical role" that NSmen play, Dr Ng emphasised the important contributions of NSmen to maintaining an operationally ready and effective third- generation SAF.