MARCHING TOGETHER AS ONE INFANTRY TRIBE

Songs and cheers rang out in the early morning of 21 Aug as more than a thousand soldiers from the Infantry formation took part in the second annual Infantry March.

With participants hailing from all Infantry units across the island, this year's march, themed "The March Home," aimed to rally all Infanteers and strengthen the identity of the "Infantry Tribe" as they marched to Selarang Camp - home of the Infantry.

Consisting of three different groups, each marching from a different start point - Selarang Camp, Pasir Ris Park, or the Singapore Armed Forces Ferry Terminal - they marched a distance of between 4.4km and 5.5km before converging at their end-point at Selarang Camp.

"How do we know that the 'Infantry Tribe' is strong?" Brigadier-General (BG) Chiang Hock Woon, Commander 9th Singapore Division and Chief Infantry Officer asked the some 1,600 Infanteers after the march. "We came to one conclusion - what is most important for the 'Infantry Tribe' is the trust between us To build this trust, we decided that every year, we would decide on a time and a place, and we would meet and this is how the idea of the Infantry March was mooted."

He added: "When we did our march last year, every unit turned up, and this year, we continue with this tradition - every unit will turn up when we do our march."

Agreeing with him was Colonel (COL) Lim Teck Keong, Commander of the Motorised Infantry Training Institute, who led 200 of his men in the Infantry March. He said the march was significant in building camaraderie within the formation, the largest in the Army.

To strengthen the identity of the 'Infantry Tribe', BG Chiang unveiled and presented the new Infantry Combat Knife to commanders and commanding officers of the various Infantry units.

COL Lim, who was among those receiving the knife, found it to be a meaningful presentation. Recalling the days before the Singapore Assault Rifle (SAR) 21, where bayonets were still attached to the M16s, COL Lim said: "The symbol of the Infantry is two crossed bayonets When the SAR 21 was introduced into service, we stopped using the bayonets and after a few years, the significance of the bayonets decreased."

"Hence, I think that it is quite apt now that the Infantry formation has introduced this Infantry Combat Knife. When all else fails, we still have the infantry knife to fight with our bare hands, and achieve mission success."

Also taking place after the Infantry March was the presentation of berets to newly-trained Infanteers from the 1st and 8th Battalions, Singapore Infantry Regiment (1 SIR, 8 SIR).