SHOULDER TO SHOULDER IN AFGHANISTAN

Since 2007, more than 300 servicemen and women from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) have assisted in the multinational stabilisation and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. On 30 Jun, 29 SAF servicemen - the latest batch to return from the war-torn country - received their Overseas Service Medals from Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen at the Joint Services Officers Mess at Bukit Panjang Camp.

"While our contributions are typically not large in scale, they represent niche capabilities that are significant for the overall coalition effort," said Dr Ng at the ceremony.

Among the recipients was Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Lek Seng Khoon, who led a 10-member team of Military Institutional Trainers (MIT) in Afghanistan for about six months from December last year.

Deployed in an artillery school in Kabul, the team assisted the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) to train the Afghan National Army (ANA). Alongside their counterparts from Australia, the United States and Mongolia, the MIT team developed and ran a series of training courses for the ANA.

"One of the things we did was to help the Afghans design systems for the school that would endure. This is important so that they are able to do this in the future without the coalition forces," said LTC Lek.

Working with many people from different cultural backgrounds naturally translated to initial difficulties in communicating with and understanding each other. To overcome this, LTC Lek and his team drew parallels from their experiences in the SAF to help them along.

"We come from a culturally-diverse nation as well, so that helped us to understand the Afghans at a much faster pace, said LTC Lek.

"To remove barriers to communication, we needed to understand every aspect of the people - from their culture and language and even their religious beliefs - and then act according to their ways in order to get our points across," said MIT team member Military Expert (ME) 3 Susai Pillai.

In describing the level of cooperation the team forged while in-theatre, LTC Lek used a popular Afghan saying: shona-ba-shona or shoulder to shoulder. "We built relationships and trust very quickly, operating shona-ba-shona," said LTC Lek.

Also honoured at the medal presentation ceremony were the seven-man National Command Element (NCE) led by Colonel (COL) Chia Choon Hong, who was also the overall commander of the SAF troops deployed in the region. The team coordinated operations at various levels within Headquarters ISAF and ensured the welfare of SAF troops in deployment.

1st Warrant Officer (1WO) Azmi Bin Ahmad, who was part of the National Support Element team working in tandem with the NCE, explained that they worked from different locations to coordinate and procure items which the SAF deployment needed for their operations.

"In terms of logistics, we were very well supported by our colleagues in Singapore during our deployment. We had no problems getting items to support our forces because our predecessors had already built up close working relationships with the multinational forces," said 1WO Azmi.

Part of his job in Afghanistan was also to ensure that welfare packages sent by loved ones back home were delivered to the hands of each and every SAF serviceman, wherever they might be.

"We know that the servicemen looked forward to their monthly welfare parcels. It was a morale booster for everyone," said 1WO Azmi.

Apart from the MIT team and NCE teams, members of a six-man Imagery Analysis Team (IAT) were also deployed in Afghanistan. They were in Uruzgan province from November 2010 to April to augment the ISAF's surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.

Said Dr Ng at the ceremony: "This rotation was also significant because it marked the first time one of our IATs was supporting a foreign Unmanned Aerial Vehicle detachment. In other words, our coalition partners collected the images and videos, while our team translated that raw intelligence data into useful reports on possible enemy trends and threats."

"At the end of the day, I think everyone worked well together because we knew we were all there to help Afghanistan," said 1WO Azmi.

Also present at the ceremony were family members of the medal recipients as well as Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant-General Neo Kian Hong, Chief of Army Brigadier-General Ravinder Singh and other senior officers from the SAF.