A TASTE OF HOME AFTER SUCCESSFUL GULF DEPLOYMENT

She was finally home after close to four months out at sea on her second deployment to the Arabian Gulf.

However, Staff Sergeant (SSG) Koh Lay Teng's mother was not there to receive her when the Singapore Armed Forces' (SAF) Landing Ship Tank (LST), RSS Endeavour, docked at Changi Naval Base on 27 May.

It turns out SSG Koh had given her mother, Madam Er Chiam, specific instructions not to turn up for the homecoming ceremony.

"I asked her to stay at home so she can spend the time preparing the food that I missed so much when I was away!" explained the Chief Weapons specialist with a gleeful smile.

"The food was very good onboard, but I missed the taste of my mum's cooking."

SSG Koh was one of the 199 SAF personnel who participated in the third LST deployment in support of the multinational reconstruction effort in Iraq. She had first sailed to the Gulf in 2003 onboard RSS Endurance.

RADM Tay (right) welcoming the RSS Endeavour crew home.

Chief of Navy Rear-Admiral (RADM) Ronnie Tay welcomed the crew home and congratulated them on the successful deployment.

"You have certainly been mission-ready and demonstrated mission excellence in discharging your duties," he said.

"I am proud that you were able to carry out all your duties safely despite trying sea conditions and drastic changes in weather mid-way through the deployment."

The crew spent a total of 66 days spent out at sea under the searing heat, carrying out their primary duty of protecting the oil platforms. Query operations, boarding and security operations were carried out to further enhance the security of the oil terminals

RSS Endeavour was also assigned the key role of taking charge of other coalition ships as well as Iraqi Navy ships to defend Iraq's oil platforms.

In addition, for the first time, the SAF LST acted as the forward planning and logistic staging platform to support the Iraqi boats when they come alongside, said Lieutenant-Colonel (LTC) Thng Chee Meng, Commanding Officer of RSS Endeavour.

"This is to help give them a longer sustenance when they are deployed into the area of operations," he explained

"We then took the opportunity to do some sharing and training with them, on some basic seamanship and medical skills."

The morale of the crew was very high throughout the deployment and LTC Thng attributed it to the strong sense of mission and achievement they shared.

"I think we were all spurred on by the fact that we want to do well there, that we carry the flag, that we were there to contribute, to do a good thing," he said.

"So the motivation stems from the heart, there is a very strong sense of success to do well and not to let the people back home down."