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If Mr Albel Singh were to be reborn, he would do National Service (NS) all over again.
"NS turns boys into men - that is what it did to me," said the 73-year-old, who holds the distinction of being part of the first batch of National Servicemen in Singapore.
"It was two years of tough training and pushed me to my limit. But it shaped my life. It gave me leadership qualities and the ability to build life-long friendships."
As Singapore celebrates 55 years of NS, Mr Albel is fondly remembered as the first in line to enlist at the Central Manpower Base on Dempsey Road when registration began in March 1967.
Aged 18 and just eight months after finishing secondary school, he signed up for Basic Military Training.
The NS pioneering batch was enlisted on Aug 17, 1967, following laws passed in March that year to make NS compulsory.
"I got a Mindef notice and signing up was compulsory," Mr Albel told tabla! on Wednesday.
"I was looking for a job and thought about the possibility of a career in the army. But I did not know anything about military service and that worried me a lot."
The physical side of the training was not a challenge for Mr Albel as he was a runner and hockey player in school. What bothered him was communication with fellow trainees.
"We came from different backgrounds and communication was a problem," he said.
"It was difficult for us to connect with each other. The army conducted basic Malay and English language classes. It took us a while to understand each other and work together."
The basic training lasted six months and Mr Albel emerged as the platoon's best recruit.
He recalled: "The training was at Taman Jurong. Unoccupied HDB flats were turned into barracks."
Mr Albel also did a four-month section leader course and became a corporal. Six months later, he was selected for the seven-month officer cadet training.
"After my corporal training, I was made the commander of the same unit - 3rd Singapore Infantry Regiment," he said.
"I initially earned a salary of $60 a month. After I completed the corporal course, it was raised to $90.
"After seven months of training at SAFTI (SAF Training Institute), I decided to join the combat engineers in July 1969. An officer at that time received $400 a month - much higher than what the private and government sectors were paying. I decided to stick to the army."
Mr Albel went through two military operations while in NS, which took three years to complete at the time.
He was deployed to Tai Seng in May 1969 after racial riots spilt over from Malaysia to Singapore and the ensuing week-long clashes left four people dead and 80 injured.
The first batch of 120 NSmen officer cadets, including Mr Albel, helped restore peace, spending weeks manning roadblocks and patrolling the kampungs in Katong and Geylang, where largely Chinese and Malay families lived.
Mr Albel also recalls guarding the beaches of Changi, carrying a rifle and live ammunition, in October 1968 when two Indonesian marines in the MacDonald House bombing were to be hanged in Changi Prison.
A nitroglycerine bomb was planted by Indonesian saboteurs on March 10, 1965 during the period of heightened Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation, also known as the Konfrontasi.
The explosion killed three people and injured at least 33 others.
Within four days, the Singapore police arrested two marines for the bombing.
Three years later, when they were about to be hanged, there were fears that the Indonesian army would mount an attack and try to rescue them.
"We could see the Indonesian armada across the waters from Changi but the expected attack did not come," said Mr Albel.
A year after his deployment at Tai Seng, he signed on as a regular and was commissioned on July 10, 1969, at the SAFTI in Pasir Laba Camp in Joo Koon.
The training and army work were "very tough" for Mr Albel, but he said: "It was also enjoyable because I made a lot of friends. We quickly got used to one another and released our frustrations by laughing a lot together."
Out of the 120 in the first batch of enlisted NSmen, 28 of them - including The New Paper's former sports journalist Brian Miller - still meet regularly to reminisce about the old days and talk about their army exploits. A book titled That Motley Bunch was launched at a get-together of the group on July 10, 2019, to mark their commissioning 50 years earlier.
It featured mainly black-and-white photos of them in training, including shots taken during unarmed combat lessons and of them firing a general-purpose machine gun.
The book was written by Mr Miller. It features highlights of the batch's military days, such as their commissioning parade at SAFTI and deployment in the 1969 racial riots.
"I am ever thankful that the army gave me leadership qualities," said Mr Albel, who rose to the position of commander of the 29th Singapore Infantry Brigade, holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel, before retiring at age 51 in October 1999, after 32 years of service.
"From a boy, I was transformed into a man. I became a leader."
He then worked as a non-uniformed officer at the Ministry of Home Affairs and as general manager at Bintan Resorts for 13 years.
"The training I got in the army came in handy," said Mr Albel.
"It helped me face the challenge of dealing with different people. The Indonesians are generally easygoing. On the other hand, the Singapore management of Bintan Resorts expected answers straightaway.
"It was a very good experience for me. I got to learn a lot from the Indonesians. They taught me patience and to take my own time."
These days, Mr Albel does voluntary work as an ambassador for Mindef's Commitment to Defence.
"I give talk on the importance of NS, racial harmony, the need to defend Singapore and Total Defence to young NSmen, secondary school students and organisations," he said.
He also manages the Sikh Welfare Council counsellors who serve inmates, and helps out at the community centre in Punggol, where he lives with his wife Sarinder Kaur, 70.
The couple have a son Simrat Singh, 47, who lives in Melbourne with his wife and two sons, and daughter Parleen Kaur, 42, who is working in Vietnam.
"Although we were very unhappy with NS and complained a lot, looking back, we learnt how to get along with people from different backgrounds and developed leadership skills that made a difference in our careers later," said Mr Albel.
"NS helps bring the community together. Other than for defence, everyone should do it as it builds character.
"NS will remain. It may become shorter in future as it is much easier to train NSmen now. The women in SAF are also able to adapt quickly and I won't be surprised if there is NS for women in the future."
"We came from different backgrounds and communication was a problem. It was difficult for us to connect with each other. The army conducted basic Malay and English language classes. It took us a while to understand each other and work together."
- Albel Singh
