It’s only in recent years that the SAF has incorporated an 8th core value which underlines safety. It’s admirable that the organization has finally realized the importance of paying attention to safety during training to encapsulate it into its value system. But as much as safety plans are robust and comprehensive, all that talk doesn’t always transform into action.

Every soldier we have out there in the field is a Singaporean son and it’s with this point that safety should all the more be of utmost priority during peacetime exercises. We’ve had countless of all-encompassing safety protocols, but time and again, the simplest of safeguards are often overlooked or even blatantly disregarded.

When we have soldiers traversing in vegetation where fall risks are real and deadfalls a possibility, helmets are instead asked to be taken off simply for the need to differentiate between fighting forces and exercise casualties. The head is highly vulnerable to injuries, with the consequences of a knock devastating, and to actively encourage the removal of protective headgear in such situations is foolhardy.

Beyond exercise casualties, the treatment of no duff casualties is also debatable. While it’s reasonable that the former be made to go through the same path the fighting forces traverse, it’s another thing to make the latter, some of whom have twisted their legs or even collapsed, trudge on. The risk of aggravating the injury increases exponentially when they’re herded through without proper supervision.

Has safety been compromised at the expense of training realism? Perhaps the risk assessment has been done, but I take issue with the fact that with each of this decision, the risk of serious, permanent injury climbs. I’m all for training realism but if we’re putting the lives of our soldiers at risk unnecessarily, then I can’t agree with these decisions.

Who shall be answerable to their families when one of these soldiers end up with a permanent disability when they are forced to continue despite a fracture? Or god forbid left in a vegetative state due to supervisory oversight? One life lost as a result of negligence is one too many. Every Singaporean son is precious and the safety of our soldiers shouldn’t be just an afterthought.