Thursday, August 09, 2007
I was rudely jolted awake from my deep slumber when heavy rain pelted the Command Post. To think we are on the rooftop scrambling to cover our equipment and the tent was nearly blown off! Then when the weather calmed and everyone settled back down, then we realized, today is NATIONAL DAY 2007!
Yay, and here we are perched on a rooftop, tired, sleepy, but doing our duty in protecting the nation against any kind of airborne threats or terrorist attacks. Here we are deployed on a rooftop somewhere in Singapore, so I was one of the officers present and I spent much of the day staring at my "radar screen" and seeing all the aircraft on the screen in a live air-picture. It's like watching a radar screen seeing all the movement of all the aircraft currently flying about over Singapore.
It was a smooth day, till the commencement of the parade. The parade was rather interesting. Being a fresh new concept of a floating arena that will replace the much-loved National Stadium by 2010, and the organizing committee will have to organize everything from scratch, new concepts and displays are now possible.
At first I thought the parade was rather boring, the same GOH parades, the F-16 Bomb-burst, the state-flag fly-by and the red-lions commando parachutists. Maybe next year when the F-15s come in, then it could be more interesting! The Apache helicopter performance was rather mundane as well, but the only fresh thing was the use of naval assets, with NDU divers jumping off a Chinook into the water to be picked up by RIBS and missile gunboats and Coast Guard PT boats doing water performances was quite interesting, other than that, all the other military hardware displays were rather placid.
This year's NDP theme is a "City of possibilities". The first national Day Parade at Marina Bay saw many firsts – the use of the world's largest floating stage as the centerpiece of the celebrations and the surrounding waters as additional platforms for the country's biggest party of the year. Thousands of Singaporeans turned up today at the bay, apart from the 27,000 that filled the stands, 100,000 others spilled onto the Bay area.
As the parade commenced at 7pm, I was watching several screens, my radar screen, the digital channel 5 screen and seeing all those Singaporeans waving their flags or torchlight's from their goodie bags, I can't help but feel, are they truly that patriotic? Am I feeling truly patriotic? Here I am doing my duty, really protecting Singapore in case we were to come under attack, yet those are the 127,000 Singaporeans there viewing the parade in happiness, but Singaporeans are always complaining all the time and are far too complacent in everything, they gripe and grouse about everything and anything there is to complain about in Singapore. Whatever the government does is always wrong, the taxes and GST are always increasing, the cost of living is always on the rise and the list goes on and on.
So while I watch the screen, seeing all those Singaporeans who come to view the parade to show their support, stating that "they are very proud to be a Singaporean". But are they truly proud? If they are, why all the complaints everyday? It's a sense of irony I am feeling here on the rooftop, in my military uniform, viewing the parade from afar, viewing my radar screen with vigilance and with all this insurmountable thoughts running through my head.
From my position, I had a vantage view, I saw the Chinooks and the state flag fly past, with my binoculars I could see the red lions parachuting down, I saw the F-16s fly past and we had a clear view of the fireworks.
Floral bursts of colour and streaks of light pierced the August night sky, signaling that the end was near. But while the dazzling extravaganza must come to a close, first ever parade by the Bay to mark Singapore 42nd birthday has opened a new chapter in the history of the national day celebrations in more days than one.
All good things has to come to an end and we could be more glad to ceasefire early. By the time we had packed up everything and ready to RTU, it was extremely late and i am utterly exhausted.
We had done our duty.
2:01 AM
