2nd Company in name, but band of brothers accomplished many firsts among commandos

SINGAPORE – Armed with AR-15 assault rifles and loaded magazines, the full-time national servicemen (NSFs) from 2nd Company, 1st Commando Battalion, tasked to board vessels that arrived in Singapore with Vietnamese refugees received the green light to use their weapons if threatened.

The pioneer batch of NSF commandos in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) numbered some 80-odd young men, and they had been activated for Operation Thunderstorm in May 1975, just two months shy of completing their 2½ years of national service.

Describing the operation as a “baptism of fire”, retired lieutenant-colonel Clarence Tan, their commanding officer at the time, said he could see the fear in his young charges’ faces when they were told they could face armed resistance.

After South Vietnam fell to the communists in 1975, scores of refugees fled the country, with some 8,355 arriving on Singapore’s shores.

The Republic hosted 32,457 Vietnamese boat people from 1975 to 1996. Those who could prove they could go to another country were given food and temporary shelter here.

“The ships housing the refugees did not just have civilians on board. They also had former soldiers from the Vietnamese army, and we knew the big ships had weapons too,” recalled LTC (Ret) Tan, 82, adding that they were the first NSFs deployed in a live operation.

“At that point in time, the commandos weren’t trained to storm ships, but the men of 2nd Company did very well.”

But getting to that point took blood, sweat and tears – something members of the group reminisced during their gathering on Jan 5 at Raffles Town Club, ahead of their 50th year together on Jan 16.

There were 62 of them who attended that night, along with their former commanding officer and 19 of their spouses.

When they first got together in 2013, however, only seven people showed up.

Mr Ronald Loh, 69, who organised their first reunion, said he had no idea how to get in touch with his peers initially.

“I attended this function organised by a group of NSFs I trained and wondered to myself, how did they do it? In fact, I did not even know how they managed to get in touch with me.

“It turned out that they used the phone directory so I used that, too, to get in touch with my former comrades,” he said.

Subsequent gatherings saw them roping in those they were still in contact with. Eventually, they managed to get almost everyone back together.