Dun Talk Cock Lah!: [Defending the Lion City] Former President S. R Nathan stands with our Soldiers

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

[Defending the Lion City] Former President S. R Nathan stands with our Soldiers

15 Jan 2011 - Former President S. R. Nathan reviewing the OCS Commissioning Parade despite of the heavy rain. Quote is attributed to Mr S.R. Nathan by an unverified source.

The following is an unverified account of what Mr Nathan had done when he was the President reviewing the OSC Commissioning Parade in 2011.

Post Source: Neralo, Reddit Singapore. (as of 23 Aug 2016)

Gonna share a story about the former President.

When I was a lowly officer cadet in 2011, and the senior batch were about to commission, he was the reviewing officer, for his last commissioning parade as President.

As luck would have it, it rained cats and dogs that day, but the cadets continued to March in the rain. Normally there's a parade review, but if it rains, that part is taken out so that the reviewing officer doesn't need to get drenched. Except he did get absolutely soaked. Because he chose to do the review.

Later during my own commissioning parade training I had a chance to talk to ~~Warrant Albert~~ my encik while facing disciplinary action for an unrelated incident.

The conversation came around to the previous batches commissioning parade, the one where President Nathan braved the rain to review the cadets. He told me they tried to stop the review but Nathan himself refused.

He even refused an umbrella, saying,

"if the cadets who give their lives in service of our nation can stand in the rain, the least I can do is stand with them"

That incident cemented my utmost respect for the man. So much so that I went out of my way to take an unrelated module in uni just so that I could have the pleasure of being taught by him.

President Nathan, you've earned your rest.

edit:

Obligatory thanks for the gold. I mis-remembered which encik told us about this incident, and only realised my mistake when I was talking to a coursemate about it this morning. I won't say the actual encik's name though.

Also, I received a couple of pms questioning the veracity of the quote, and I admit, it may have been bullshit fed to us by the encik to invoke more nationalistic pride in us cadets (it is a 2nd hand account after all), but I choose to believe it's true because I trust that encik, and because President Nathan, the few times I met him, struck me as a gentlemen who would do exactly what he did in the story.