SINGAPORE - When Military Expert 4 (ME4) Roy Tan, 25, attended his graduation from the Military Domain Experts Course, his father was also present - but not as a spectator.
Rather, ME4 Tan Gim Cheong, 53, was by his side as a course mate.
The father and son were among the 105 Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) servicemen from the Army, Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) and Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) appointed as senior MEs on Thursday (July 15).
Senior Minister of State for Defence Zaqy Mohamad, who addressed the graduating servicemen virtually as the guest of honour, emphasised the importance of adapting to a changing world.
"We must not forget that the SAF must defend against both new and traditional threats to Singapore's peace and security. These include cyber threats and terrorism, among others," he said.
"Singapore is making continued investments in defence to ensure that we are capable of dealing with whatever threats may arise, now and in the decades to come. We are building a new generation of transformative and futureproof technologies, including artificial intelligence, robotics and unmanned vehicles."
For ME4 Lee Ze Bin, 25, an RSAF engineer, technology could help even more in the day-to-day operations of the SAF.
Said ME4 Lee: "We have a lot of data, collected over the years but under-utilised. By analysing trends in the data, we can do predictive maintenance, such as estimating the mean time before failure for some of our equipment."
The tech-savviness of younger course members like ME4 Lee added variety to the course, which also included mid-career personnel about twice his age.
ME4 Lim Chew Loon, 46, a chief ops planner for the 7th Flotilla in the RSN, said the older and younger members were able to make use of one another's strengths, such as when he was involved in the planning of the virtual graduation ceremony.
Said ME4 Lim, who has over two decades of experience in the SAF: "The younger ones are very tech-savvy, and were able to guide us on how to use software such as Zoom. For us older ones, we were more familiar with the protocols to follow, and guided them accordingly when planning the ceremony."
Added ME4 Roy Tan, who is a lead engineer in the Maintenance and Engineering Support headquarters: "The diversity of personnel is highly valuable. The younger course members like myself were very eager to hear about the real-life case studies that our more experienced peers were able to share."
Learning from others' experience is something he knows well. When he decided to sign up with the SAF in 2017, his father was quick to offer advice.
Said the elder ME4 Tan, a senior instructor in the RSN: "I told him that as a future leader, he must take care of the welfare and safety of his men. At the end of the day, they must go home safely to their loved ones.
"For this course, when at home we'd share with each other what we learnt. Most importantly, we encouraged each other to press on throughout the course."
His son added: "I'm glad we can celebrate this milestone together."
