New ability tests expand pool of NSFs eligible for certain SAF roles

SINGAPORE - Lance Corporal Lau Kah Onn, 21, suffered from multiple kneecap dislocations in his teens while playing basketball in secondary school.

A history of injuries like his previously meant a blanket exemption from serving as a transport operator in national service, his current role at the Singapore Armed Forces' Transport Hub West.

But Lance Cpl Lau, who enlisted in May last year, is among a group of full-time national servicemen with certain limb conditions and past sports injuries who can now serve as transport operators.

This initiative is part of the SAF's push in recent years to deploy more soldiers in more meaningful roles, while maintaining safety and operational effectiveness.

This is being done by doing away with a binary mode of medically classifying soldiers into combat-fit and non-combat-fit, starting with transport operators in April last year.

To ensure the soldiers' safety and capacity to serve, trained SAF physiotherapists will evaluate the servicemen for their strength, range of motion and stability on a case-by-case basis.

This is done through ability tests - called functional assessment - that replicate the physical movements servicemen will need for specific roles, such as, in the case of transport operators, clambering on and off trucks.

The exercises used in the assessment for transport operators were developed by the Headquarters Army Medical Services, in consultation with physiotherapists and occupational therapists from Tan Tock Seng Hospital's National Driving Assessment and Rehabilitation Programme.

Upon passing the assessment, Lance Cpl Lau attended the same training as other transport operators who did not need the assessment and has been given the same duties.

He said he has no symptoms lingering from his injuries, other than the occasional stiffness, which does not affect his work.

The assessment helps optimise the deployment of every national serviceman by allowing servicemen of varying physical abilities to take on a wider range of operational roles.

Chief of Army Brigadier-General David Neo said in an interview last Wednesday (May 25) that the army will extend such functional assessments to other vocations and redesign new jobs.

This would translate into expanded deployment for 1,600 full-time national servicemen jobs across 89 vocations.

Since the assessment, which targets non-combat-fit servicemen with a Physical Employment Standards (PES) of C and E, was introduced in April last year, SAF has increased its selection pool of potential transport operators by 7 per cent.

"We are now able to look at the requirements of different jobs and say that it may be doable even though by the original PES system, you would not have been allowed to do so," said Senior Minister of State for Defence Heng Chee How, after visiting the Basic Military Training Centre (BMTC) School V at Kranji Camp II on Monday (May 30).

BMTC School V conducts basic military training for enlistees deemed non-combat-fit, such as Lance Cpl Lau.

Mr Heng said the 7 per cent increase in the manpower pool was significant as the number of babies in Singapore not increasing "is actually not going up at any fast rate".

He added: “But what is equally important is when you speak to the soldiers themselves, they really appreciate it because if I have to spend two years with you, I want my time to count for something that is functionally and operationally required.”

Lance Cpl Lau has taken on his role with gusto, getting himself certified to drive eight types of vehicles, including large lorries and ambulances. It is more than double the number - three - of vehicle types a transport operator is required to manage.

And there is a personal connection that drives him. He said: "In my family, my late grandfather was the only one in the family besides me who could drive a (heavy) vehicle, which somehow... makes me feel more connected to him."