This happened during a training session on Tekong. I was fresh out of SISPEC and had been posted to 6 SIR, a mono intake unit. We all went to Tekong for some jungle training that day. It was about late afternoon around 3-4pm. The company was practicing some section movement that day and my platoon was using an area at the foot of a knoll. Seeing that the area was a little crowded, i took my guys to the other side of the knoll. The plan was to walk from the other side of the knoll and join back with the platoon while we practiced various section formations. For those who do do not know how this works, the section leader would walk in front and the guys would follow behind in formation based on hand signals.

So I was walking along in front and the guys followed behind me when I smelt this rotten flesh smell. I thought immediately it was some dead wild boar since its quite common in Tekong. But almost immediately i smelt flowers. so thought maybe there were some frangipani nearby and the wind changed. At that moment we had linked up with the rest of the platoon and i didn’t think much about it anymore. A few days later, i had already forgotten about the incident when the guys came up to me and said. Hey you remember that day in Tekong? Do you know three of us saw a white figure float past in front of you. We didn’t say anything and waiting until we were off the island to tell you…. bloody hell, I wish they hadn’t. Guys if you’re reading this, you’ll know what I’m talking about.