I was a medic serving OCS. There was a rumour that the bunks where the support staffs were staying had some sightings. Maybe because there are lots of stay-out personnel, the bunks were empty at night, resulting in a ‘YIN’ situation.

For example the infamous one was when two sergeants were lying on their beds chit-chatting when a white figure went through one wall and then into their room and then drifted through the opposite wall. Dumbfounded, they screamed after a while, and several went and found them trembling in fear.

Another one was when my medic colleague came back from medical cover at about 3-4am. As he was unlocking the bunk door, he then saw a kid running past him along the corridor. Being shacked, he didn’t think much initially. But the moment the door was opened, he then realised, “Who brings kids to camp and at this time?” He immediately turned around and could not see the kid. Where did he disappear to as it was a long corridor?

Or another time, a MT sergeant was exhausted after those MT Line audits and went back to his bunk to sleep. He immediately dreamt of an old lady approaching him in the bunk, asking him for a cigarette. He didn’t think much and took the last stick and offered it to the lady. And strangely, when he woke up, he found his cig pack empty. Was it a dream? Or did he really gave his last stick away? Till date, he doesn’t know.

There was also one very sad case in which one of the cadets passed away due to some medical problems while doing a run. Think on the seventh night, my medical centre driver was walking to the medical centre when he passed by the company line of the dead cadet. It was then he saw someone lying down on the middle of the road in PT kit. Being a guai lan fella, he approached the person wanting to scold him for posing a threat to other drivers. As he approached, he suddenly had a strange feeling and then realised, hey, isn’t this the company line and the spot where the cadet collapsed? He immediately turned tail and started reciting his Quran.

And another mystery while camping at Tekong. I was attached to a company and dunno if it’s coincidence or not, but strange occurrences happened on one of the Thursday nights.

1) Apparently two cadets did tell me they saw figures walking in an open area in their infra-red goggles. When they took them off, they did not see anyone walking. Fact or fiction?

2) One officer leading a section mentioned that while they were crossing a ditch, the first cadet was assisting everyone behind him. When everyone had assembled on the other side, the first guy was still at the ditch, stretching out his arm and whispering to someone at the other side to quickly cross over. He immediately summoned the first guy over to rejoin his section, though that guy argued under his breath that they are leaving someone behind. The officer then wore his beret throughout the entire jungle trail.

Anyway to end this off, one of the commando OC shared his story when he was still a trainee. I do not think he was joking as he is a rather serious (but humble) fella.

There was this exercise where they landed at Tekong and set up camp. The CSM immediately gathered 4 representatives from the troop which represented the four major religions. Then the CSM set up tape around the camp site and requested the four trainees to say prayers at each corner. Nightfall came and debriefing was held. One of the representative was my OC’s platoon mate and he started trembling and not paying attention during the debriefing. Finally the PC cannot tahan, and asked what’s wrong. That trainee said he saw a lot of people approaching the white tape and standing there looking at them. The other three representatives also said the same thing when immediately asked. Of cos the OCs and PCs brushed it off as wild imagination and told them to hush up.