I was a combat medic attached to this unit which was training in the plantations of Pulau Tekong. Everything was going fine till it reached Thursday night, oh well, to be more exact, in the early hours of Friday morning. (note that in Tekong, it was once said, training was forbidden on THursday nights due to occurence of spooky accidents. But it seems now the ban is lifted. Can anyone verify this?) That morning, the company was divided into several sections, and each section consists of 10 men and 1 officer. Each section was then inserted into different parts of the island to carry out their respective navigation missions. In all, there were about 11-12 sections all over P. Tekong. When morning came, we began to hear abt spooky situations encountered by 2 of the sections at around 1-2 am. One story had it that the officer ordered his section leader to count the total number of men in the section. So the leader went down the file and patted the shoulders of his section mates as he included them in the count. When he came back, there was a puzzled look on his face as he reported there are 11 training men in the file…. an addition of one. Due to the looming darkness and strict light discipline, he couldn’t identify the extra guy. The officer thought the whole thing was a joke and ‘knocked’ the guy down (army lingo for Push up) and then asked him to count again. He counted again and it was still the same. Then in a serious tone, the officer said,”if I count and you are wrong, prepare to be confined this weekend!” So the officer counted the heads in the section and realli discovered there was an additional guy. He quickly put on his beret and led his troops out. When morning came, he did another count and this time it was finally right….

The 2nd story was that this section was crossing a wide canal. The section leader was on the other side of the bank, helping his section mates across. One by one crossed. Then the strange thing happened. The officer noticed that the leader was still at that position, with a out-stretched arm, as if he was still waiting for someone else to cross. But the problem was, all had crossed the canal and there was NO ONE on the other bank already. The officer counted the troops again and discovered all have crossed the canal… there shouldn’t be anyone left on the other side. So he questioned the leader. And the leader actually said,”Sir! I am waiting for this guy on the other side. I asked him to cross but he just refused!” The officer realised something was amiss and ordered everyone to ‘fall in’. With that, he fast-marched everyone out of the area. And that’s the end of the story for now.