I was a recruit there at Camp 3 some 15 years ago for a 5 month BMT. After my POP, I was the only one left at the Commando Camp Jetty where we board our RPL. I was taken back to Tekong and was posted as storeman back again at Camp 3. That’s the history, here’s the story.

This occur a day after Foxtrot and Jaguar coy had their parent’s visiting day. I was a recruit then. After an exercise in the afternoon, I felt a bit out of breath and requested to see the MO. While waiting at the medical center, I was bored of looking at the room and decided to look out of the window. I then noticed my OC and CO running toward the parade square. I thought nothing of it. A few minutes later my OC including the medic and some other brought in a recruit in a stretcher which looked badly injured into the medical center. I found out later that he had jumped because his girlfriend never came to visit him yesterday. He never made it.

1 year later as a storeman, I was to do guard duty, not to patrol but to be station at the guardroom and look out for the recruit doing the patrolling. I release a pair of recruit to start patrolling and walk around the guardroom myself. Feeling bored, I left the guardroom to watch the pair of recruit patrolling and then the pair stopped to chat with a recruit. It was past 2am and it was a no-no for recruit to be up at this hour. I had a loud voice and from where I am standing near the guardroom I shouted a loud ” Oii ” to the pair of recruit talking to another recruit and signal to them to continue patrolling. Nearly an hour later, the pair return to the guardroom. I ask them why they were talking to the recruit and why that recruit was still up, the pair told me that that recruit merely return to the place where he went. I told them to rest and reported to the BOS.

The BOS and another officer came and with the 2 recruit went back to the area to search for the other recruit while I remain near the guardroom. The BOS and the officer went to each company line to look for each COS and ask them to check their recruit. While these were going on, the duty CO came and ask the 2 recruit about the recruit they talked to. He then went to see the BOS and the other duty officer.

In the morning, a priest or medium was called to offer some prayer at the particular spot where the 2 recruit who was patrolling made contact with another recruit. I later learnt it was the 1 year anniversary of the recruit that passed away when he jumped. The pair of recruit was made the butt of the jokes everytime they misbehave. This is what I experience and what I can share.