Being the fangirl that I am, it’s quite obvious that I know shit about the military apart from the really basic stuff. Still, it doesn’t mean that I cannot recognise a rare and cool experience when I’m offered one. 🙂
I received an invitation from FLY Entertainment to join Patricia Mok, Ebi Shankara and Suhaimi Yusof or Irene Ang for a tour of RSS Endurance, a landing ship tank (LST) as part of the #SAF50 celebrations.
It is a rare opportunity to get on board a military warship and even have a guided tour by a Lieutenant (such a handsome one even); the honour! So needless to say, I grabbed it! It was good timing as well because I wanted to go on board RSS Endurance last year when the Republic of Singapore Navy did something similar but I didn’t manage to get the tickets (which you have to ballot for).
On board RSS Endurance, we were lead to various sections of the ship and my Naval Diving Unit brother is really disappointed in the amount of RSS Endurance trivial that I retained from the tour. LOL. I only remembered that RSS Endurance is one of the largest warship that the Singapore Navy owns and it can sail non-stop from Singapore to Hawaii without needing to refuel. That’s all. The rest was a lot of military geeky stuff which didn’t mean a lot to a civilian like me. Still, it doesn’t mean that it was boring and all. It’s really very interesting but it’s just not something you’ll remember very well… like all the different technical specifications of the various radars and guns.
Also, we got to take a joyride on the “Fast Craft Utility (FCU)” which was part of the tour on board RSS Endurance. You can also take the joyride if you have managed to ballot successfully for a ticket to go on board RSS Endurance. Just make sure that you wear covered shoes and I recommend wearing a fitted t-shirt and jeans/shorts. It is open air and there is a lot of wind involved…
Here are some other photos from on board RSS Endurance:
Even if you didn’t managed to get a ticket to get on board RSS Endurance, there is an exhibition and experience area all over Vivocity to further check out and understand the 3 branches of The Singapore Armed Forces, namely the Royal Singapore Airforce, Republic of Singapore Navy and the Singapore Army.
There are many officers from the Singapore Armed Forces hanging around at the exhibits to answer all your questions and curiosity about their vocation.
We also had a chance to hear from a member of the Black Knights, the Singapore aerial acrobatics team, Kelvin Lim (sorry I forgot your rank) to get a little more insight into the what it takes to be a member of the exclusive Black Knights.
There are also areas where you can get hands on and check out the the REAL equipment and assets of the Singapore Armed Forces. Very cool really, you don’t get to play with guns (even if they are unloaded) everyday in Singapore.
Also, I really, really love these super cute #SAF50 thumb drives in the goodie bag!
Thank you to FLY Entertainment for organising this tour and Irene Ang and Marcus Neo for being our tour guides for the day. And thank you once again for the invite for this super cool experience!
