Wearing Their Chevrons with Pride

(Caption of photo above) "When I heard that both my brother and I were posted to the same service, we were equally delighted as we would be able to share and help each other in our NSF journey." – 3SG Seetharaman Varun Karthik (pictured right).

3SG Varun started his Navy journey with his brother 3SG Seetharaman Arun Balaji, but ended the course with another family. The motivation and support from his course mates and instructors helped him to overcome many of the challenges encountered during the course.

Today, both brothers who are first generation Singaporeans, are very proud to be able to play their part in serving and contributing to Singapore's maritime peace and stability.

The journey taken by our newly-minted specialists to become full-fledged sailors in our Navy was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. But they adapted and today, they don their new chevrons with pride.

Congratulations to all our new specialists!

These specialists had to take to online training during the Circuit Breaker, but Distinguished Honour Graduate 3SG Ng Jun Wei (pictured left) felt that this did not affect their competency.

"Even though we were on home-based learning for several weeks during the course, the training and lessons provided to me and my course-mates were never compromised."

"The adaptability of our instructors to be able to carry on teaching under these circumstances showed their professionalism and commitment to ensure our high level of competency and proficiency."

Honour Graduate 3SG Chen Yihao (pictured left) learnt what it meant when sailors speak about mind over body.

"The most memorable event during my training was my first sailing on board the training ship, Polaris. I was seasick for most of the sailing and had to try my best not to puke. But I persevered. Together with words of encouragement from my seniors and course mates, I managed to overcome the seasickness. In the back of my mind, I knew that I had to build up my mental strength to overcome any challenges that I faced. Because when you are at sea, we count on the strength and perseverance of every sailor to collectively achieve any outcome."

"The RSN's role is more than just defence and deterrence against threats, but also as a means of cooperation with other countries through joint exercises and operations."

3SG Chen will be playing his part as an NSF on board our missile corvettes.