Featured Serviceman

Hi, my name is Sean Fang! I was born in Shanghai, China, moved to Singapore when I was ten years old and have studied in an international school since. I graduated from UWCSEA Dover in May 2022 and was enlisted into the SAF on 30th of June 2022 where I started my journey in BMT. After three months of BMT, I continued my journey at OCS and was commissioned as an Infantry Officer on the 10th of June 2023. Subsequently, I was posted to 9SIR and served as a Platoon Commander there until I finished my service on 29th April 2024.

Being a Chinese national and only a Singaporean permanent resident meant that I had the choice to renounce my permanent residency and move on with my life abroad, like some of my friends have chosen to do. The reason why I chose to serve could be summed up in three factors: I felt a strong sense of belonging to this community that I had lived in for a decade and wanted to learn more about the local communities; I’m also a huge fan of experiences and growth, thus I viewed serving the nation as a perfect opportunity for that; lastly, I was unsure about what I wanted to do in life so a gap year or two would’ve been helpful to take my mind off school and think about what do I actually care about.

Looking back at my one year and ten months in the army, it’s hard to summarise everything in a few sentences, but I would say that my journey had given me memories of a lifetime and it had been an incredibly meaningful ride that I wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else, ever again. My journey had challenged both my physical and mental strength over and over again throughout, and if there’s one thing that I’ve learnt, it would most definitely be that predicaments don’t last forever and you will almost always walk out with learnings (about the world and about yourself) that will help you for the rest of your life. My journey was not easy, and it made me slowly fall in love doing uncomfortable things in life, because that’s where I realised I experienced the most growth. There had definitely been moments where I would even be questioning my existence in the jungle with pouring rain during some of my outfield exercises, but I’d always known to snap back into reality by reminding myself to enjoy every moment in life because those unique experiences would never come back again. I’m forever grateful to my peers who have helped me through some of the toughest moments in my life, my commanders who have mentored me, and my troopers who entrusted me in my leadership to command them.

Everyone’s NS journey is different and everyone’s takeaways are different, therefore there’s no point in trying to tailor yourself to be ready for a specific path. However, to every pre-enlistee, I do feel the only thing that’s within your control is your mindset towards National Service. Be open-minded and treat the two years of service as an opportunity for you to grow, and I’m sure your journey will turn out to be the most meaningful to yourself.