Featured Serviceman

My name is Siddarth Sridhar (Sid for short), and I graduated from UWCSEA Dover in 2022. I enlisted into the Singapore Armed Forces in June 2022 and after Basic Military Training, I began Officer Cadet School in the Singapore Police Force. After 5 months of training, I sustained a shoulder injury and started work as an assistant manpower officer in Singapore’s Central Division from February 2023 to April 2024.

Within my work, I planned large-scale deployments happening in the center of Singapore, working on projects such as the annual National Day Parade, Formula 1 Grand Prix, and the 2023 Presidential Elections. Some of my other responsibilities included managing firearm access for all officers within the division, and general human resource work such as processing applications for study leave and sponsorships. While this was an operations role from behind the scenes, it gave me a unique perspective on how much work goes into domestic security and maintaining Singapore’s reputation as one of the safer cities in the world.

To me, national service reinforced the value of responsibility and inter-reliance. Coming out of high school, I didn’t have any experience where my actions had genuine consequences on other people. This all changed during my time spent with my section mates in jungle outfields and training sessions, where I gained greater empathy and better understood the real life significance of being a compassionate person. Working on sensitive security issues honed this same value, where I felt a huge sense of purpose and motivation in being part of a larger system and could directly see the impact of my work on my community. Being enrolled in an international school also meant that there was a certain disconnect I felt with my own home, and spending two years with people from all walks of life in Singapore helped reinforce my sense of cultural identity and personal ties to this island. 

Beyond the skills learned within National Service, I also think the additional two years spent with family and planning out what comes after NS were invaluable to me. Whether it was the new hobbies I picked up on my days off or the time spent maintaining old relationships and building new ones, having the time to pause and re-evaluate my interests and values again and again has made me a lot more confident in the next stages of life.