Website celebrates the unsung heroines behind S’pore’s defence

SINGAPORE — Teacher Judy Kong was only 17 when she volunteered for the Singapore Women’s Auxiliary Naval Service (SWANS). Mrs Tina Goh was just a year older when she joined the Singapore Armed Forces’ Music and Drama Company (SAF MDC) as a dancer.

The two are among the 10 women featured in Born A Hero, a project by local lifestyle website Material World to mark the SAF’s 50th anniversary by celebrating the unsung heroines behind Singapore’s defence. Their stories, to be published consecutively until the end of next month, are published on the website.

Mrs Kong, now 67, said she had decided to join SWANS — where the volunteer women serve in specialist roles in, for example, communications, or manning radar surveillance stations — as she felt it was her duty as a Singaporean to play a part in its defence.

“(The 1960s) was a period of instability; we did not know what was coming. But at the same time ... I think we knew that we could be on our own. We could have a country of our own, and need not be a British colony,” she said.

Though she is no longer a SWANS volunteer, Mrs Kong said her work as a teacher lets her continue to contribute in her own way, by encouraging her students to have self-determination and resilience. These values will help them become better and stronger people, and succeed in life even if they do not join the SAF, she said.

Mrs Kong also supported her husband and two sons when they were in the SAF by encouraging and advising them.

For Mrs Goh, an SAF veteran of 29 years, her stint with the MDC allowed her to combine music and mentorship to bring cheer to the troops.

After a knee injury, Mrs Goh, 57, left the MDC in 1983. She was posted to the General Support Maintenance Base and later to the Army Logistics Training Centre, where she could still encourage and inspire the young soldiers under her care.

When asked why women seem less inclined to join the SAF, Mrs Goh and Mrs Kong both attributed it to a question of choice, rather than misconceptions of the job scope for women in the SAF. Mrs Goh said: “There are so many opportunities for women to enter the SAF now. And it’s really about their own personal choice, because if they do not like what the SAF has to offer, they won’t accept. It’s the same thing even for men.”

Official figures reveal there are 1,500 servicewomen in the SAF, or about 7 per cent of regular SAF personnel. JEAN KHOO