Before Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong entered politics in 1984, he had a career in the military.

He joined the SAF in 1971, and from there, he was eventually promoted to the rank of brigadier general in 1983, becoming the youngest person (31 years old) to hold that rank in Singapore's history.

At the NS50 dinner reception on Oct. 30, PM Lee met up with some of his old army mates that he had met back in the 1970s.

PM Lee was assigned to the artillery formation at that time.

Some of his former army mates, such as Tan Seng Poh and Choy Kin Chong, both currently retired Lieutenant Colonels, revealed anecdotes and accounts of what it was like to serve with the son of then-PM Lee Kuan Yew.

The accounts mostly revolved around how he was like as a leader, and his humility despite his position as the founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's son.

Based on these accounts, we imagined what PM Lee's Whatsapp chats with his comrades may be like if he serves in the army now.

He created a programme for the military

Some of you might be aware that PM Lee is pretty computer savvy with the ability to create programmes through coding.

He once coded a programme to solve sudoku.

Even when he was in the army, his coding skills came in handy.

During his time in the artillery formation, Tan recalled that PM Lee, while still a junior officer, once wrote a programme to compute the angle to fire a gun because he thought the practice of manual calculation was primitive.

Supper and chill

Tan also recounted how they would go for supper at Chong Pang Village for mee siam and mutton soup during the wee hours.

The mutton soup was PM Lee's favourite.

The men also had casual hang-out sessions. Tan said that after training one night, Lee dismissed his security officer and relaxed with the others.

He stayed back with his recruits

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Choy Kin Chong was in the artillery formation with PM Lee from 1973 and 1984.

He explained that as an officer, PM Lee led by example, such as by staying behind with his recruits when they had to engage in menial tasks.

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He made sure his men got new boots

Retired Senior Warrant Officer Lau Peck Woh also shared an anecdote of when he was serving as a Platoon Sergeant.

As the Platoon Commander, PM Lee noticed that his men's shoes had split open. He informed the quartermaster and made sure the men had new shoes within a week.

His bonding with his comrades, of course, took place during a time when Whatsapp did not exist yet. But given the common experiences they have lived through together, we are sure they enjoy meeting up and catching up whenever they can.

Now that they all have smartphones and Whatsapp, we can only imagine what goes on in their group chats.

Top photo adapted from screengrab of video from Lee Hsien Loong's Facebook.