Two years ago, on Jan. 5, 2016, an average Singaporean boy enlisted for his Basic Military Training (BMT):

Average enough with his incredibly bleak, vacant expression, but juxtaposed with his proud, smiley parents right beside and across from him, an otherwise unremarkable photo achieved gold status online.

Needless to say, everyone loved it — indeed, his is the face that has become the hallmark of all freshly-enlisted recruits.

Two years on, alongside thousands of good Singaporean (and some PR) men around his age, this unidentified young man (who will remain so because really, he didn't do anything wrong) has arrived at his ORD (Operationally Ready Date).

Comments on this Reddit thread claim to confirm his NS-free status, too:

And it's entirely possible it is true — the average minimum length of National Service is a year and 10 months now, shortened from two, and previously two and a half years.

How the photo even made it to social media

In case you might have forgotten: this photo was originally posted to the Army's BMT Centre Facebook page — an official social media page run by Singapore Armed Forces personnel.

It got taken down afterwards, but a screenshot of the post attests to its virality:

A Reddit user who says he was part of the team that uploaded the pictures — including this one — to Facebook shared his account too:

"Fun fact, I was part of the BMTC media team when this photo was taken. We needed a Major to look through all the photos before uploading them to Facebook, we still have no idea how this particular one was passed by him. Got our ass chewed out once it went viral though good times!"

Quite a few folks appear to have gotten into trouble for it, but people of the internet will relish it for generations to come.

But of course, somebody just had to be a downer and remind the newly ORD-ed batch of this commitment for the years to come:

Ah well. But congratulations to him and his batchmates for making it! (Normal) life beckons.

Read the backstory:

This BMT recruit’s face is exactly how S’porean males feel about National Service on the first day

And some other fun stories about our defence forces:

Here’s a compilation of the best BMT sergeants’ insults that you can keep and use in the future

7 things every BMT recruit does after their first bookout

Comments on this BMTC photo show S’poreans are full of naughty wit

11 things only navy NSmen will understand

10 types of men all NSmen encounter during ICT

Top photo adapted from BMTC Facebook page and Reddit