The army, by design, has quite the hierarchical structure.

A broad class divide that is often seen within the army is between "men and commander".

Which in more empirical terms, ≥ 3rd Sergeant representing commanders and ≤ 3rd Sergeant representing men.

Perhaps due to the inescapable trappings of rank, there might come about a defeatist mentality that those who didn't make it to command school will invariably fritter away their nearly two years of army life.

Raphael Yee, co-founder of Memedef, a meme page, understands that dilemma rather well.

Man up

Yee wrote a Facebook post on July 1, SAF Day, on his experience as a finance clerk during his army days.

Like many, he had harboured hopes of making it to command school:

"I enlisted on 10 August 2017. National day fireworks never felt as appropriate as it did then as I packed my bags ready to head for Tekong. BMT. Command school. That was the plan."

Unfortunately Yee did not get to that command school promise land.

Rather, he ended up as a finance clerk at Sungei Gudong.

Now, movies on army life might convince you that 18-year-olds, fearful of the physical hardships in NS, would be over the moon with a clerk vocation.

Yee explains why that might be too simplistic a take on a young man's psyche.

"But I wasn’t posted to Warrior’s Hall. I was posted to Sungei Gedong as a f*cking finance clerk. “Fk yeah no need chiong already”, I remember telling my girlfriend- trying desperately to hide my disappointment. But it was palpable, and I was visibly distraught. What will my friends think? What will I do? Am I f*cked up?"

Maybe issues of self-worth and peer approval among young men being thrust into an exceptionally regimental environment could be explored in the next instalment of the Ah Boys series.

But while he might have missed out on the command school dream, Yee soon realised that perhaps two years in a vocation that wasn't his first choice, could be meaningful as well:

"In my obsession with command school, I failed to recognise the smaller cogs in the machine that are as important to moving the SAF forward. While I struggled to come to terms with my rank, I resolved to find ways to make myself useful and in doing so, met many men and commanders who felt the same."

Yee went on to build an app for Armour, managed social media for NDP, and along with Jonathan Lee, set up Memedef.

Everyone plays a part

A problem with the constant jockeying for importance between those of different ranks is that one is assumed to be worse than another.

Yee proposes a different solution.

Hey, what if everyone can contribute and have fulfilling, but unique, experiences:

"But it’s not just about the men. Men are only ever as good as the commanders who enable and inspire them. And most of what I was able to do was because of how supportive my commanders were. They remind me that in the SAF, commanders play an important role in enabling us men to do important work."

Yee dedicated many of his aforementioned points of pride, like the Armour app, to help from his commanders.

Find purpose in self

Yee concludes the post by highlighting what he judges to be the value of his time in green:

"I am not ashamed to be a corporal anymore, I don’t bear the guilt of not having made it to command school- because I know I’ve done my best. There are many NSFs who have done their best- some are lucky, as I have been, to do what they are good at and some are “less lucky” but still strive to do their jobs well. And to them, #hormat."

Because contribution viewed in tiers misses the whole point of a force built on conscription:

"But at the end of the day, no contribution big or small should go unnoticed and no one should feel any less just because they lack a bar or a few chevrons."

Because at the end of the day: "Some men do less work, some men do more- but all men are important".

Here's Yee's full post:

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