When I think of the Army the image of men in uniform toiling for our nation comes to mind. It was only after I attended the Women in the SAF exhibition at the Suntec City Entertainment Atrium that I was aware of the numerous contributions made by the patriotic females of Singapore! To these ladies, I salute thee!

The exhibition was launched with an opening speech by the Guest of Honour and Chairman of the Government Parliament Committee for Defence and Foreign Affairs, Ms Indranee Rajah.

Close-up picture of Guest of Honour

A photo taking session to honour the contributions by these invaluable individuals!

This was followed by a free and easy tour of the exhibition. My first stop was the eye catching uniform parade in the red section! These mannequins were dressed from head to toe (including handbags!) in uniforms worn by servicewomen. =)

My favourite piece is this elegant white dress with a gorgeous red sash and an accompanying clutch bag was the Old No. 2 uniform that was worn by servicewomen during formal dine in. The outfit is simple yet attractive! (^.^)

My other favourite is this smart looking set that was first cast under the limelight at the 1967 National Day Parade!

And here an interesting titbit – servicewomen serve alongside their male counterparts in the elite Navel Diving Unit! These ladies are the trailblazers for the future generations of servicewomen!

At the yellow section, the highlight is the Sword of Honour (SOH) exhibit. The SOH is awarded to the top male or female cadet who performed outstandingly in all areas at the Officer Cadet School.

I also discovered these interesting boards (picture below) depicting the composition of servicewomen in the Singapore Armed Forces in 1975 and 2007! Its interesting to note that while there were more servicewomen then (2,290 ladies) as compared to now (1,715 ladies), there are more servicewomen in higher ranks now! I bet this change is attributed to years of determination in proving their worth!

And not forgetting the whiteboard with a personal message from Ms Indranee Rajah to these admirable servicewomen – past and present!

It reads:
To The Women in SAF
You are an uncommon soldier
who has done Singapore proud.
There are 1700 of you today I hope that
there will be 10x more by the next celebrarion
- Indranee Rajah
Deputy Speaker & GPC-DFA Chairman

And here’s an endearing moment – a little girl, standing in front of the whiteboard, scribbling frantically on her notepad in hand. Like me, I think she too was inspired by the exhibition and the words of Ms Indranee! Perhaps someday in the future she would be serving our nation. ; )

There’s another whiteboard at the Blue section which was swamped with service personnel, some signing their names, others writing messages! That area was so packed that I could not squeeze my way in to take a snapshot of the board =(

But I did get to tour the surrounding Blue section and I saw the picture board again! It is still on the composition of servicewomen in the Singapore Armed Forces, but of different years – 2000 and 2005.

The white section is dedicated to the SAF’s clerks, more than 80% of whom were women by the 1970s. Back in those days when type writers were used, trainee clerks were expected to type at least 25 words per minute. And with no backspace or erasers made available then, there was little room for errors! (>_<”)

At the corner of the section is a desk, sparsely decorated, with a simple typewriter, telephone and a thick file. This would probably be how a desk of an SAF clerk in the 1970s looked like.

Just shortly after I had captured a snapshot of the empty desk, the area was packed with service personnel. I guess I would be especially curious too if I were them!

The Women in the SAF exhibition is definitely an eye-opener! Do look out for more such exhibitions in September when the new Army Museum of Singapore opens at the SAFTI Military Institute in Boon Lay.