My time in National Service was characterised by changes. Changes to the uniforms we wore, gear we carried, style of man-management and doctrine. It is best encapsulated in how I started my NS in starched No.3 and then exited it wearing the camouflaged No.4. In many ways, my batch were the "in-betweeners" - folks who sampled a little of the old school 70s and had a taste of where the SAF was heading in the 80s and beyond. The changes started intruding when I was in OCS Senior Term. One day, we were told to report for a lesson in casual No.4, boots brushed. Not the usual stiff No.3 with polished boots. Really? Serious? No more polishing of boots? Woo-hoo! I could literally hear whoops of relief echoing through the corridors of our Delta Company. The next change came the chance to wear new camouflaged uniforms. We knew there were two designs up for selection, but on that day, they gave to us the Commando one, the design with the narrower camouflaged stripes, those that looked like jiggly strips of chopped cabbage. It was made of cotton, and when washed, would wrinkle more because of the extra colors. No matter. We were the first Infantry men to wear camouflaged uniforms in public. It was National Day Parade at the Padang. However, soon after the parade, we returned the uniforms, gave our feedback and heard nothing more on the issue. The next change was to exchange our 20-round M16 magazines for 30-round ones. We were glad because the old ones would empty very quickly with just a few pops of the trigger; we had to reload frequently. With the change in magazines came the new SBO. We, after all, would need new pouches to carry the longer magazines in. Wearing the new SBOs was like first time wearing cargo pants: More pocket space! The old SBO was terribly stiff and we had skin burns while trying to climb that low wall in SOC or when 'fireman lifting' a buddy. The ammo pouches also could never close properly and the strap hooks always needed black tape to keep in place. Not long after getting the SBO, we got our new fullpack as well. The new pack was miles better than the old one. For one thing, it had side pouches we could actually close. Previously we would lose things (such as the aluminium tent pegs) when our fullpacks got thrown into the three tonners. We had to resort to packing our stuff in plastic bags to make them chunkier in those lousy pouches. Because adventure shops then were selling better stuff, we were very happy to get rid of these WWII relics once and for all and begin to adopt more modern gear. Perhaps the biggest change I've ever encountered during my time was when I passed out of OCS as its first batch of Mentor instructors. The Mentor system at the time replaced the old Tactics Team system, which had been training cadets for quite a while... my batch included. I did not continue as Mentor instructor but switched to join the Demo Team as its new head. It was quite fun because together with the Weapons section, we were the only specialist instruction team left in OCS then. It's ok, we were decent instructors well-loved and respected. (This part about TA seems ok to keep) The next change in my NS life came when we started to wear the new two-tone coloured No. 3 for official duties. It was without doubt a hands-down winner over the old starched ones. And we got to wear our berets too. Of course, the final change came when I traded in my Temasek Green uniforms for those new insulated camouflaged No.4s. They were warmer to wear but protected us better from scrapes. These 'camous' stayed the standard No. 4 uniform for quite a while. Only recently was it replaced by the new 'digital' camous that is lighter green in colour. (Contributed as part of the NS45 campaign which commemorates the 45th anniversary of Singapore's National Service, with the theme of "From Fathers to Sons")