History
When the Singapore Armed Forces Training Institute (SAFTI) was set up in 1967 as the first military training institute to train officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs, now known as Specialists), an Engineer Training Wing was incorporated into the plan. Two young officers, 2LT Gurcharan Singh and 2LT Chng Teow Hua, were selected to attend a basic engineer officer's course in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, United States. Upon completion of their course, these two officers, with the Commanding Officer, MAJ George Mitchell, conducted the first Engineer Commanders' Course from April to August 1968. The graduate officers and NCOs from the course formed the nucleus of the SCE.
As its role became more defined and her responsibilities expanded, the Engineer Wing was renamed to School of Field Engineers and moved from SAFTI (now Pasir Laba Camp) to new premises on Pulau Blakang Mati (now Sentosa) in the same year and subsequently branched out to other camps such as Gillman Camp and Loyang Camp (both now defunct). In April 1970, the Engineer Headquarters (EHQ) was established with MAJ Mitchell as the Senior Engineer Officer. The EHQ was renamed HQ Singapore Combat Engineer in 1974 and the commander's designation was changed to Chief Engineer Officer.
Read more about this topic: Singapore Combat Engineers
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“It may be well to remember that the highest level of moral aspiration recorded in history was reached by a few ancient Jews—Micah, Isaiah, and the rest—who took no count whatever of what might not happen to them after death. It is not obvious to me why the same point should not by and by be reached by the Gentiles.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)