give that man a tiger

Navy man clears gruelling test of endurance

In a gruelling test of his skills, submariner David Foo spent 28 days under the sea, executing more than 50 back-to-back military missions - and all with just the occasional three-hour nap.

The 34-year-old Republic of Singapore Navy officer emerged last month as the first Asian to pass the Dutch Navy's Perisher course for submarine commanding officers, in which the failure rate is nearly 40 per cent.

Lieutenant-Colonel Foo joins 40 other officers who have passed the course since it was introduced 10 years ago. They are from the navies of Australia, the Netherlands, Israel, Denmark, the United States, South Africa, Brazil and Canada.

He assumes command of the RSS Centurion submarine tomorrow.

'I expected a very tough course and it turned out to be as advertised,' said Lt-Col Foo, who studied at the US Naval Academy in Maryland, trained as a submariner in Sweden, and served on missile corvettes and the submarine RSS Chieftain in his 15 years in the navy.

The 19-week course is legendary for the high failure rate as well as for the fact that any Dutch officer who fails it is never allowed to serve aboard a submarine again, he said. 'It's an opportunity for us to benchmark our training with other international navies,' he added.

Lt-Col Foo trained with four officers from the Netherlands, Australia, Israel and the US, as well as an observer from India.

The Dutch instructor said he was 'surprised I passed, knowing Singapore has a young submarine fleet'.

Lt-Col Foo had to quickly master the operating procedures of a Dutch submarine twice the tonnage of the one he served on in Singapore. He also had to quickly gain the confidence of an unfamiliar Dutch crew in time for the first round of tests.

One test required him to keep the submarine close to the surface for as long as possible with four ships charging at it and then use the periscope to decide when to take it down to a safe depth.

'There's some finesse to it because you've got to go down exactly at the last second, which means that as soon as you are down, the ships are right over you. If you went down too late, there would be a collision,' he explained.

Trainees were grilled on special submarine operations, from photo reconnaissance to mining missions, followed by a two-week exercise involving a nuclear submarine, anti-submarine warfare ships, as well as maritime patrol aircraft and helicopters.

Their endurance was tested on all fronts. They had terrible accommodation in a noisy, cold section of the submarine, with uncomfortable beds and only 'standing room' to prepare charts and plan operations.

Said Lt-Col Foo: 'A good friend of mine once told me that stress is mostly self-created. I simply did my best and tried to learn everything I could, as well as observing the other participants.'

Only three of the five trainees completed the course. One quit early as he felt he was not ready to go on, Lt-Col Foo said, and another was dropped for breaching safety rules.

Lt-Col Foo, who is married with three young children, is set to face another unfamiliar crew of about 30 when he takes over as new commanding officer of the RSS Centurion, a 51m Sjoormen-class submarine.

'The crew is aware I've gone through this very tough course and is expecting some tough training,' he said.

'My first priority is to get to know them better.'

- The Straits Times, 15 Aug 2005.

Give that man a Tiger beer; or how my ex-colleague likes to put it: "Give a tiger to that man!"