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Ai Hua is part of the growing women population who had signed on to serve the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and she has never regretted that decision. 

 

SAF first opened its doors to women in 1986. As of 2016, there were about 1,500 women in the armed forces, according to The Straits Times. The number is on a steady rise. Colonel Goh Si Mien, Head of Manpower Department at SAF shared that the usual average of 60 to 70 women has grown up to more than 100 since 2016. Colonel Goh credits the increase to initiatives such as recruitment drives and women’s career seminars which have been actively organised. 

 

In fact, this platform was a propelling factor which captured Ang Ai Hua’s attention and in years to come, devotion, to the armed forces.  

 

When asked about her journey, Ai Hua, 47, replied with a giggle, “I’m too embarrassed to share my story!” Beneath bobbed hair, a dimpled smile & the flower-patterned dress, who would have known that this lady had served for 24 years in SAF. Ai Hua joked about how she was fired up with interest when a recruitment officer came to give a talk in her secondary school. The 16-year-old back then thought to herself, “Wah! I want to join the Armed Forces!” On her day of enlistment, Ai Hua laughed about how her mother “did not even” send her off as her parents were very much at ease with her decision to sign on.

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Ai Hua mentioned that when she was a young parent, she worked longer hours. At 7am, she would send her children to the childcare centre. When the clock struck 7pm, she would rush down to pick her children up. Even then, she would bring them to her office and continue working while her colleagues would feed them!

 

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Elza and Ai Hua might be more than two decades apart in terms of age but their stand is still the same. When asked if they felt a sense of inferiority when it comes to fitness and physicality as a woman in the army, both of them chuckled. As fellow women serving, they acknowledged that they might not be the physically strongest. However, as Ai Hua put it with a smirk, “there are some things which we can do better than them”. 

 

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“We offer soft power. We are more meticulous and we tend staff paper with more details.” Ai Hua also mentioned how women with families in the army offer a different perspective; they engage better with parents of children enlisting as they are mothers too.

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Elza might not be at that stage of parenting but she believes that reaching your best potential is more important than being better or the best.

 

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