Introduction
1. Earlier this evening, this Memorial was unveiled at the Central Fire Station Civil Defence Heritage Gallery.
2. The Memorial Garden pays tribute to the officers who lost their lives while carrying out their duties. They were serving Singapore.
Tribute to SGT1 Edward H Go & SGT Shaik Amran Bin Shaik Jamal
3. The Memorial has the names of SGT1 Edward H Go and SGT Shaik Amran Bin Shaik Jamal. Their names are inscribed.
4. SGT1 Edward H Go. Edward was a dedicated NSF firefighter from Central Fire Station. He lost his life during the fire at Henderson Road in December last year.
5. SGT Shaik was a regular officer – a firefighter. He was from Woodlands Fire Station. He lost his life in a road traffic accident while he was responding to a fire call.
6. This Memorial Garden is our way of remembering them, cherishing their memory.
NSFs in SCDF and the Home Team
7. Our Full-time National Servicemen (NSFs) and Operationally Ready National Servicemen (NSmen) – they play a key role in keeping Singapore safe.
8. In SCDF and in the Singapore Police Force, our NSFs are deployed side by side with Regulars, and they do the same jobs as our regular officers. They carry out firefighting, they respond to accidents and disasters, and deal with medical emergencies. They engage the community, they also deal with policing and responding to 999 calls, they respond to security incidents, and so on. The full range of activities.
9. We put them through the same training and assessments as Regulars, and expect them to contribute in the same way.
10. With our small population, manpower has been, and will continue to be a challenge for Singapore. And our NSFs do their part to keep Singapore and Singaporeans safe.
11. This has been the case from the very beginning, since the early 70s, from around when NS started, and it will continue to be so.
