5 Key Differences Between Serving NS in the SAF & in the SPF

Last Updated on 2018-11-11 , 2:20 pm

Curious on the differences between serving in SAF and the SPF? Well, with an office that has both SAF and SPF NSmen, we’ve come out with the five main differences between these two.

Too bad none of us served in the SCDF, if not we’ll have a complete list!

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Outfield

SAF: SAF is famous for its outfield. Ask any NS guy, and you can see the love he has for this dirty jungle adventure in his eyes. No lights, no proper toilets and sleeping on the hard forested ground. It’s really inconvenient.

SPF: SPF has no outfield. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have something that is just as bad. And this is subjective because the SPF guy might hate the manually intensive “dojo” lessons or the mentally intensive law lessons.

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Stay In

SAF: Most vocations in SAF, even after passing out, do not allow the guys to go back home every night. They must stay in even after there is nothing much to do. It’s just a requirement. And it sucks because you hardly see your friends or family.

SPF: SPF vocations however, are shift-based or follow conventional office hours. This might be an advantage because this means the guys seemingly have more free time, and they get to go back home more than their SAF comrades. But, shift work can be rather taxing on the body, and they might have to miss important dates like birthdays and anniversaries.

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Punishment

SAF: Punishments in both places are pretty much the same during trainings (push-ups, scolding, etc). But upon passing out, they differ significantly. If you get into trouble in SAF, you might “sign extra”, there is almost always no two ways about it.

Signing extra means one would have to stay back during the weekends to do guard duties, and it’s not uncommon to have 3 or 7 extras signed per offence. For more serious offence, they might go for SOL or DB, but let’s not move into that.

SPF: In SPF, there is hardly a thing called “extra”. If you make a mistake, you are given a warning. Some superior may choose to punish you by making you do some extra work or asking you to help out in a certain project. If your mistake is big, you will most likely be reprimanded by the Commanding Officer. No “extra”.

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Ranks

SAF: There are three types of soldiers in SAF: man, specs and officers. The highest rank (during NSF) for man is first-class corporal, the highest for specs is 2SGT and the highest for officer is LTA. Usually, you’ll have friends who belong to each of these types, and it doesn’t matter much in unit (especially in ICTs) because everyone treats everyone with the same respect, since all are NSFs..

SPF: SPF’s lowest rank for NS guys is corporal in order to be out in the field. An IPPT pass is required for that rank, so they’ll be told to retake again and again until they pass. And the most interesting part? NSmen can come back for reservist as—wait for it—staff sergeant.

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Officers VS Inspectors

SAF: Most people with A-level or diploma will start their training in Pulau Tekong, which is also usually a school for leadership batch. A number of them would be posted to command schools after that to be a spec or an officer.

SPF: Conversely, it is very hard for a SPF NS guy to become an Inspector (which is much like an officer in the SAF) even with outstanding test results and appraisals. In every cohort, only one or at most two are given the chance to become Inspectors unlike SAF.