A Carouseller Tried to Sell RSAF Lieutenant-General Rank Epaulettes for $220

By
George Yang
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Have you ever seen anyone wearing any General rank in public?

Neither have I.

But if you want to, you could’ve just headed down to Carousell, bought one and paraded around Jurong Point to show off your new rank to the XMMs in the mall.

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The only thing is that it’s not legal.

A Carouseller Tried to Sell RSAF Lieutenant-General Rank Epaulettes for $220

For the uninitiated, people who serve in the SAF can buy their epaulettes from an eMart (a shop in army camps) easily—because for some people, they promote every single ICT.

But for most of us, our ranks are usually…just bars or chevrons.

The even higher ranked people wouldn’t need to buy their epaulettes because there are just a few of them in Singapore. There’s no doubt that any General rank—those with stars instead of bars, chevrons or crabs—isn’t bought from eMart.

Because the eMart needs to be cleaned  and tided thoroughly before a General visits *insider joke that never gets old*

So when you see this…

Image: Carousell via zaobao

…you can bet that either someone’s so in need of money that he or she sells her Lieutenant-General epaulettes or they’re sewn by an auntie.

According to Wanbao, another auntie, a 49-year-old housewife, spotted the epaulettes on sale for $220 in the platform that sells Filet-O-Fish after McDonald’s shut down.

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It was listed as a “RSAF LG Rank”, and lest you didn’t know, it’s the highest rank in Singapore. It’s also known as the “Three-Star General” because there are, erm, three stars there.

There’s a supposedly a “General” rank lah, but that rank hasn’t been given to anyone in Singapore before so we don’t even know how it looks like.

The Three-Star General in Singapore is usually the Chief of Defence Force, and he oversees the three branches of the Defence Force, namely the Army, the Air Force and the Navy. The chiefs of these individual branches are usually Two-Star Generals.

In other words, everyone knows there’s only one LG in Singapore, and currently, it’s Lieutenant-General Melvyn Ong, who is from the Army.

Before LG Melvyn Ong took over the role in 2018, the other LG was Perry Lim, who’s since moved on to the private sector. He, too, was from the Army.

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And before that, it was LG Ng Chee Meng—if that sounds familiar, it’s because he was a politician before losing his seat in the last GE, and is now the head of NTUC. He was, however, from the Air Force (RSAF).

But of course it wasn’t him who tried to sell the epaulettes lah.

Listing Disappeared

You won’t be able to fulfil your dream of buying Lieutenant-General epaulettes now because the listing has been removed.

Wanbao apparently contacted the seller, who’s a five-star seller with 29 military-related items on sale. The seller claimed that he had got it from a collector long ago, which was why it was sold at such a high price compared to his or her other items.

Ah Gong Responded

Well, it turns out that it’s just something sewn by a very professional auntie. Or uncle.

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MINDEF has responded and confirmed that it’s fake.

This is a controlled item, so it technically can’t be bought by Ah Hock who’s a Lance-Corporal.

And once again, Ah Gong said that they take this seriously, and remind us that if soldiers need to buy anything, they should buy it from eMart.

Oh, by the way, do you know that combat rations are also controlled items, so you cannot anyhowly bring them home to let your wife try?

Reader Bao (munching on a fruit bar with dark green packaging): Really?

Man Once Investigated for Anyhowly Wearing Rank

Back in 2018, a man was investigated by the SAF after he was spotted with a Major rank.

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A Major rank is very common, but people noticed that he had way too many suspicious badges and patches on his uniform.

Also, he’s been spotted in Hougang and Punggol several times, as if he was parading his “achievements”.

The world is indeed made up of weird people.

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George Yang
Email: [email protected]