NDP Commander Asked Redditors To Ask Him Anything & They Went All Out

On reddit, AMA is one of the most popular kinds of threads. No, it’s not amah. It stands for “Ask Me Anything”.

From a redditor’s standpoint, it’s excellent for throwing any questions behind a wall of anonymity. For whoever is doing the AMA, it’s an excellent PR move in a very casual setting.

Anyone can do an AMA, which is why this format is appealing. From Barack Obama, to Cookie Monster, to some guy who worked as Goofy at Disney World, to a volunteer in a human trafficking awareness grassroots.

Yeah. Cookie Monster, the one in Sesame Street.

NDP Commander AMA

Yesterday (18 July 2019), the NDP Commander for 2019 posted an AMA on the Singapore subreddit.

Proof:

With the caption:

Hello! I’m LTC Wu Jianmin, Chairman of the Mobile Column for NDP 2019! Together with the mods at r/Singapore, the NDP has made it possible for me to host a quick AMA to answer any questions you might have about NDP, or the SAF in general. Feel free to post your questions here from now till 3pm, and I’ll try to answer as many as possible! (I’ll be online from 12pm – 3pm)

Outside of NDP, I command 48 SAR, the Leopard 2 tank Battalion. I also enjoy reading, playing sports (waterpolo, basketball) and of course spending time with friends and family. While I’m sure everyone is keen on asking anything under the sun, let’s keep this AMA classy with constructive questions to make it a fun experience for everyone. I’ll try my best to answer as honestly as possible to the best of my knowledge, but do remember that I realistically won’t know everything about the SAF or NDP, so it’s best to still check back against official sources like the NS hotline, etc.

In case you don’t know or forget what is LTC rank, that is Lieutenant Colonel, or 2 crabs, or 2 ranks above Captain.

Of course, this being an Ask Me Anything means it’s time to bring the big boys out.

Like… poop

As a soldier, anything other than fast is probably unacceptable for poop. And by the way, Swift and Decisive is the motto for the Armour formation.

Gundams?

For NSFs, we always wonder where all our military budget goes. How is it possible that we get called “an island city-state with the best air force and navy in Southeast Asia, and one of the most powerful militaries in the world“? Is there a reason why budget so high but cookhouse food taste like the 19th century? Is there a reason why budget so high but we feel low tech in army camp?

Naturally, there must be secret Gundams somewhere they’re not telling us.

But of course… just because we can ask doesn’t mean he will answer.

r/RoastMe… a top hat and a circle

And suddenly the AMA turns into r/RoastMe, asking why the hair look like recruit.

Turns out, even with an LTC rank, money is still a concern.

(I’m no mothership but I noticed all of you.)

LTC secretly a redditor?

Of course, one doesn’t just do an AMA for no reason. So he got probed if he got off days for this AMA.

But the reply is “#fakenews!”, which suggests that the person replying knows how to use hashtags on reddit… which implies regular redditing. (“#” alone in comments makes a bottom border instead of hashtag, you need to put a “\” in front of it, like “\#”)

It’s an official AMA

His boss forced asked him to do the AMA

His near-death experience was walking in his boss’s office… or not

He is 32 years old and LTC

You might be wondering why he looks so young for an LTC, and that’s because he is a scholar.

NDP related questions

Of course, the whole point of the AMA is NDP, so naturally those (less interesting) questions are also asked.

But the most important one being… how many offs?

Driver asking questions…?

NDP planning started a year ago, rehearsal days 7 am – 10 pm

Catered drinks depend on sponsors.

A reminder on Bicentennial and Mobile Column.

And that’s about it for the highlights. If you want to check out the rest of the questions, you can check out the reddit thread here.

But really, where are the Gundams?