PHOTO CAPTIONS:

1. U.S. Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit train in
Singapore at Camp Hendon.

2. A U.S. Marine at the Singapore Armed Forces Confidence Course at Camp Hendon.

Photo: Sgt. Don L. Maes, USMC

As a small military force of a small nation, the Republic of Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) have to make every person count. The SAF achieves this goal by requiring high levels of personal education and a highly professional and very exacting program of military training. U.S. Marines of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) recently experienced just how exacting the SAF training really is.

In Singapore, 300 U.S. Marines took part in a one-day training program at the SAF's confidence course at Hendon Camp, on 7 January 1999. Their training was conducted on the confidence course, rock climbing wall, and the rappel tower. Not for the fainthearted, the SAF's confidence course posed a real challenge for even these tough professionals.

The confidence course consists of a variety of demanding obstacles, including an undergroun

Photo: LCpl. Branden P. O'Brien

d tunnel maze and a mammoth rope course. The rope course, which towers more than 10 meters in some places, required the Marines to drag themselves over cables, climb steep walls, and then rocket across a zip line spanning a body of water.
Lance Cpl. Joe Secundo described it as, "very challenging, especially the zip line. When you've been climbing all day and you come flying down the line, your hands are slippery and you think you are going to fall. It's an adrenaline rush."

Members of F Company of Battalion Landing Team 2/1, a small boat company which has assault climbers, found the rock climbing wall and rappel tower training extremely beneficial. Cpl. David Felix, a squad leader and assault climber, explained it this way. "When we hit the beach, if there is a cliff, we climb it and set lines for the rest of the company to come up." He noted that the wall "builds confidence and muscles."

Previous Marines transiting Singapore have experienced the same values from the SAF's Hendon Camp confidence course. Marine CWO-2 Mike Bingham concluded with high praise for the training and the SAF. "It's an outstanding facility and we had some the best host nation support."