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RSN sailors, U.S. sailors, and U.S. Coast Guardsmen painted a common area and helped build a new fence at the Yio Chu Kang Job Development Center, which provides training for some 100 elderly disabled adults. The center is part of the Movement for the Intellectually Disabled of Singapore network of facilities. The movement assists over 2,000 people and is one of the oldest and largest non-governmental organizations of its kind in Singapore. As the work wound down, the RSN and U.S. service members entertained the residents by performing card tricks. Everyone loved the card tricks, said U.S. Navy OSC David McAlister. “Community relations projects like this are important. They give us the opportunity to get out and interact with local people.” At the Sunshine Welfare Action Mission, RSN and U.S. sailors picked up brooms and dust cloths to clean up around the home, while others helped serve lunch to the residents. During the first part of the visit, the service members escorted the residents to a stage area where they entertained the residents with card tricks and songs. “The fact that we got the chance to do a community relations project alongside the Singapore sailors, working together, is really what CARAT is all about,” said U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Dan Drake. When the visit ended and the sailors prepared to return to their respective ships, B. P. Yap, the Mission’s president, summed up the efforts of the two navies. “Through service to others, we cut away the mistrust. When we serve the less fortunate, we’re not just thinking of ourselves, and that’s good for everyone,” he said. “Human beings are many, but our breath is one. Nations are many, but the world is one.” Concluding with Sports Day At Changi Navy Base, RSN and U.S. sailors ended the Singapore phase of Exercise CARAT with what has become a CARAT tradition – sports day. Sports day has been a part of CARAT since the beginning, but this was the first year to combine RSN and U.S. sailors on the same teams. For many, this was the first time they played sports with people from another country. “Sports day is a collaborative effort in the same spirit of cooperation that CARAT is about,” said U.S. Navy Ens. Peter Ruscitti. “It’s about American and Singapore Navy personnel working together. This year they combined us, by warfare area [by duty specialty], into teams alongside our Singapore Navy counterparts.” U.S. Navy Ens. Francis Ebong noted, “This was a great opportunity to get out and strengthen our relationship with Singapore and show that everybody can work together like one team.” Echoing that sentiment, RSN 1st Sgt. Francis Tan said, “I think Singaporeans and Americans do a great job working together. Americans accepted a lot of new ideas. I’m very happy to be here.”
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