It's not everyday that the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) sees a father-son duo end up in the same formation at the same time.

And rarer still is the occasion where a father who is a regular with the SAF sees his son in his former formation, and his daughter in his current formation, all at the same time.

Yet, such is the case for 50-year old Major (MAJ) Ronnie Yap with his son, 22-year old Lieutenant (LTA) Reynold Yap, and daughter, 25-year old LTA Lynette Yap.

Reynold Yap is in the elder Yap's former formation of the Singapore Combat Engineers (SCE) while Lynette Yap is together with her father in the Armour formation, albeit in different units.

Yap is stationed at Headquarters Armour, while his daughter is a platoon commander from 40th Battalion.

Father influenced both of them to sign on

In an interview with Mindef's Pioneer magazine, the elder Yap stated that he influenced both his son and daughter to sign on to the SAF.

In the case of his daughter, she had originally wanted to become a pilot.

However, she failed to meet the requirements as she was only 158 centimetres tall.

Yap then asked her father what else she could consider and he suggested that she join the Armour formation in SAF instead, given her character and how the structured environment of the SAF would suit it.

For his son, Yap stated that he is "is very practical and very good with numbers".

Since "SCE is where you do a lot of mathematics and calculation", Yap felt that his son would do well in the unit as "this is the specialist arm for him.:

The effect of his reputation on his offspring

When asked on how it was like to be in the same formation as her father, Lynette Yap replied:

"It wasn't such a big deal even though people knew that I was his daughter. But there is definitely pressure not to screw up."

Her brother however, faces far more pressure and scrutiny in the SCE formation.

Much of this has to do with the fact that their father joined the Armour formation only in 2013. In contrast, his previous time in the SCE was for 25 years.

Yap notes cheerfully that the differences in pressure usually make themselves known whenever all three of them exchange their experiences about work.

His son will usually react in a "comparative" way towards his daughter's experiences, going, "Aiyah, yours is nothing, mine is harder than yours", while Yap will affirm his daughter, stating, "I told you, there's nothing to worry about, right…"

As for his daughter, she is appreciative of the fact both her father and brother can share in her excitement when she recounts stories from work.

For her, it is something special as "not many daughters can share this with their fathers."

Daughter's experience in BMT and the officer cadet course

Lynette Yap admits that she "had a lot of fears before entering BMT" despite being briefed by both her father and brother, which included practical tips to field camp such as "buttoning my uniform all the way up to prevent insects from biting my neck."

This is because "there’s only so much (someone else) can tell you."

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She acknowledges that as she is close to her family, "living apart from them for two weeks was hard." However things got better once she made friends in the Army.

Her father also recalls an instance when she was in the officer cadet course and he had to give her "home-tuition, military style" when she had "homework for her map planning test." He had to "coach her how to use colours and arrows to plot obstacles and calculate timings."

Retirement in seven months' time

In any case, Yap will not be present for much longer in the SAF.

In seven months' time, Yap will be retiring from the SAF to help out with the Singapore Cycling Federation, leaving his daughter to carry on the family legacy.

Nevertheless, Lynette is determined "to carve a path of [her] own" and she knows that "he'll always be there for me, no matter what."

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Top image from Pioneer