On weekdays, she is a Nanyang Polytechnic engineering lecturer. But on weekends, Ms Lee Bee Lian is Lieutenant Lee, ditching her office wear for a Singapore Civil Defence Force uniform.

The 44-year-old Permanent Resident helps to run SCDF’s community programmes, which aim to prepare residents for emergencies.

She is one of 130 volunteer officers with the Civil Defence Auxiliary Unit (CDAU). “I’m grateful to Singapore for funding two of my scholarships, so this is my way of paying it back, and it’s good for me because I get to learn skills like CPR and fire safety.”

… “Military training is complicated, and the volunteers train for a limited period, so this will naturally limit where they can be deployed in the SAF,” said defence analyst Ho Shu Huang from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at the Nanyang Technological University.

… Both he and Dr Ong Wei Chong, a military studies assistant professor at the RSIS, felt that it is crucial for volunteers to be assimilated into the military culture.