Family grieves as hundreds show up to bid goodbye to soldier killed in accident
The mother of Corporal First Class Liu Kai had to be helped into her wheelchair at various points during her son's military funeral on Nov 6, 2018.
SINGAPORE — Hundreds of relatives, friends and soldiers said their last goodbyes to Corporal First Class (CFC) Liu Kai on Tuesday (Nov 6) as he was given a military send-off three days after he died in an accident.
The 22-year-old full-time national serviceman — the youngest and only son in a family of five — was killed on Saturday morning in a field training exercise at Jalan Murai near Lim Chu Kang. A Bionix armoured vehicle had reversed into the Land Rover that the transport operator from the Singapore Armed Forces' (SAF) Transport Hub West was in.
Overcome with grief, his mother — who is recovering from thyroid cancer and was close to the serviceman — sobbed as she stood by CFC Liu’s coffin in Woodlands Crescent and wailed “my dearest” as his hearse left for the Mandai Crematorium.
At various points, Mrs Liu had to be helped by her family into her wheelchair.
When TODAY arrived at the soldier’s wake in Woodlands at 10.30am — one-and-a-half hours before his hearse was due to depart in a military procession — many of his family friends were already there.
One of them, Mr Li Xi Wu, 30, found out about CFC Liu’s death after the young man’s father sent a WeChat message to his friends on Saturday night.
Mr Li, who has known the family for more than a decade, said in Mandarin: “I was deeply pained to hear the news, as the child is so young and he is no more.
“I told his parents that the accident has already happened, and asked them to let go and not to think so much,” the construction and renovation worker told TODAY.
Mr Li — who, like the Liu family, came to Singapore from China’s Fujian province — had attended the wake daily since Sunday.
Another family friend, Mr Lin Guo Ming, 46, has also known the Lius for over a decade. Asked how the family was coping, he replied: “Everyone is already crumbling.”
CFC Liu’s family migrated to Singapore from China more than a decade ago, and the permanent residents were in the process of applying for citizenship here.
On Tuesday, relatives and friends of the serviceman — who enlisted in April — encircled his coffin, sobbing and pausing for a quiet moment.
Minutes later, soldiers from the SAF Transport formation — who arrived in several buses from Sembawang Camp — gathered around the pavilion as the mourners sang a Christian hymn with CFC Liu’s family by his body.
Around noon, CFC Liu’s coffin, draped in the country’s flag and borne on the shoulders of eight pallbearers from the SAF’s Transport formation, was brought to the waiting hearse. Family and friends followed closely on foot for some distance before the hearse departed for the Mandai Crematorium.
About 700 soldiers from the Transport formation were involved in the military funeral. Hundreds of them lined the driveway of the crematorium as the hearse arrived around 1pm, as tunes from the SAF military band drifted in the air.
CFC Liu’s family watched as the coffin was carried into the service hall. Reporters were not allowed into the hall for the family’s privacy.
Major Elton Tan, the soldier’s commanding officer at the Transport Hub West, delivered a eulogy. CFC Lee’s father also spoke at the service, and was handed the state flag by Colonel Terry Tan, commander of the SAF’s Combat Service Support Command, which oversees the serviceman’s unit.
Before the serviceman’s body was wheeled out of the service hall, six soldiers stationed outside fired three shots into the air as a mark of respect and a military musician sounded the bugle call in a final farewell to the late serviceman. He was cremated at 1.55pm.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday afternoon, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said he had written to CFC Liu’s parents to offer the SAF’s and the Defence Ministry’s deepest condolences, and he was praying that “his family will find comfort and healing through this difficult time”.
“We honour the memory of Liu Kai, a true son of Singapore who gave his life in service of his country. May he rest in peace,” wrote Dr Ng.
A day earlier, one of CFC Liu’s two older sisters — flanked by their father — spoke to reporters at the soldier’s wake, recounting how events took a tragic turn on Saturday.
The family was due to celebrate her birthday and was awaiting CFC Liu’s return in the afternoon, but the happy occasion “became the day that he died”, she recalled in Mandarin. The family did not want to reveal their names or ages.
On the moment the family learnt of his death, CFC Liu’s father had said: “Our hearts really ached. To suddenly receive this kind of news about your son, your own child, I couldn’t accept it.”
An independent Committee of Inquiry will probe the circumstances leading to his death before releasing its report. Police investigations are continuing as well.
An indefinite safety timeout covering local and overseas training was also called in the aftermath of Saturday’s incident.
This is the second fatal accident involving the Bionix Infantry Fighting Vehicle in over a year.
In September last year, 21-year-old Gavin Chan, a third sergeant and vehicle commander from the 41st Battalion Singapore Armoured Regiment, died after the Bionix vehicle he was guiding out of difficult terrain overturned during a military exercise in Australia.
