This feature first appeared in Journeys Fall 2017.    

One of only two ang mohs posted to the elite Naval Diving Unit of the Singapore Armed Forces, Maxmillian Alisdair West (Class of 2012), felt like a fish out of water. Enlisted as part of his mandatory National Service (NS), this half-American, half- Singaporean expected the worst. And his initial experience didn’t disappoint. 

While his Caucasian genes turned out to be an unexpected advantage, as his unique appearance helped him make friends faster, his American accent didn’t help much. On West’s first day, his pronunciation of the Malay military commands made for excellent comic relief, but proved ineffective at getting a hundred servicemen to follow his orders to march. Instead of complying, they all just laughed. Not a soul moved. 

His time in the Naval Diving Unit offered tremendous physical and mental challenges, searing lashes that redefined his conceptions of military life, extended physical strain, his own toughness, and the strength of the bonds that arise from shared suffering. With an easy confidence that can come only from having stretched mental and physical limits beyond the unthinkable, he says, “We are all capable of doing far more than we think we are.” \

It didn’t take long after enlisting for West to recognize that his experience would be a unique one, and one that he wanted to remember, whether he was looking back in 30 days, 30 months, or 30 years. Scribbling handwritten notes every day, writing furiously before lights-out (and sometimes after), it took only a couple of weeks for him to realize he wanted to share this work with others. What began as a personal journal soon evolved into a budding book. In June 2017, nearly four years from when he first put pen to paper, Marshall Cavendish published How To Forge A Frogman: A Recruit’s Account of Basic Training in Singapore’s Naval Diving Unit. In July, it was named a Books Kinokuniya Nonfiction Bestseller. 

The first of its kind in Singapore, the book is a memoir of West’s first nine weeks in NS, during Basic Military Training in the Naval Diving Unit. It is written in a day-by-day journal format, detailing his life as a recruit, from the tough training to the silliness and the friendships that were forged. It took one and a half years for the Naval Diving Unit, the Singapore Navy, and the Ministry of Defence to offer their seal of approval. The only changes West had to make were to the names of regular servicemen and remove some of the more offensive language. But hey, as we all know, people in the Navy do not swear! His buddy, Aneirin Flynn—the other ang moh in his unit—designed the cover.

Born in Singapore, West enrolled in Singapore American School in 1998 at the age of four. A dedicated baseball player, West’s tryst with writing began in third grade. His grandparents would call every weekend asking about his most recent baseball game. Every week he’d type up a little story for them. West played baseball at the Singapore American Community Action Council (SACAC) and Southeast Asia Youth Baseball and Softball Tournament (SEAYBST) during all four years of high school at SAS. That provided him with valuable experience, helping him to walk onto the Princeton varsity baseball team, where last season he served as the starting catcher for the Princeton Tigers. 

West fondly recalls Mr. Troy Blacklaws, his English teacher at SAS—an exciting, enthusiastic fellow who always encouraged him to write and gave him the confidence that some day he would be a published author. He’s also thankful to Mr. Douglas Mabie, who taught him in both English 9 and AP Literature. An animated, funny, and insightful professor, it was his feedback and advice that helped shape West’s writing style. West graduated from SAS in 2012, but did not enlist into National Service until March 2013. During that nine-month break, he had a three-month internship at Maybank Kim Eng Singapore, while attempting to write a novel. Unfortunately, neither of these enterprises ended particularly successfully, as he was neither interested in finance nor sufficiently disciplined to complete a novel.

Today, West is a published author and a junior at Princeton University, where he will major in English and pursue a certificate in creative writing. He says, “Only after getting to Princeton and hearing from several friends about their high school experience did I fully appreciate everything SAS has to offer. From the academic rigor to the wealth of extracurricular activities and school facilities, SAS is truly top-notch—a fact I can now appreciate.” 

Coincidentally, West’s father, Bradley West, a graduate of Georgetown University and the London School of Business, and an investment banker for many years, is now a self-published author writing conspiracy thrillers. “I beat him to it,” chimes the younger West. “However, the writing gene seems to have skipped my brother Bart, Class of 2015, who is enrolled in the University of Southern California and was signed onto their baseball team.”