Due to work pressure caused by the fight against SARS, a non-commissioned officer (NCO) has suffered a suspected nervous breakdown and is now waiting for permission from the Ministry of National Defense to be relieved of his duties, military officials said yesterday.
The sergeant whose name was not disclosed, would become the first professional serviceman to quit his job because of SARS. He works at a military unit in Taipei responsible for the security of one of the camps.
The sergeant has been hospitalized for a month, first at a mental asylum and then at the Tri Service General Hospital, and was discharged only recently.
Shortly after his discharge, the sergeant developed another fit of physical or psychological discomfort and was rushed back to the Tri Service General Hospital for emergency treatment.
He was said to have attempted to commit suicide, but this was yesterday vehemently denied by the military.
The sergeant, now in a stable condition, has been determined by doctors to be unfit for military duty. He is awaiting orders from the ministry permitting his discharge.
A ministry official, who spoke in his private capacity, said they suspect the sergeant might have faked the physical or mental illness to avoid joining in the fight against SARS.
"Cases of faking illnesses are common in the military. We usually need some time to determine whether they are real. In the case of the sergeant, we think there is no need to keep him in the service if he is so determined to leave," the official said.
The official said it is a regret that a commanding NCO is unable to handle sustained work pressure, especially as the military is desperately in need of manpower to combat SARS.
The sergeant has to serve two more years to complete his three-and-a-half-years term.
He is one of the so-called "specialty NCOs," who joined the military after graduating from senior-high school.
Specialty NCOs have become the major source of NCOs as the number of career NCOs, who join the military after graduating from junior-high school and serve much longer than three-and-a-half-years, keep decreasing.
The increased ratio of specialty NCOs in the military temporarily solves the NCO-shortage problem, but this also creates new problems.
The new problems mainly have to do with the competency and emotional quotient of these specialty NCOs, military officials said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai