She flies a 20m naval helicopter that takes off and lands on moving frigates. Yet, the role she is most proud of is being a mother to her sons – a two-year-old and an 11-month-old.
The fondness in Lieutenant-Colonel (LTC) Lou Yang’s voice is tangible the moment she starts talking about them.
“I can never get enough of those chubby cheeks and drooly kisses,” the 37-year-old says. When she is out at sea, technology allows her to stay connected with her family through video calls.
“My husband also sends me little snippets of our children’s daily routines – small, precious moments that travel with me wherever I serve,” she adds.
LTC Lou is the commanding officer of the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s (RSAF) 123 Squadron of the S-70B Seahawk naval helicopters, which operates off Sembawang Air Base as well as from the Republic of Singapore Navy’s Formidable-class frigates.
The assignments at sea usually last a week or two, with long deployments lasting a month at most. But make no mistake, whether she is at work or at home, her focus and dedication remain unwavering.
“At work, I give my best, so that when I return to my children, I can be fully present with them,” she shares. “It’s about setting aside dedicated family time, accompanying them in their favourite activities, putting my phone away and giving them my full attention.”
That balance is not left to chance in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), where careers are planned with life stages in mind.
Support for servicewomen and parents has grown over time, LTC Lou says, after years of progressive changes led by those before her.
A key initiative born of this progress is the establishment of the Servicewomen Network within each military service in the SAF, which offers mentorship and a channel to surface issues that matter to women in uniform.
With advice from the network, LTC Lou was able to request a staff posting to accommodate her pregnancy and early years of motherhood, a process that her superiors were extremely accommodating towards.
“They were very willing to have such conversations,” she recalls. “They were deliberate in making sure that some of these immutable challenges, particularly for women, were adequately addressed.”
While she may both literally and metaphorically be one of the most high-flying women in the RSAF today, her journey as a pilot started out as one of mere coincidence.
By her own admission, flying was never something she had actively considered until some representatives from the Singapore Youth Flying Club (SYFC) came to her junior college to give a talk.
“At work, I give my best, so that when I return to my children, I can be fully present with them.”
– LTC Lou Yang, recipient of the SAF Merit Scholarship
“I just thought it was very cool to be able to fly in the sponsored training programme, at an age where we haven’t even started driving,” she says.
Being able to take the aircraft into the air for the first time with the instructors’ guidance was an experience she will never forget.
“It was the first time I really felt like I was able to do something that was previously impossible,” she says. “And then I really ended up falling in love with flying.”
Many of the SYFC instructors were former RSAF pilots who shared stories about their time in service with LTC Lou and her fellow trainees.
A lot of their stories resonated with her; of the camaraderie and the sense of purpose that their missions gave them.
As such, applying for the SAF Merit Scholarship was a natural decision – one that helped her acquire an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering at Duke University and a master’s in East Asian studies at Yale University.
Years on, she has seen the camaraderie and sense of purpose up close. On deployments, she lands the massive 20m S-70B Seahawk on a moving deck – managing wind, ship motion and communications with methodical calm, all supported by a seasoned deck crew from the navy and air force.
Her career path has also taken her across several different stints across the RSAF – from being a plans officer, to a flight leader, to an aide in meetings between the RSAF and the air forces of other countries.
She even got the chance to step away from the controls of a Seahawk to lead media operations for high-profile events like the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in 2023 (held annually by the International Institute for Strategic Studies) and Singapore’s conveyance of humanitarian aid for Gaza.
Now, as a fully operational pilot, she returns to SYFC for engagement activities and finds herself on the other side of the exchange. In the eyes of young female trainees, she catches the same admiration she once had for her instructors.
“For my entire life, up until now, I’ve never thought I was someone cool,” she says, laughing. “But when girls tell me that, I guess I can understand where they’re coming from.”
It has also sharpened her sense of duty. She adds: “We are comfortable and confident knowing what we do keeps the public and our families safe. We say that we have done a great job when life carries on as usual.”
| About MINDEF/SAF Scholarships The mission of MINDEF and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is to enhance Singapore’s peace and security through deterrence and diplomacy, and should these fail, to secure a swift and decisive victory over the aggressor. MINDEF/SAF continually seeks talent who are willing to take up the challenge of defending our nation. Taking up a MINDEF/SAF scholarship is a lifelong mission to contribute to the peace and security of Singapore. Answer the higher calling. Defend what matters. |
This article is brought to you by the Ministry of Defence.
