The Legendary Captain Ropee Adman Yahayauddin (12472)

Prepared to jump Ranger School USA

Though Captain Ropee Adman Yahayauddin was a small sized officer, do not be deceived he had the heart of a lion. As I was in another company, I did not serve under Ropee, so beyond what I have mentioned, I am not able to add anything more. Great man to have in a fight on you side! - Lt Col Baldev Singh (Retired)

This person was a legend in 1st Rangers, 3rd Rangers, 4th Rangers, 7 Rangers, 8 Rangers and in the 1st Special Forces Regiment. You can never find a character as colorful as him. His name was always mispronounced as Ropee Adnan, they confused the Adman with Adnan. He served as Platoon Commander in 1st Rangers, 3rd Rangers and Assault Pioneer Platoon Commander with 7th Rangers .

With his Keputusan Perutusan Keberanian (Mentioned in Dispatches - Gold Feathers)  and his PJM

Infantry School USA

He was also a Troop Commander in the 1st Special Forces Regiment. Later he served as a Company Commander in 7th Rangers and 8th Rangers. He served from 20th February 1965 until 4th August 1975. He was commissioned on the 5th August 1965. He attended Weapons Course in 1965, Tactics Course in 1965, Air Combat Officer at RAAF Butterworth in 1966, Assault Pioneer Course in 1967, Airborne, Pathfinder and Ranger Course in Fort Benning, USA in 1968 and his SD Course in Lateda 1973.

Lt Col Yap Chok Sang (Retired)  (Currently residing in Melbourne Australia) : "He is an ex commando Malaysian Special Services Unit. We were in 4th Rangers, Chong Thean Bok was the CO. He is worth more than 2 Pingat Gagah Berani's. You should ask for exclusive rights to write his exploits. a colourful character, I attended his wedding when 2Lt Ngo Kim Seng was his best man, love to see him. Also his contact (firefight) in Lundu, in an attack on a Communist Terrorist Camp when he failed in an attempt to capture the enemy sentry".

Lt Col Baldev Singh : "He was OC C coy, I was Pl commander in A Coy 7 Rgrs, 1971-1974. My OC was Sabdin Ghani. I know of the contact where Ropee and 2nd Lt Zulkifli Abdul Rahman (Reg 14, my junior, later CO 7RRD), were to investigate a sighting in Titiakah, some 15 kms from Lundu and killed 2 CTs, including the commander of the group.

Ropee and Zul crawled through thick belukar to the CT's location and were surprised by a clearing patrol and a fire fight ensued, and the 2 CTs were killed while the rest bolted. The reporting back to BN HQ was poor, due to heavy atmospheric interference and I was tasked to set up a relay station to facilitate communications. That is how and why I know of this contact. We were using the SLR then and the CT's arms and thighs were literally split in 2 pieces".

When he was young

Record of Service

Lt Col Zulakapli (Rtd) : I was his Platoon Commander,

Service Record

Most recently him with me

Click on the image to enlarge

Captain Ropee and I crawled through the undergrowth, my heart was thudding as we were closing up on the enemy, we spotted the enemy, Captain Ropee aimed at the enemy and shot the enemy, he asked me to take the shot on the second enemy. The rest is history, he was one of the best training officers, he used live rounds on his soldiers, the soldiers hugged the ground and crawled for dear life as the rounds fell very close. His training always involved realism, he used to say, "the way we train is the way we are going to fight!" Sadly he served for only ten years, for his own reasons he left the service.

A great loss to the Ranger Corps.