UNPRECEDENTED MIX OF PARTICIPANTS IN NDP MARCHING CONTINGENTS

A total of 37 contingents consisting of more than 2000 participants will be marching at the National Day Parade (NDP) this year.

Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen, who was at the NDP rehearsal on 4 Jul, met some of these Parade and Ceremony (P&C) participants, and commended them all on their dedication. He said: "There is real pride and real love for the country, that is motivating them It is very gratifying and very cheering that we can see this kind of spirit amongst NDP participants."

These participants will have committed to 16 weekend rehearsals and for some, an additional nine weekday training sessions, chalking up about 200 hours of practice in total.

Featuring 16 civilian contingents - the largest to date - along with four Guard-of-Honour contingents, 10 uniformed group contingents, one Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Colours Party, five SAF and Home Team contingents, and one combined band, the variety of participants in this year's parade is unprecedented. As Colonel (COL) Simon Lee, Chairman P&C said: "Our participants come from all walks of life - we have participants of different races and ethnic backgrounds."

"As we celebrate SG50, I think that it is important to celebrate the hard work of our pioneers," added COL Lee. "This is why we are very excited that two of our artillery pioneers volunteered to participate in this year's Presidential Gun Salute - they will be firing the first few shots of the Presidential Gun Salute."

The two artillery pioneers taking part in the Presidential Gun Salute of this year's P&C are Senior Warrant Officer (SWO) (Ret) Kuttalingam Nainar, 63, and SWO (Ret) Lim Seng Wah, 65, both former Artillery Formation Sergeant Majors.

"I know the gun very well, but the challenge is getting to know the rest of the crew operating it," said SWO (Ret) Nainar. Despite the challenge, SWO (Ret) Nainar still finds the experience of participating in NDP 2015 P&C a meaningful one, saying: "It's an honour to take part to be firing the gun, it's truly an honour as a gunner, to represent the artillery."

This sense of motivation and dedication is evident in all of the P&C participants. As Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Alvin Tjioe, Parade Commander, said: "On parade, everyone is focused, listening to commands, and executing their drills and movements according to the commands that I give."

The training for this year's NDP has been specially planned to make it as manageable as possible for the participants. LTC Tjioe explained: "The training has been progressive - we started quite some time ago in April, and every weekend we have been coming together to train."

"During the weekly training sessions, we have been progressively getting the participants to stand on parade for longer periods of time our SAF personnel are all very cognisant of their requirements and of their physical condition. We slowly build them up over the weeks such that...they are able to participate fully in the parade."