(Armour GOH Contingent & 46 SAR Armour GOH participants for NDP2002)
(Photos with Warrant Officers before the NDP2002 Parade @ Singapore Indoor Stadium)
Yah! After writing my blog for 4 years 6 months since I started blogging on April 2005, I finally reach my 200th blog post entry. It maybe easy for some regular bloggers to reach 200th blog post but it is tough for me just trying to think of a topic to update my blog every week with blog post and photos... ha. Anyway, since it is the 200th blog post, I would like to flashback some memories back in the year 2002 where a few of my platoonmates and I participated in the NDP2002 – Guard of Honour
During that year, we heard from our sergeants that our elder brother unit, 40 SAR won the Best Combat Unit for the year and they need soldiers to form the Guard of Honour contingent for SAF day and NDP parade for year 2002. The problem is that most of the soldiers in 40SAR for that batch have already ORD (Operational Ready Date), so the higher management was recruiting soldiers from other parent units to form the Armour GOH contingent.
FYI. In order for a soldier to be selected to be the participant of Guard of Honour, he must be around 1.68m tall, look smart in his ceremonial dress and no bow legs. Another plus point is to be without spectacle during the actual parade if possible. You can read more about the detail in the link below.
As we all belong to the same Armour family, so my unit, 46SAR and some other units were called upon to form up the Armour GOH contingent. If I did not remember wrongly, as early in February or March, our company CSM (Company Sergeant Major) started to select for soldier to form the GOH. They eliminate soldiers by height follow by whether the soldier has any bow leg. Ultimately 130 to 140 soldiers were selected from different companies to form up the GOH contingent. I was also 1 of the Armour GOH participant, together with 7 others platoonmates and some sergeants in out platoon. Don’t know it is really heng or kana the shit job during that time. I only roughly match the passing height for Guard of Honour criteria. Haha.
Since then, the nightmare begin for the few of us in my platoon… : (If I did not remember wrongly, we need to practice our drill and matching again and again for 2 to 3 days per week (each session >2 hours) from February/March up to NDP parade…
For the few months, we have been marching and practicing our drill every now and then, sometime in our camp, sometime at Khatib Camp and weekend at the National Stadium. Almost every weekend was burnt just to practice the marching/drill… :( I still remembered there was 1 practice, where 1 of my platoonmates and I were under the reserve, but we were called upon to join in the contingent when 2 soldiers fall out.
During the break, both of us thought that we were still in the reserve list and we rest at the National Stadium grand stand. In the end, the warrant officer was looking for the 2 of us to be back to the contingent to further practice. We don’t know that as we thought the 2 soldiers who fall out will join back the practice again… As the warrant officer (WO) cannot find us, he asked 1 of the participants in the contingent on our whereabout, but that guy has some attitude problem when replying him and was punished by the WO with push ups… I think both of us created the trouble during that time and feel a bit down, but from then on, we continued training seriously with the contingent after that.
Anyway, for the next few months, we continue our marching/drill seriously to make sure our drills are perfectly geared up to the standard. Trainings were very tough and all of us have to endure through the process. It was when the date is closer to the actual SAF day parade, we finally obtained the No. 1 Uniform that we need to wear for the actual parade from 40SAR camp. The GOH participants wearing the No. 1 uniform really look very smart and one really feels proud when he is wearing that and performing during the ndp parade.
(My No.1 and No.4 Smartest Uniform - My rank was LCP at the time I received my No.1 uniform before promoted to CPL later on)
1 other miscellaneous task that we need to do as a GOH is to make sure our drill boots are really shiny enough. Instead of applying burning and melting we onto our drill boots, we actually found that polishing our drill boots with kiwi + water using orange rifle cleaning kit cloth seems to get a better result. Haha. My platoonmate, KY who is also in the GOH had used the same method and his drill boots really appeared very shiny (most upstanding shiny drill boots. haha) It really needs some hard work to get the drill boots to that shiny state.
After a few months of marching/training, we have to perform for the SAF day, NE Show and the NDP Preview as well. I still remembered on the SAF day parade itself held at the National Day on 1 July 2002, there was a very heavy downpour, but we still need to remain throughout the parade performing for the show. It has really tough for us on that day… :(
Below is a link on the history of SAF Day
A writeup on SAF Day 2002
Best combat unit
Then it comes to the actual NDP parade on the 9 Aug 2002, all of us were very exciting and nervous as well about the parade. Most of us who were normally wearing spectacle actually put on the contact lenses for the actual NDP parade. We have to stand in front of a huge crowd in the National Stadium for the parade and the pressure was really great for me, especially when I am standing in the front row facing the spectators. Never have I tried standing in such a huge crowd and performing before in my whole life. The atmosphere was really great and it is really hard to describe by words.
A short writeup on NDP2002
(Tickets to Actual Day NDP2002 Parade)
(The book "THE NDP JOURNEY Commemorating National Day Parade 2002" that all the NDP participant got)
(The parade at NDP2002 - Extracted from the book "THE NDP JOURNEY Commemorating National Day Parade 2002")
(The NDP2002 parade taken by my friend's camera)
(The actual day NDP2002 - Extracted from the book "THE NDP JOURNEY Commemorating National Day Parade 2002")
(The Parade Layout - Extracted from Mindef website)
Frankly speaking, standing in the front row facing so many spectators and performing is not an easy task for me. I have to keep calm with great confidence to carry out the drill that we had been practicing for months properly and accurately in front of the huge crowd.
(Inspection of NDP 2002 GOH contingents by President S.R. Nathan - Extracted from online National Archives of Singapore)
Halfway during the parade, there was a part where Stefanie Sun sang the NDP 2002 theme song “We will get there”. I really like that song very much as it somehow gives us the confidence and courage to perform further… : ). Below are some reference photos of Stefanie Sun during the NDP2002 parade and a video of the NDP02 theme song from youtube.
(Referene Photos of Stefanie Sun during the NDP 2002 parade - Extracted from online National Archives of Singapore and the book "THE NDP JOURNEY Commemorating National Day Parade 2002")
(Actual Day NDP 2002 performance from Stefanie Sun
- Theme Song "We will get there")
(The performace after the parade - Extracted from the book "THE NDP JOURNEY Commemorating National Day Parade 2002")
Everything went smoothly for the parade, except for 1 part of the parade where something major happened that really screwed up the whole show which was near to the end of our parade… I remembered after we fired our 3 rounds of blanks called the “Fire of Joy”, there was a command to let our GOH lower down the rifle to the ground, but something went wrong with the PA sound system and part of the voice cannot be heard and when we heard the last word of that command, some of our members of the GOH contingent were not able to react in time, causing some of us to lower down the rifle, while some of them still holding the rifle. I think some of you who watched the parade Live on TV should remembered something about this.
Since the command is still consider valid despite the PA sound system problem, the rest of them react and lower down the rifle down to the ground… :( That was really embarrassing for most of our GOH contingent. Never have we experience that during the SAF day, NE show and the NDP preview performance… What an unlucky day.
Nevertheless, the parade continues on, we still marched out of the Stadium smartly with confidence. Hai… All of us were feeling really down and disappointed after marching out of the stadium. Everything should have run smoothly throughout the parade if we have not encountered the PA sound system problem…. What an unforgettable experience to say…. All of us will not forget this miserable day…. : (
Anyway, I still feel proud to perform as a Guard of Honour for NDP 2002. It is once in a lifetime experience for me wearing the No. 1 Uniform and performing at the NDP parade. It was quite an satisfaction and achievement for me.
(Other Group Photos before the Parade)
(Posing)
(Relaxing at Singapore Indoor Stadium before the parade)
(Photo with my army friend, TN)
