453 SAR MR Parade @ National Stadium
for those who dunno, MR means Mindef Reserves. so if a person MR, it means that he has finished his 10 cycles of reservist, and he don't need to do reservist anymore, unless he chooses to roll over to another unit or to brigade. the 10 cycles of reservist consist of 7 high-key ICT and 3 low-key ICT. a high-key ICT must be at least 8 days, and normally is until 3 weeks. a low-key ICT can be as short as 3 days.
to mark the end of our 10th ICT, we have the honour to have our MR parade at National Stadium. why are we so lucky and so special to have it at the National Stadium? the only reason i can think of is that the chairman of ndp 2016 organising committee is Brigadier General Kenneth Liow, who is also the Chief Armour Officer. since we are an armour reservist unit, so therefore... everything falls into place.
hence on 16 July 2016, 453 SAR will have the MR parade together with 428 SAR. all the NSmen are allowed to bring our family members and friends to witness the parade.
the CSMs and the ushers have to reach at 730 am whereas the rest of the people can reach at 830 am. so my initial plan was to ask darling to wait outside the stadium while i go into the stadium first. and then my RSM knew that i am bringing darling, and he told me to draw another pass for darling so that darling can be seated in the stadium first. i am so touched by his kind gesture. when darling was seated, he asked darling to change her seat so that she can have a better view of me. hahahaha.
a wefie before the start of the parade!
the contingents on the left are from 453 SAR and the two contingents on the right are from 428 SAR.
i am standing right behind the Support + HQ contingent, as the contingent sergeant major, holding on to the pace stick. the pace stick is a symbol of authority for all the sergeant majors, as the master of parade, drill and ceremony.
once the parade is over, photo taking time!!
with my OC, CPT Lo Whee Siang. we knew each other when we were instructors at School Of Armour, and both of us were in the Armour Road Relay Team (for officers and specialists). we also did duty together when he was the Duty Officer and i was the Batallion Orderly Sergeant. who can expect that after the we ORD we will work together again in camp, for the next 10 years. thank you for all the guidance and the wonderful partnership! :D
my 4 x signallers. this 4 signallers... i dunno what to say about them. when is time to nua, they really nua to the max. but when it is time to do work, they will deliver, for example taking over signal store, mounting signal set onto vehicles, getting the comms ready. hence i think that they are still good soldiers. hahahahaha.
this is a priceless picture of all the CSMs plus the RSM. from the picture you can guess who is the RSM (the one who look the oldest hahahahaha). he will be retiring in 3 months time. i find him a bit hot tempered, sometimes a bit naggy and honestly i try to stay away from him as much as i can. but i will never forget his contributions to the unit, his advice for me when i was still an inexperienced CSM, and his high standard of discipline for all the commanders and men of 453 SAR. 老 cik, happy retirement, and thank you for all that you have done for me and the unit. :D
feeling a bit nostalgic, and hence tomorrow night i will be meeting the support company command team for dinner!
