The following is a personal account by one of the selected participants for the Senior Specialists' Course, SSG Nicholas Fung. We hope that in publishing this personal account, more candour can be shown. We hope you enjoy reading it!

Ok. 4^th September 2008 - the start our three day long senior specialist course. Prior to the course, we had a course briefing and we practiced our arms drills and foot drills. Who are we? We are Jeremy Tang, Jeremy Chitty, Kenneth Goh, Nicholas Fung and Muhd Akid. We saw senior spec with mixed feelings, some of us were eager some of us were nervous.

Day 1: As me and Chitty walked into the camp and booked in, we could already feel the seriousness of the course. Everyone was eager to create a good first impression. Everyone was showing high standard. We split into our respective companies. Chitty was solo-ing in Echo Company. Me, Akid, Tang and Kenn were put into Foxtrot Company although I was in a different platoon. Tang, Kenn and Akid were lucky. They were in the same platoon. Well, in the morning, we had talks on the roles of the USM, words of command and pace stick drill by 1WO De Silva, SM NCC. The talks were interesting and we learnt a lot from it. Now, we now the proper way of giving a drill and how to use a pace stick properly. After lunch, we began lessons on advanced arms drills. We didn’t even hear of these drills before. Examples are Tatang Senjata, Bimbik Senjata, Baring Senjata, Angkat Senjata, Kaleh Senjata and so on and so forth. The purpose of us learning these drills is to make drills in school more interesting. It was followed by advanced foot drills. This included the official way of getting onto parade and the proper way of forming a “U”-shape formation. We will try to show these to you guys if we have time. We carried out our pace stick drills after that and dinner followed soon. The first came to a close with drill revision and night snack.

Day 2: Reveille at 6. Fall in at 6.30. Breakfast and then the much dreaded drill test. We started with foot drills. I didn’t feel very confident after my foot drill mutuals but after seeing how the others fared...... Never mind. As we had so much time, we did our arms drill mutuals and I can SAFELY that I redeemed myself. Lunch was a happy affair as we had finished our tests. Well almost. The NCC Air cadets were busy revising for their air syllabus test. In the afternoon, SM talked to us on the “illegal badges” and how to pin badges on the uniform properly. Then, he talked to us on organising a school parade. As usual, we found his talks very interesting. After dinner, the NCC Air cadets went to the theatrerette to revise our air syallbus. At this point, a sir( I shall not name who )gave us a big hint on what was coming out. We were overjoyed. When we sat for our paper, we found the hint most helpful. Thank you sir! After the paper, Maj Gary asked us on out school training programme and gave us helpful ideas and suggestions. Night snack and a briefing for the last day followed.

Day 3: Fall in at 6.10 with all bedding items and in half uniform. Breakfast followed by returning to bunks and collecting our belongings and heading to the MPH. The graduation ceremony took place after the AAR and we finally were given the coveted red and white lanyard and the staff sergeant rank. It was the end of a course that we found draining and yet useful to our development as leaders of SJI NCC Air.

Written by: SSG Nicholas Fung

Thank you all for your time, and we hope reading this has aspired all of you to continue to strive for your dreams, and to soar to greater heights!

ORA et LABORA

Outstanding Cadet 2008 Interview

Every year, the Outstanding Cadet/Recruit Award is presented to the most deserving Cadet who has displayed all-rounded ability and proficiency in drills, physical training, attitude, and has epitomised or attempted, by virtue of will, to epitomise the NCC core values. This award is applicable to all 4 levels (viz. Sec.1-4).Of course, this year’s awardees are as up to par as ever, having trained hard and fair to attain their award. In ascending order of age, the awardees this year are, Lim Zhan Kuan Elton (103); Teng Liang Hong Kevin (201); Jeremy Peter Chitty (3G1-2); Timothy Soo Weihao (434). Incidentally, 2SG Jeremy Peter Chitty is the newly appointed Company Sergeant Major (CSM) for this year. Below are some snippets of the interviews conducted with the awardees.

Elton Lim:

1. Why do you think you were chosen to be Outstanding Cadet?

“(I) mix around well with (my) partmates”

“(I) make friends easily”

2. What would you do if you saw someone being victimised in you part?

“(I would) try not to make him feel sad”

“(Try and) cheer him up”

“(I’d) be his friend”

3. What are your aspirations/expectations of the unit in the future?

“(I’d) make them (partmates) more enthusiastic”

“(Convince them) not to skip training”

Kevin Teng:

1. What do you intend to do as Outstanding Cadet?

“Motivate (partmates)”

“Taking initiative”

“Inspire others (partmates)”

“Encourage (partmates)”

2. What made you join NCC (Air)?

“Intrigued by Part Ds’ (presentation at Open House)”

“(I) wanted to be (a) leader, and develop leadership (skills)”

“(Possess) a sense of being able”

3. If you were CSM…?

“(I would) instil encouragement (in juniors)”

“Motivation!”

“(Maybe) punitive measures, as a last, last, resort”

We hope that you have enjoyed reading the interview, and that you will always continue aspiring to soar to greater heights!

Orienteering Competition 2008

The NCC (Air) recently participated in an Orienteering Competition organised by NCC HQ and a personal recount of one of the participants follows.

Four of us, Deeban, Jit Ray, Sean and myself were anxiously waiting in the queue, waiting to take on the theory aspect of the orienteering competition This is it, we told ourselves silently. We entered confident, ready to ace the test. Confident that we did well for the test, we knew that it was also necessary to do well in our practicum.

We were given 2 minutes to jot down all six checkpoints to approach on the map. Without a doubt, we managed to plot the points both accurately and punctually. This was it, the “main event” was about to begin. “Detail twenty one Charlie”. The moment finally arrived. We approached the starting point. Sean, our time keeper was ready with his watch to help us keep track of the elapsed time. After all, the most important factors of orienteering are time, as well as the amount of energy left in the orienteer therefore; much judgment and planning had to take place within our run.

Finally, it was over. The moment de veritas had arrived. We anxiously awaited the results with bated breath. “Will the following schools approach the stage…Saint Joseph’s Institution…” A mixture of emotions ran through us within that split second; joy, thankfulness , yet tinged with sadness that SJI NCC land did not win. From the moment we held the medals in our hands, we realized that we had achieved something that out of all our blood, sweat and tears, and it was a gold medal for the team, and more importantly, for the unit.

Written by: Kevin Teng (201)

Outstanding Cadet/Recruit Awardees 2008

Elton Lim

Kevin Teng

Jeremy Chitty



Active Awardees

Passed Out Graduate, Timothy Soo