XMS NCC - Online!

A is for AIRBORNE!

Anybody interested in earning the wings?

NCC together with the SAF Commandos conducts this course once a year, where a selected few get to earn the prestigious Airborne wings. It is a SAF recognised badge, and you can wear this during your NS. Together with the diver badge, the Airborne badge is one of the most highly-regarded badges not just in NCC, but also in the SAF.

The basic airborne course (BAC) requires you to complete 3 day jumps and 2 night jumps (clean fatigue for NCC, not sure for the NSF or regulars).

Airborne is different from what you see in NDP parades, where it is a free fall, meaning you activate your chute after a certain amount of time. Airborne troopers (paratroopers) will have their chutes activated automatically after exiting the aircraft. You will only experience a few seconds of free fall before your canopy is fully opened.

Other than the NCC, the SAF Commandos conduct BAC for mainly regulars in the army as a confidence course.

Airborne is mandatory for the elites of the SAF, who are the Commandos. No Commando has no wings. Their Airborne badge is slightly different from a normal confidence badge. Commandos have Airborne badges with a red backing. This means they have to regularly jump to 'renew' their Airborne status.

This is important for them because Commandos are paratroopers, and their operations require them to be inserted via the air, unlike other vocations.

But be warned, many injuries have arose from bad landings.

For those who have had the guts to jump out of a perfectly working aircraft, though, they claim its 'the best feeling of their life'.

More info on Airborne can be found here and here.



THE AIRBORNE CREED

I am an Airborne trooper! A paratrooper!
I jump by parachute from any place in flight.
I volunteered to do it knowing well the hazards of my choice.
I am an elite trooper, a sky trooper, a shock trooper, an elite trooper.
I blaze the way to far-flung goals-behind, before, above the foe's front line.
I never find a fellow trooper I cherish as a sacred trust the lives of the men with whom I serve.
Leaders have my fullest loyalty, and those I lead never find me lacking.
I have pride in the Airborne.
I never let it down.
In peace I do not shirk the dullest duty nor protest the toughest training.
In battle I fear no foe's ability nor under-estimate his prowess, power and guile.
I fight him with all my might and skill-ever alert to evade capture or escape a trap.
I never surrender though I may be the last. I belong to a proud and glorious team......
the Airborne, the Army, my country.
I am a trooper of the sky!
I am my Nation's best. In peace and war I never fail.
Anywhere, anytime, in anything......
I am Airborne!

posted by Anonymous @ 11:30 PM