Introduction
The SCDF Day Parade is an annual event held at Expo (to my knowledge). NCDCC is merely one of the contingents present, not the main focus, unlike the NCDCC HQ Parade.
The parade is slightly demanding, with about 7 rehearsals in total, with about 4 in your holidays, so be sure to set aside some time for this.
The parade took place on 21st November (Friday), in the morning. Following the parade was SGFPC, Singapore-Global Paramedics and Firefighters Challenge, a competition with teams around the region to test their rescue and firefighting skills, amongst others.
Attire
In the parade, you’ll wear orange helmets and carry a Compressed Air Foam (CAF) Gun. Yes, that means gun drills - HORMAT SENJA-TA, RUSOK SENJA-TA and JULANG SENJA-TA.
⚠️ IMPORTANT: Do not wear your helmet too tightly. You’ll get a headache as the blood won’t circulate well and may be dizzy more easily.
Rehearsals
The rehearsals took place at the one and only Civil Defence Academy (CDA), at the National Service Training Centre (NSTC) parade square. Unfortunately, it was NOT indoors. And since the rehearsals usually started from about 1.30pm onwards, you can bet that it was hot.
⚠️ IMPORTANT: Although it is very bright with the sun glaring down, try not to look down at the ground. The AFIs and HOs won’t hesitate to remind you repeatedly not to look down.
As a supporting contingent, the drills aren’t extensive, and are fairly simple. SEDIA, SENANG DIRI, gun drills and marching. Since NCDCC is a supporting contingent, you’ll march in JULANG SENJA-TA.
On average, every rehearsal has about 3 runs of the parade sequence. Not overly exerting, but enough to make you tired at the end of the day.
The rehearsals in October (starting around 22nd) are from around 12.15pm onwards, ending at 5.45pm. In actual fact, in only ends at around 4.30pm. On the Tuesday before the parade, it started at 8.15am. Wait, don’t freak out, I’ll explain below.
There’s… buses?
Apparently, for the last 3 rehearsals, buses were provided to CDA/Expo (the last rehearsal before the parade was at Expo). You’d need to report to a holding school (there were 3, where a bunch of different schools report to there) where the bus would bring you to CDA/Expo.
So for the days you report at 12.15 WITHOUT a bus, you report to CDA directly then. But WITH a bus, you report to your holding school at the same time. Perhaps this is better, as the rehearsal that took place at Expo needed you to report to the holding school at 8.15am, and apparently you can’t report to Expo directly (it’s likely the fact that it’s quite far away).
Food provided
If you’ve ever been to events from HQ, you know that the catered food (by a certain ‘H- & E-’ [whose name I won’t mention here]) is not known for being fantastic and an absolute game-changer.
The food for the rehearsals at CDA were the SAME “bento” set, with what Captain Tay calls ‘dinosaur egg’.
At the rehearsal at Expo, things got interesting. Lunch was rice, some chicken with a sauce I cannot comprehend, and ngoh hiang. But the teatime snack was VERY interesting: bubble-ish tea, Lays potato chips and Loakers chocolate wafers. We’re joked, this was where their budget went.
The Parade day
Reporting time at the holding school was 7.15am. DO NOT BE LATE.
There was 1 semi-rehearsal of sorts when we arrived, but it was really the parade soon after.
Parade proceedings
The parade is somewhat as follows:
- Supporting contingents march in
- Supporting contingents salute for flag entry
- GOH and flag party march in and move to positions
- GOH and flag party salute the flags
- Wait for foreign guests to arrive (I believe it was the overseas fire chief?)
- Wait for SCDF Commissioner to arrive
- Salute SCDF Commissioner
- Wait for the Guest-of-Honour to arrive (It was Mr Goh Pei Ming, Minister of State for Ministry of Home Affairs and Minstry of Social and Family Development)
- Introduce the different contingents
- GOH, flag party and supporting contingents salute the Guest-of-Honour
- Inspection of the GOH contingent
- Guest-of-Honour’s speech
⚠️ IMPORTANT: Note that the speech is VERY long. I know a few who almost nodded off during the full rehearsals. Remember to wiggle your toes and take slow, deep breaths. You can feel dizzy if you don’t do this.
- Awards presentation
⚠️ IMPORTANT: The awards presentation can be very long. In my case, I believe it was 7 (or 5, I can’t remember) awards. However, it was 40 awards the previous year. As with the speech, in the event that it’s very long, wiggle your toes and take slow, deep breaths.
- GOH and flag party revert their positions
- March-past
My March-past Mistake (Alliteration not intended)
During the march-past, after PANDANG KE KANAN, PANDANG in front of the Guest-of-Honour, I and a few others put our gun down on PANDANG KE HADAPAN, PANDANG, except that that was for the contingent in front of us. Ouch. Needless to say, we realised our mistake and put our gun back up (and put our gun down later correctly).
Conclusion
Hectic? Yes. Tiring? A bit. Nice experience? Yep. Definitely something nice to have under your belt. Armed with the knowledge of the SCDF Parade, I took on a different view of my school parade and definitely understood the proceedings better. Good luck!