Blast from the past

NDP 1995: Mobile Column participants and their armoured vehicles emerge after a tropical downpour to rehearse for NDP 1995.

Participants of yesteryear put in long hours of rehearsals - rain or shine - just for 10 minutes or so passing by the Padang in disciplined formations. But the men and women all took it in the right spirit.

Leading the rehearsal are SM1 light tanks, armed with a 75mm gun which was modelled after the deadly Kwk 42 7.5cm gun mounted on German Panther medium tanks. The Singapore Army and Singaporean defence engineers enhanced the lethality of the SM1's main gun with a cannister round, packed with 400 ball bearings for clearing vegetation, as well as a sabot round.

NDP 1995: Singapore Army Bv206s mass along Nicoll Highway. Notice how all three lanes were used for the Mobile Column to form up in review order. Behind the Bv206s are Combat Engineer Tractors, followed by M-728 Combat Engineer Vehicles and a pair of M-60 Armoured Vehicle-Launched Bridges (AVLBs).

NDP 2000: In the millennium year's parade, Mobile Column vehicles used the eastbound lanes to get to the Padang. Seen here after a thunderstorm are M-728 Combat Engineer Vehicles, each fitted with a Pearson Engineering Track Width Mine Plough (TWMP), followed by a pair of AVLBs.

NDP 2005: Singapore-made Bionix 1 infantry fighting vehicles roll down Nicoll Highway on their way to the Padang. The Mobile Column in 2005 was the last time SM1 light tanks appeared during a National Day Parade.  

NDP 2010 CR2: The same view five years later, with Singapore Army Terrex infantry fighting vehicles rolling down the same city-bound lanes. This part of Nicoll Highway now has a right turn leading to Middle Road.

NDP 2000: Police officers from the crack Special Tactics and Rescue (STAR) team seen along Nicoll Highway before mounting up for the National Day Parade 2000. There's a story behind this picture. The STAR team was amused to see me show up every weekend for the NDP 2000 Combined Rehearsals. The team's only ground rule was no face shots, which I respected. On the actual day of the parade, they allowed me past the cordon for a photo shoot.
In 2007, the STAR team apprehended Dave Teo, the full-time National Serviceman who ran away from camp with a SAR-21 assault rifle and 5.56mm bullets. Thanks to contact made at NDP 2000, arrangements were made and the Singapore Police Force granted me an exclusive interview with the STAR team.
The police officer on the right is the one who led the assault team that caught Dave Teo in the Orchard Cineleisure toilet.
I have the highest regard for Singapore's special forces community.