I didn't know what made me join NCC (AIR) that day. In primary school, I wished to join SJI's Computer Club but I wasn't informed of any selection whatsoever and thus stuck with NCC (AIR) as my ECA. Joining was quite strict; first we were given a test of 40 odd questions about various subjects ranging from maths to aero knowledge. That was quite simple for me. After that, we were given a medical checkup at CMPB.
The following weeks we had drills training at the hanger area of Sembawang Air Base. Our Air Cadets used to be much fitter those days maybe because we WERE required to walk over 2 kilometres from the main gate past the guard room and to HQ which took from 15 minutes to 30 minutes per trip. We had drills in the best place in the morning... the aircraft tarmac!!
Our headquarters is where the armoury is kept now. From the Parade Square, which overlooked the runway, we could see the buzz of helicopters as we marched. Sometimes providing us with the extra wind to dry our perspiration. I can still remember construction of one very huge building, which I will visit later in my cadet years. Those days we had to clean the classrooms in the HQ if there were no lecturers. Chairs were often too short in supply and comfort. CLTs and NCOs were often deployed to keep the noise level down by raising their own voices. My flight E was always pinpointed by the CLTs and the NCOs as the worst flight. One of my most vivid memories was my Flight Commander Captain Phay for Flight E, now Commander Air and a Major talking to the flight. Flight E and F were sitting on the concrete pavement at the hanger as he made his speech which was something like this "....Flight E, I want the best and only the best from you. I want that Best Flight Trophy and I know you can do it. If you can't get it then don't regard me as your flight commander....."
For sec 1s in those days we had the use of the .22 air rifle which wasn't suited for sec 1s. We needed an assistant to cock the rifle. Aiming was no problem as Encik Lee (former CSM NCC AIR) was as required to stand next to the target, pointed to it and shouted to the firer to aim properly. I can say I was one of the very few who failed the classification with the lousy score of 1/50 for the last target. However I have got over it.
Nothing was always work in year 1. My partmates enjoyed ourselves after morning training by going to Northpoint for lunch and hanging out there. It was where I first bought a MIG 29 and later an F-14 for our year one project, which I did badly in.
However in May that year we moved from Sembawang to AETI Changi Air Base. The first time I noticed was the long journey from my home, which took me one and a half-hours to reach AETI. But gone was the distance. It was also where I finally collected my uniform, just one-week before the Passing Out Parade. The parade was the first major Parade held in AETI for NCC Air. It is nothing of a grand scale of our current POPs. The guest of honour was our former Commander Air LTC Stephen Ng. The only guests in plain clothes where our former NCOs which took photos of the parade. And as unexpectedly my flight E won the best flight competition and CPT Phay had the honour of receiving it on behalf of the flight from Commander Air. When the parade was over, we were given our nametags (mine was wrongly spelled) and were promoted from recruits to privates!! There was a further promotion excerise in November and I was promoted to LCP.