Cadets to Slither down from flying chopper

This story was a repeat after I had written about four NCC cadets who would slither down a flying chopper in 2002. In 2003 too the NCC 9MP and Chhattisgarh) had selected four boys but his time around they had also selected three girls to slither down the flying chopper. This story was again given to me by my good friend Ritu Raj Mate.


In biting cold every morning, three girls and four boys selected from the NCC (MP and Chhattisgarh) unit can be spotted slithering down a wire pole near Bhadbhada dam like a skilled acrobat.
None of them in into any kind of aping a monkey. Nor are they practicing any kind of rope tricks. They are the few talented young kids of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) selected to slither down the rope from a moving helicopter in front of the Prime Minister on January 27 in New Delhi.
What is more significant this year is that the girls of the NCC have also been included in this event to celebrate Republic Day for the first time.
The girls- Swati Singh and Vandana Gupta (both from Jabalpur) and Padma Jagat from (Raipur) along with the four boys – Krishna Kumar (Jabalpur), and Harjyot Singh, Praveen Marscole and Deepak P (all from Bhopal) are excited about the practice. That is of course understandable.

Among the audience who will watch their well practiced feat would be President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani.
Apart from the cadets, their trainers too are eager about a good showing from their trainees. The entire NCC Directorate from Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh is keenly looking forward for Republic Day related event on January 27, 2004.
The team of seven cadets is put through a rigrous drill every morning by the Commandant, Brigadier Prabir Goswami, and Lt Colonel Yusuf. Ex-NCC cadet Ritu Raj Mate, an adventure sports trainer, also joins in the training.
Lt Col Yusuf says this will be for the first time that girl cadets would perform para-drop on a rope from a helicopter. “It’s going to be an exciting event,” he says, and adding that after they para-drop they would perform a war simulation to show the Prime Minister of the NCC could effectively be the Army’s second rank soldiers.
Brigadier Goswami, who had taken personal interest in the training, was seen asking the cadets as to how they felt after they finished their slithering down. The excited cadets replied, “Very good, Sir”.
The contingent will leave for New Delhi on December 29 where they will be given full-fledged training at the NCC camp. Lt Col Yusuf says that the next 25 days in Delhi will be crucial for these cadets who will have to slither down the rope from a moving helicopter.
They will be imparted training in how to attack the enemy after slithering down the rope with their weapons, adds Lt Col Yusuf.
For Mate this is the second consecutive year that he has been training the cadets in as many years of the event.
The cadets get tougher because he makes them climb up the wire pole and then slither down from a height of 60 to 70 meters, he says. He adds that this kind of training can be imparted only when one has already gone through such tough drills in his early stage of life.