Bevelio Goes Shares his experience of participating in the Army Attachment Camp: MEG Centre Bangalore.

An army attachment camp was organised by the ‘Madras Sappers’ for the NCC Cadets to understand and have an insight of the life of the Indian Army aspirants in the Training Centre. The Camp was a 13 day camp from 2^nd December 2019 to 14^th December 2019 at the Madras Engineering Group (MEG) Headquarters, Shivajinagar - Bangalore. There were a total of 94 Senior Division (SD) cadets, among them 24 SDs being from the 1 Goa Battalion NCC of different colleges and schools across Goa.

Figure 1: The entire contingent for the Army Attachment Camp along with the ANOs and Army Officers.

The lively and enthusiastic cadets were anticipating for the Camp to officially begin. The MEG Centre consisted of three Training battalions with each battalion having their own company and Commanding Officer. We were given accommodation in Training Battalion-1 (TB-1) in barracks which was built during colonial times. The schedule in the camp was very strict and began with a morning Physical Training (PT) or Drill on alternate days for one hour, with the reporting being 5:30 am sharp. After the breakfast the cadets had to report in complete NCC uniforms at 8:00am for the regular lectures. There were two sessions each being of 1 ½ hour with topics like Weapon Training, Mine defusing, Map Reading, Engineering Bridges, Obstacles Training, International Borders, IEDs and about Ammunitions like Hand Grenade, Mines, INSAS, Machine Guns and Rocket Launchers being taught to us. Thereafter the cadets had games till 6:00 pm. The games included Volleyball, Basketball and Football. The lights were strictly turned off by 9:30 pm.

Figure 2: A Session on Obstacle Training.

The Morning PT was conducted in a PT Nursery with very rigorous sprints, crunches, pushups, rope climbing, aerobics, obstacle clearances and much more. These exercises kept us active and improved our endurance. The Drill was conducted on the Drill Square which was approximately 4 times the size of an average football field. The cadets got the rare and great opportunity to have their drill with the other companies of the MEG. The Drill began with the Ceremonial Reporting which included the hierarchical report according to the Ranks of the officers. We were trained by ranked officers specialised in drill who were very strict and charismatic. They induced great enthusiasm to the cadets. The Madras Sappers are known for their excellent and flawless drill. The fact that the regiment has won the ‘Best Drill’ title on many occasions during the Republic Day Parade at Rashtrapati Bhavan proves this distinction.

Figure 3: One of the lectures for the cadets.

During the camp we were taken to the Madras Sappers Museum and Archives where we got an insight of the rich history of the esteemed regiment. The regiment which began in 1780 as the Engineering battle heads for the British continued to serve India with now being a regiment of the Indian Army. During this time the regiment achieved 43 battle honours with 5 Major Battle Honours for their victory defining contributions in various wars. The regiment has contributed greatly in the field of sports like Hockey, Athletics, Body Buiding, Boxing, Archery, Shooting etc with many great athletes emerging from this centre. Two notable names include the legendary Dhyan Chand for his great achievement in Hockey and Sub Anil Kumar who was the fastest Indian in 2005 breaking the record previously held by Milkha Singh. The regiment is informally called as Madras Sappers derived from the word ‘sap’ which means dig, due to its ability to build and cross trenches / obstacles.

Figure 4: The Closing Address.

Attending this camp really moulded and motivated me. It brought a sense of enthusiasm and charisma within the cadets. The cadets enjoyed the 15 days camp which we felt was very short. The knowledge and understanding that the cadets gained was immense and we left the centre brimming with optimism and confidence.

Contributed by: Bevelio Goes, TyBsc Geology 2019-20.