SINGAPORE \u2013 Despite the downpour turning the ceremonial white No. 1 uniforms translucent, the soldiers of the Presidential Gun Salute (PGS) crew stood stoic by their four 25-pounder Howitzer guns as they roared at 6.45pm on July 18.<\/p>\n
The heavy rain could not drown out the clockwork commands of the conducting officer, as all 19 shots of the rehearsal gun salute were fired in perfect succession.<\/p>\n
About 15 minutes before the gun salute began, the banks on either side of the Kallang Basin \u2013 where the iconic tradition of the presidential gun salute will be held for the first time this National Day \u2013 were dotted with umbrellas as a light drizzle began.<\/p>\n
Some 300 to 400 members of the public had gathered to witness the gun salute. The phalanx of umbrellas was broken only by the waving of hands as onlookers cheered and greeted the soldiers on board the Mobility 3rd Generation raft.<\/p>\n
It was a preview of what crowds will see come Aug 9 as Singapore celebrates its <\/span><\/a>61st year of independence<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n The gun salute will take place about 200m from the National Stadium, where the National Day Parade (NDP) will be held<\/span><\/a>. There are 151 participants from the 23rd Battalion, Singapore Artillery, and 35th Battalion, Singapore Combat Engineers.<\/p>\n Speaking to media before the July 18 rehearsal kicked off, Major Chin Wei Jian said Kallang Basin was chosen as the location for the presidential gun parade in 2026 so the public who are unable to attend the parade in the National Stadium can still feel the impact and see the firing live.<\/p>\n The last time the NDP celebrations were held at the National Stadium was in 2016. That year, the presidential gun salute was conducted at the Home of Athletics, which was formerly known as the Kallang Practice Track, said Chin, who is the chairman of the iconic gun salute in 2026.<\/p>\n Major Chin Wei Jian (left), Presidential Gun Salute (PGS) 2026 chairman, and Captain L. Vaishnavi, PGS 2026 organising secretary, on July 18.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: CHONG JUN LIANG<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Conducting the presidential gun salute in the Kallang Basin for the first time comes with its own set of challenges, such as sharing the basin with other users and noise control.<\/p>\n Chin said the gun salute committee worked closely with national water agency PUB to ensure safe usage of the Kallang Basin.<\/p>\n \u201cThe regatta teams and dragon boaters are training hard. We actually made sure that we allowed them to train while ensuring that when we needed to sail, there was a water cordon in place,\u201d said Chin.<\/p>\n The presidential gun salute committee will put up caution boards along the waterfront so members of the public are aware of the loud firing. It will also offer earplugs to onlookers who require them.<\/p>\n Captain L. Vaishnavi said the gun salute crew has been training since January to prepare for the ceremonial event, which is the highest military honour conferred and reserved exclusively for the president.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of our crew arrive at the launch site as early as 4am and only leave close to midnight. That means they can be on site for almost 20 hours during each rehearsal. There are pockets of downtime between duties for them to rest and recover,\u201d said Vaishnavi, who is the organising secretary for PGS 2026.<\/p>\n She added that the crew gets a day off after each week of rehearsal to rest.<\/p>\n Corporal Bravis Sea, who is the first in his family to participate in NDP, said he was very proud to play even a small part in the celebrations.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: CHONG JUN LIANG<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Corporal Bravis Sea, a full-time national serviceman who is part of the crew, said setting up the 25-pounder Howitzer gun has not been easy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to push the gun up two ramps to set it up. Being on a floating platform is definitely very scary,\u201d said Sea.<\/p>\n He is the first in his family to participate in NDP \u2013 his mother is Australian and his father is a naturalised Singaporean from Malaysia.<\/p>\n Sea said: \u201cSeeing members of the public smiling and waving at us during the sail-past gives me motivation and energy to push through the long hours.<\/p>\n \u201cIt actually means a lot to me because it\u2019s a way to give back to Singapore, where I was born and raised. I\u2019m very proud to play even a small part in it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 Despite the downpour turning the ceremonial white No. 1 uniforms translucent, the soldiers of the Presidential Gun Salute (PGS) crew stood stoic by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/69977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/picture><\/div>
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