Bird’s Eye view of NCC in St Philomena’s College, Mysuru
NCC (National cadet corps) is the best organization to teach discipline, self-confidence, service motto, leadership qualities etc. There are infantry, artillery and naval wing. Our college had all the three branches from time to time. During the Principal Rev. Fr. N.T Thomas in 1962 an artillery unit was started, Mr. K.J Francis of Botany department and Mr. P.T Joseph of political science department were Commissioned as officers.
Hundreds of students were trained in those days, some of the cadets were honored as best cadets and promoted as under officers, some of the cadets passed B and C certificate examinations. Many cadets were sent to different courses, camps and the college unit achieved name and fame by all these activities.
Regular parades were held in the college, cadets were thought to use of rifle also shooting competitions were held locally. There was a firing range at the back of our college near sports grounds where hundreds of cadets were trained in shooting the Bulls Eye.
Navel unit was started in 1966 by Lieutenant General Nagabhushanachari of Chemistry department. The cadets represented the college even in Republic Day parade in Delhi. They were thought ship modeling, boat pulling and sailing etc.
Infantry was a very popular unit in our college. Major Ranganath Rao the physical director and Major Ashwath Narayan professor of mathematics were in charge of infantry. They were even deputed as full time Army officers for 3 years during the war with neighboring countries. Major Ashwath Narayan was even honored with many awards by the government.
Professor K Shrinivasa Rao of Zoology department was in charge of ladies wing. He was succeeded by Professor M.C Prabha of the department of History, who was the first Lady lecturer of the college and served for 50 years continuously (1967 to 2017). As she was in NCC and passed the examination as a Cadet with Under Officer rank, she was Commissioned directly as commanding officer with the rank 2/Lieutenant. During her refresher course in Gwalior she fired from AK-47 rifle. She carried on the ladies wing for 3 years and she was sent to Himalayan Mountaineering training at Darjeeling and she was guided by none other than Tenzing Norgay the first man to climb the Mount Everest. She climbed Vidhanachandra peak at the height of 18,000ft, she was the captain during the training. Advanced mountaineering course was attended by under Officer Nirmala Patrick and other lady cadets represented the college during the Republic Day parade.
Infantry of ladies wing was discontinued after Lt M.C Prabha left NCC, but boy’s wing of our college continued its service under the leadership of different NCC officer like Lt Vidyadhar Sanjay Nair of department of Mathematics and Mr. Thomas Gunaseelan of Physics department. The cadets have attended even National Integration camps; many prices like best Marching award have been taken by cadets during the previous years.
NCC units of SPC have made tremendous progress as the training is very comprehensive and interesting because of Map Reading, unit defence, field engineering, weapon drill and parade. Now currently we have 3 KAR NAVAL UNIT NCC and 1 KAR ARTILLERY BATTERY NCC being very active under the present officers Mr. Eliezer Vishwas of Physics department and Mr. Francis Devasahayam B of Criminology and Forensic Science department respectively. Let the NCC units fly high and high in the coming years under the new officers.
Report by,
Mr. Eliezer Vishwas,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Physics,
NCC officer – 3 KAR NAVAL UNIT NCC,
St. Philomena’s College (Autonomous), Mysore.
Events:
NCC Day
St Philomena’s College (Autonomous), Mysuru conducted an online program on November 26, 2020 at 11:30 a.m. in commemoration of “NCC Day” which is celebrated every year on the fourth Sunday in the month of November. More than 100 participants, including students and faculty joined for this virtual gathering in Google meet platform. It was also broadcast live in YouTube.
We were honored to have CPO L.K. Nath, Chief instructor as chief guest and Petty officer Vinod P Patgar, from 3 Kar Naval Unit, Mysuru. The other dignitaries present at the venue were Rev. Dr Bernard Prakash Barnis, Rector, Rev. Fr Maria Xavier, Vice Rector, Rev. Fr Praveen Kumar, Campus Administrator, Prof. Vidhyadhar Sanjay Nair, Vice Principal, Mr Eliezer Vishwas, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics.
The program was compered by Ms Anjali (Student), it started with a prayer song followed by a welcome address by Ms Nadiya Fathima (Student), Cadet R.V Gokul (Airwing NCC, student), introduced the chief guest. The Chief Guest addressed the gathering and explained the importance of joining NCC in order to serve the Nation. He also motivated students to avail the opportunities available with NCC, this was followed by a key note address by Prof. Vidhyadhar Sanjay Nair. Rev. Dr Bernard Prakash Barnis delivered the presidential address; Rev. Fr Maria Xavier also addressed the gathering. Ms Shereen Samuel proposed a vote of thanks, the program concluded with NCC song followed by group photo.