Mission:
"Unity and Discipline"
Why Do We Need a Navy?
Officer-in-Charge
Sub Lt S. Nishanth
Assistant professor
Department of English
V. O. Chidambaram College.
Objectives
History
Origin
An infantry wing of NCC was sanctioned to the college by the National Cadet Corps Directorate of Tamilnadu, Pondicherry and Andamans, in July 1958. Our college Army wing was attached to 29, TamilNadu Independent company which came under the control of Madurai Group NCC, Madurai.
Commanders
Sub Lt S. Nishanth, Assistant Professor in English took the charge of Our College NCC Naval Wing as a Caretaker in December 2014. He was later commissioned as an ANO on December 26, 2018 after the completion of 83 day PRCN Course in a break of 21 days at OTA, Kamptee, Nagpur and 62 days at Cochin Naval Base.
The maximum strength allotted to our College Naval Wing is 50 and this strength is maintained. Through the year the Cadets participated in various NCC Programmes and Camps in and outside of Tamil Nadu. A good number of Cadets have entered the defence service.
The Cadets have won many laurels in various NCC activities. For example, M. Archun of II BBA (2018 – ‘19Competitions and I. Udhayakumar of II B.Sc. Physics (2018 – ’19) won prizes in Ship Modelling Competitions. Sub Lt S. Nishanth participated in many NCC Camps as a representative of 3-TN Naval Unit NCC, Thoothukudi.
The NCC Naval wing will continue its achievements in the days to come.
Two divisions of NCC Navy were started in our college, with a strength of 50 cadets in each division, in 1962.
NCC Navy Wing of our College trains cadets in drill, seamanship, navigation and direction, weapon utilisation, communication, boat-pulling, sailing, ship-modeling, and first aid.
Adventure activities are organized to develop special qualities of courage, leadership, spirit of adventure and sportsmanship, spirit of Camaraderie, teamwork and self confidence among the cadets. Our NCC Navy cadets have participated in a large number of adventure activities like sailing expedition, trekking, wind surfing, kayaking, scuba diving, every year. The latest one being the sailing expedition from Mandapam to Nagapattinam in the year 1999.
Our college Naval NCC has been in the forefront in rendering assistance to the needy during natural calamities, as the cadets of our college are conscious of and sensitive to the needs and problems of their countrymen. They have involved themselves in extension activities like organizing blood-donation camps, adult-literacy, anti-dowry, anti-leprosy, anti-drug campaign etc.
Since 1977 our Naval NCC cadets do the annual clean – campus programmes in Tuticorin blind school.
Activities and Achievements
Achievements of our officers Mr. P. S. Narayanan, Mr. A. R. Ponniah, Mr. Ivan Balasingh, Dr. S. Pratap Singh, Dr. E. Bala sivasubramaniam, Mr. Daniel Jeyakumar, Mr. A. Nambinarayanan and Dr. N. Chandrasekar served as Divisional Commanders of Naval NCC divisions in our college.
Mr. A. Nambinarayanan of Tamil Department is associated with Naval NCC of our college for nearly 2 decades. NCC head quarters has honoured him by awarding three long service medals. In addition he was given a special award for his best performance in the ship attachment camp by Commander Nair, Captain. INS SUGANYA during April 1992. He has also acted as the Deputy Contingent Commander, TNPA Directorate in The Nav Sainik camp held at Eastern Naval Command, Visakapatnam in the year 1991. He stood first in refresher course training for NCC officers held at INS MANDOVI, Goa in the year 1984.
Dr. N. Chandrasekar of Geology department is also associated with Naval NCC of our college as the Divisional commander. Our college is very proud to mention that this officer is our old student and a cadet of Naval NCC, who secured A grade in both B and C Certificate examination. He also attended the Prestigious Republic Day Camp in the year 1977.
Presently Sub. Lt. A. Kumarasamy of History department and Sub-Lt. A. Arumugam of Commerce department are working as commanders of Naval NCC Division-I and Division-II respectively.
Sub. Lt. A. Kumarasamy Commanded Tamilnadu Contingent in sea-training camp for NCC officers and cadets (S.D.) held at Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam in the year 1998 and attended All India Nav Sainik camp 2001.
Sub. Lt A. Arumugam commanded Tamilnadu Contingent camp for NCC officers and cadets (S.D.) held at Eastern Naval Command, Visakhapatnam, consecutively for three years Jan 1999, Jan 2000 and Dec 2000 in addition to participating in adventure activities. He has also attended refresher course for associate NCC officers, conducted at Seamanship school, INS vendruthy, Naval Base, Cochin from 5th November 2001 to 25th Nov 2001.
The Naval NCC of our college has come a long way from a modest beginning in 1962. It has spread the message of goodwill, Universal brotherhood and is grooming tomorrow’s leaders. During our Golden Jubilee year the Naval NCC armed with the motto of “Unity and Discipline” is steadily marching forward to reach great heights.
Achievements of our Cadets
In the year 1991-92 our college Naval NCC Cadets, J.Abbas and S.Mahendran stood second in the National level Ship modelling competition held at Eastern Naval Command Visakhapatnam.
Our college Naval NCC Cadets won gold medals in the state level boat pulling competition conducted by Loyala College, Chennai in 1993, 1994 and 1995 consecutively.
Naval NCC cadets of Division I and II of our college were deployed for assisting the general elections in September 1999.
Cadet captain V. Suresh of Division II bagged the Silver medal in the All India Sailing Competition conducted at I.N.S. Silka in 1999.
Cadet captain Shyam Damascus participated in the prestigious Republic Day Camp 2000 at New Delhi.
Naval NCC cadets of our college seized all the opportunities to attend centrally organized camps and expeditions every year. Cadets are detailed to attend sea-training ship attachment, Nav Sainik camp and advanced leadership camps every year. In December 2000, 5 cadets of our college were trained in the warship INS Mahar and INS Rajput. During May 2001, 2 cadets attended ship attachment camp held at Western Naval Command, Mumbai and were trained in the warship INS Ranvir.
P.O. Cadet V. Perumalraj of division II has bagged the gold medal for navigation in the All India Advance Leadership Camp in the year 2001.
P.O. Cadet S. Thanga Krishnan of Division-II won the first prize in the quiz competition held at Advanced Leadership Camp in the year 2001.
P.O. Cadet Paul Vinoth of division-II has secured second prize in the firing competition held at Combined Annual Training Camp, Arumuganeri in September 2001.
Leader cadets, Senthil Kumar, Satish Lakshmanan, Shanmuganathan of Division-II has participated in the All India Nav Sainik Camp held at Visakhapatnam during November 2001.
Achievements
Cycle-Cum-Trekking Expeditions were arranged from Tuticorin to Kanyakumari, from Tuticorin to Courtallam and from Tuticorin to Manjolai hills every year during the tenure of Captain C.Veeramuthu. Captain C.Veeramuthu led the Tamilnadu contingent for All-India Trekking camp in 1998 held at Tanga, Arunachal Pradesh (NERTrekking).
Many of our cadets successfully complete NCC “B” and “C” Certificate examination every year. In the Madurai Group NCC, VOC College unit has continually improved its performance. Our cadets have secured the first and the second places in firing and drill competitions. Our cadets are selected for All-India leadership Training camps every year.
More than 1000 cadets of our wing have joined in Indian military in different cadres. Prominent among them is our old cadet S.Ponnambalam (B.Com. 1959-62) who joined Indian Military and got promoted to the Rank of Major-General in the ACS Regiment.