Another batch of 519 Gentlemen Cadets are all set to make the Nation proud at the IMA today

The Autumn 2015 batch of the Indian Military Academy is all set to pass out on Saturday with a glittering parade which will be attended by the chief of Army staff Gen Balbir Singh Suhag. 382 gentlemen cadets (GCs) will be commissioned in the Indian Army along with 50 foreign cadets (FCs) from Afghanistan, Maldives, Tajikistan, Mauritius, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka who took their training at the Academy.

In all, the ceremony will witness 519 cadets graduating, including 120 Technical Graduates. Army officials informed TOI that this is the 137th regular course with the majority of the cadets comprising of National Defence Academy (NDA) graduates.

The course has seen a large number of cadets hailing from Haryana (67), Punjab (28) and Uttar Pradesh (74). For most of the cadets, Infantry and Artillery remain the choice of service with 117 and 87 cadets respectively being absorbed into these branches. With this course graduating, the total number of cadets passing out of IMA till date will go up to 58,373 out of which 1863 are foreign cadets.

The cadets will take their ‘antim pag’ or final step out of the academy in front of an almost 2,000 strong audience. The chief of Army staff, General Dalbir Singh Suhag, will be the reviewing officer for the passing out parade.

Incidentally, the chief was himself commissioned in June 1974 and has since then has had a distinguished military career spanning four decades.

Although the reviewing officer changes every year, there are some aspects of the parade which are standard and are looked forward to by all the attendees. Amongst them, the helicopter fly past with the showering of petals on the cadets as they move towards the ‘antim pag’ and again a fly past with the flags of army, navy and air force, as the last cadet takes the final step, are moments that are etched in the minds of visitors.

Source from India Defence News.