Ceremony on the Paratroopers Day
Saturday, 12.10.2019 | Culture and traditions
Today, at the Niš air base ‘Sergeant Pilot Mihajlo Petrović’, a ceremony on the occasion of the Paratroopers Day — 14th October has been held, where members of the 63rd Parachute Battalion marked 75th anniversary since the creation of the first paratroops in Serbia. Paratroopers marked the jubilee, which not many countries of the world can boast of, in a way that only they know — with parachute jumps.
The ceremony was attended by Aleksandar Živković, State Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Major General Ilija Todorov, Deputy Commander of the Joint Operations Command, Brigadier General Vladeta Baltic, Deputy Army Commander, Brigadier General Jelesije Radivojević, Deputy Commander of the Training Command, Brigadier General Miroslav Talijan, Commander of the Special Forces Brigade of the Army, representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Ministry of Interior and local government, veterans of the 63rd Parachute Brigade and members of the families of the killed members of that element.
In his speech, Brigadier General Miroslav Talijan, Commander of the Special Forces Brigade, welcomed the families of dead heroes, their heirs and veterans of the 63rd Parachute Brigade, underlining on that occasion that, in the period between the last year and today's commemoration of the Paratroopers Day, members of the parachute battalion have certified and upgraded their skills and operational ability in the entire set of successfully accomplished tasks, presentations and exercises in Serbia and abroad.
The words of the commander of the Special Brigade were also confirmed by Lieutenant Colonel Boban Georgiev, Commander of the 63rd Parachute Battalion, who recalled the successful accomplishment of numerous tasks such as parachute jumps, tactical drills and exercises, various firings and joint exercises with members of special units of the Ministry of Interior and special units of foreign armed forces of the Russian Federation, Belarus and Greece.
Serbia is one of the few countries in Europe and in the world that have a decades-long tradition of parachute units, and that is why members of the 63rd Parachute Battalion marked 75 years of existence with attractive demonstration jumps landing with flags of the Republic of Serbia, the Serbian Armed Forces Special Brigade, 63rd Parachute Battalion and the City of Niš, in front of several thousand citizens of Niš who attended the ceremony.
A special attraction of the Paratroopers Day was the tandem jump of Nejc Jurič and Goran Todorović, a former member of the 63rd Parachute Brigade, who had been in a wheelchair since 2003 as he sustained serious injuries after his parachute failed. Today he made his 36th parachute jump after the accident, and Aleksandar Živković, state secretary of the Ministry of Defence was among the first to congratulate him.
On the occasion of the Paratroopers Day, the best among them received awards, acknowledgements and books, while several paratroopers received a Golden Statue for fifteen years serving in paratroops. Recognition was also given by the Veterans Association of the 63rd Parachute Brigade, while the 63rd Parachute Battalion awarded plaques for exceptional cooperation to associations, institutions and individuals.
At the end of the ceremony, guests visited the static display of materiel and weapons, a memorial complex of the 63rd Parachute Battalion and laid wreaths at the monument to the paratroopers that had been killed in combat operations.
