Paratroopers Day Marked
Friday, 13.10.2017 | Culture and traditions
Members and veterans of the 63rd Parachute Battalion of the Special Brigade have marked today the Paratroopers Day – 14th October, at the Airport barracks in Niš, in the presence of numerous guests.
Congratulatory message to paratroopers were conveyed by Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces General Ljubiša Diković and Army Commander Lieutenant General Milosav Simović. The most prominent paratroopers, as well as veterans, received awards and prizes, and a large number of soldiers were awarded the title of a paratrooper.
The ceremony began with a minute of silence for all the perished paratroopers, and at the end of the ceremony, wreaths were laid at the memorials. In honour of the rich history, a tour of the memorial room of the 63rd Parachute Battalion was organized.
The guests at the static display could see a part of the arms and equipment of the 63rd Parachute Battalion, and several paratroopers performed demo jumps with the flags of the Republic of Serbia, the Serbian Armed Forces, and the 63rd Paratrooper Battalion.
The ceremony in the barracks was attended by the Chief of the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Department, Brigadier General Ilija Todorov, Commander of the Special Brigade, Brigadier General Zoran Veličković, Deputy Commander of the Training Command Brigadier General Jelesije Radivojević, commanders of units deployed in the Niš garrison, commanders and retired members of the 63rd Paratrooper Battalion and the 63rd Parachute Brigade, as well as representatives of local self-government, the Ministry of Interior, the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Association of veterans, pilots and parachutists from Niš and Novi Sad.
The Paratroopers Day is marked in memory of the day when the first parachute battalion in the new Yugoslavia was composed of the fighters of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, in the Allied Commando Training Camp at Bari in Italy, in 1944.
