It took Red Lions member Russell Ong two years of skydiving before he got over his fear of heights and started loving the sport.

Second Warrant Officer (2WO) Ong said he took the leap because he wanted to fit in with the rest of his commando team.

"When you don the red beret, there's pride," said 2WO Ong, 39, speaking to the media last Saturday. "You just want to be a part of them, part of the family and to be able to be a skydiver,"

This National Day, 2WO Ong will free-fall with fellow Red Lions from a height of over 3,000m to land on the Padang. The team of nine is led by First Warrant Officer (1WO) Melvin Ho, 46.

They will free-fall out of the helicopter one by one and come together in mid-air to form a ring by linking their arms together.

This manoeuvre, which has been around since the Red Lions' early days, is known as a "bomb burst", and "looks like a flower opening up", said 1WO Ho. He added: "This year happens to be our Bicentennial so we wanted everything to go back to the good old days."

At a separate event with parade participants last Saturday, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said commemorating the Bicentennial is just one focus of this year's parade, which will also feature the Merdeka Generation, in the light of the Merdeka Generation Package.