Saltwater in his veins
“THEY knew how to break and make you, iyoh iyoh,” recalled Neville Narainsamy reflecting on his first year of training at the SAS Jalsena base on Salisbury Island.
He said the recruits followed instructions to the letter. If they did anything wrong, it would be “opfok” time after 4pm, when they would be subjected to a gruelling round of battle physical training.
“Those days were very hard because SA was at war with Angola and they were training us for war.”
Narainsamy studied engineering and completed a gunnery course.
At one time he was the only Indian in charge of all the gunners on a strike craft.
His longest time on the water was 21 days on a strike craft – or puke craft – as it was known, because it had the ability to make everyone seasick quickly.
For Narainsamy one of his scariest operations was during the civil war in Mozambique.
“The navy was very active in the war and even assisted refugees.”
He said a strike craft was the first line of attack.
“We had eight missiles on board with a 40km range and two 76mm anti-aircraft guns with a 15km range on the guns.”
He jokes that he has saltwater in his veins and salt on his chest.
And it’s clearly a family trait as his oldest child joined the merchant navy as an engineer.
By the time he retired, Narainsamy held the rank of chief petty officer and he and his family relocated from Cape Town to Merebank in Durban.