Excellent impressions from an excellent parade! What were the many impressive "firsts"

On the part of the Ministry of the Interior, the Deputy Minister of Defense Nikos Hardalias and the Chiefs of the Defense Ministry General Kostas Floros, the Chief of Defense Forces of Cyprus Lieutenant General Dimokritos Zervakis, the Chief of Staff of the General Staff (I) Themistocles Bourolias, the General Staff of the General Staff of the General Staff Angelos Houdeloudis and the Chiefs of General Vice Admiral Ioannis Drymousis PN, and the Chiefs of the Security Forces other officials.

This year's great military parade in Athens had four very important "firsts":

• The appearance of a quartet of 332 All Weather Squadron Rafale F3R fighters, followed by a quartet of upgraded 343 Squadron F-16V Viper fighters.

 • The appearance of a quartet of T-6A Texan II trainers from the 120th Air Training Wing in Kalamata, proving that the process of returning them to flying condition by the Israelis, within the framework of the existing agreement, is progressing at an impressive pace.

• The Army's new Marder-1A3 tracked armored combat vehicle (AAC)

• The new M-1117 Guardian wheeled armored security vehicles of the Army.

• The parade of personnel from the 5th Airborne Brigade of Crete.

• Although it was not the first time, we must mention the "opening" of the air leg of the parade with the flight of the legendary veteran of the Second World War, the PA Spitfire, accompanied by a modern fighter F-16C Block .52+ ADV of the historic 335 Squadron of the PA, in which both had served.

More specifically, they also paraded and impressed among others:

The Battle Flags of the Army Regiments, which have fought and been honored in all the nation's struggles in an "arrow" (or "L" as some say) formation, the Belt Company of the Presidential Guard, three tanks of Leopard-2A6HEL tanks, Leopard -2A4, Leopard-1A5, the students of the productive Schools of Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers of the Armed Forces and the Security Forces, led by the Schools of Evelpids, Naval Cadets and Icarus, units of the Special Forces, the Special Operations Forces, Marines, the airborne of the 5th A/M Brigade, the state-of-the-art self-propelled guns PzH-2000GR and MLRS, the anti-aircraft artillery with the Patriot and HAWK-I, the frogmen of the Navy and Coast Guard - Hellenic Coast Guard and thousands of other men and women of the Armed Forces and of the Security Forces, who celebrated the national anniversary with their participation under the general command Major General Anastasios Polychrono, Commander of Evelpidon Military School.

Regarding the flying part of the parade, the following aircraft flew over the parade:

• 1 quad F-16V Viper

• 1 quad Mirage 2000-5

• 1 quartet of modernized F-4E Phantom II (PI-2000)

• 1 quad Rafale F3R

• 1 Air Force Spitfire and accompanying 1 F-16

Also flying over the parade were aircraft of the Navy (2 Sikorsky S-70B-6 Aegean Hawk helicopters) and the Army (4 attack helicopters AH-64A+ Apache/AH-64DHA Longbow Apache, 2 transport CH-47D/SD Chinook , 8 offensive reconnaissance OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, 2 general purpose UH-1H Huey, 2 transport NH-90), as well as the corresponding aircraft of the Security Forces.

Finally, the television coverage of the parade by ERT was also excellent, with excellent direction and placement of cameras even in Lycabettus where they caught the flying instruments almost at the same height as them and with the Acropolis in the background, while the connection with Tanagra was undoubtedly impressive for the Rafale and Mirage 2000-5 take-offs, with a clever "trick" that is, with which the televised "gap" was thus covered, from the end of the parade of the wheeled vehicles until the Euzones paraded first with their slow march in front of the President.