immediately have to participate in a night drop with heavy equipment. The Exercise also involved 'assaults' on several objectives and the occupation of a bridgehead. 14 Parachute Battalion Group become a permanent unit of 44 Parachute Brigade with effect from 1 January 1989, amalgamating all parachute qualified National Servicemen elements of the Army for operational deployment in their second year of full-time National Service. In September 1989 14 Parachute Battalion group carried out a second amphibious exercise, dubbed Exercise Vlakwater, in the Saldanha Bay area. This exercise also saw a full troop with two gun sections of 14.5mm AA Guns, One Jakkals Vehicle with a Mamba double barreled 12.7 mm AA Gun being deployed in an air drop. The brigade was at one stage on stand-by with both 14 Parachute Battalion Group and 2 Parachute Battalion in case events leading up to the SWA/Namibian independence turned sour. In April 1989, 14 Parachute Battalion Group was deployed to the Northwestern parts of Namibia where they carried out heli-borne operations from a base at Ehomba as part of Operation Merlyn, in what became known as the Nine Day War. Appropriately, the South African paratroopers, the first to see action in the Namibian war in the 1960s, were also involved in the final military operations. With the rationalization of the SADF commencing from the end of 1989 and both 14 Parachute Battalion Group and 4 Parachute Battalion being de-activated, the brigade again adopted a programme of training, rather than of conducting operations. During 1990 however, Iron Eagle 90, a parachute assault exercise, was carried out at Murrayhill by 3 Parachute Battalion, while 1 Parachute Battalion conducted a heliborne assault exercise known as Exercise Pegasus. In 1990 the first company of black paratroopers were also trained by 1 Parachute Battalion. 44 Parachute Brigade conducted its first skeleton brigade exercise in 1990, combining it with a Naval Gunfire Support exercise in the Lake St Lucia area. It was called Exercise Leviathan. Setting the Strategy for 1990–1999 In April 1990 a symposium, termed PARATROOPER 2000, was held between 44 Parachute Brigade and 1 Parachute Battalion and a strategy was developed for the role, training, administration and development of the parachute forces for the next decade. Operations Operation Reindeer (The Battle of Cassinga) 1978 The brigade had barely commenced organizing when less than a month later, on 4 May 1978, the operational situation required the execution of