I received this message written by a serving senior officer posted at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington on WhatsApp, one of the sanest related to #Helicopter crash, which I thought I must share with everyone.
Reproduced verbatim in this thread...
1/18
Update from Wellington
To all my civilian friends,
I appreciate the love and concern that is being shown for the loss of the brave men that died in the chopper crash in the Nilgiri hills, close to Wellington.
2/18
The CDS was to arrive with his wife, his team of officers and men to address the staff college course presently being conducted here. The helicopter, the latest in India’s holdings, took off from Sulur Air Base.
3/18
The CO of the squadron was flying the helicopter, with hundreds of hours of flying experience and considerable amount of pre reconnaissance of the flight path.
Weather at Wellington was clear.
4/18
The helicopter has to gain immidiate altitude and fly through a deep ravine, to clear the crest to land at the helipad at the Wellington Golf Club, Coonoor.
5/18
While the crest was being approached there seems to have been fog which in this place is normal in this season, the fog rolls down the hills, that is from the top moves down.
No one knows why the helicopter crashed.
6/18
But let me assure you, there is no truth in all the stories of enemy actions as some jokers are claiming. Please let the IAF conduct its inquiry and analysis.
The commandant DSSC was waiting at the helipad, the communication was in place.
7/18
When the helicopter did not reach at its designated time it was learnt that one helicopter had crashed. This information was given to the police by some local civilians.
Immediately the Commandant with all the equipment, security and the medical team, rushed to the site.
8/18
The civil population were already in location. Trying to rescue people from a raging fire.
The civilians showed no fear and were like super humans.
Each young boy getting into and trying to dowse the fire.
Some even having minor burns.
9/18
Carrying the injured uphill and through dense under bush.
The ambulance drivers just swarmed in, some of them just hearing of the crash, without being asked.
The act of selflessness of the people of the NILGIRIS will always be saluted by all military men.
10/18
You might not be in uniform, but the courage and fortitude on display was impeccable and stupendous.
Three soldiers were alive and rescued, two gave up their life after an hour.
11/18
The brave men fought until the good Lord couldn’t bear their suffering anymore and called them to heaven.
Gp Capt Varun is still battling it out at MH Wellington.
He needs all your prayers.
All the bodies were bought to the hospital.
Autopsy was conducted.
12/18
At Wellington, the Defence services Staff College and the Madras Regimental Centre paid their last tributes to the honourable and brave men today on 09 Dec 21.
Due to bad weather they couldn’t be flown by helicopter.
13/18
They are being moved by road to Sulur, for their final journey to their loved ones.
The Tamil Nadu CM and the Governor of Telangana paid homage. The Commandant the DSSC, addressed all officers and paid tribute.
14/18
We prayed together, for the souls of those that left us and for strength to their families.
We raised our voice to God unitedly for the survivor, who has two small kids. That God be kind and respect our faith.
The military is a life, it isn’t a job. We are on parade 24 x 7.
15/18
All activities were carried out as normal.
Brave men in uniform are the epitome of honour, discipline and valour.
Gen Rawat was of indomitable spirit, sometimes a one man army.
16/18
He took decisions for the military that were reformative, futuristic and in the interest of the nation. The lady was always full of grace and charm.
Brig Tony Lidder, was the epitome of charisma and soldiering, Lt Col Harjinder Singh a soldier and a gentleman.
17/18
The pilots are thorough professionals and the Jawans all brave men, who did their task with pride and honour. Let’s all not give way to speculation and a media that’s only creating unnecessary sensationalism.
This is the truth, from ground zero.
18/18
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December 8th is celebrated as the raising day for #IndianNavy's #submarine Arm.
Greetings to everyone who contributed to it reaching the 54th milestone.
Also a somber remembrance of the sacrifice by those on "eternal patrol".
Jai Hind 🇮🇳
PC: Cdr Abhishek Kankan
Sharing some gems which I received today on different social media platforms.
Here goes... 2/n
Military’s Murphy Laws…
(Via WhatsApp)
● Never share a bunker with anyone braver than yourself.
● Never forget that your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.
● Five-second fuses always burn in three seconds.
● The easy way is always mined.
1/10 #Military#MurphysLaw
● Teamwork is essential; it gives the enemy other people to shoot at.
● If you are short of everything but the enemy, you are in the combat zone.
● Incoming fire has the right of way.
● No combat-ready unit has ever passed inspection.
2/10
● No inspection ready unit has ever passed combat.
● If the enemy is within range, so are you.
● The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.
● Tracers work both ways.
3/10
An interesting article. It should make a good read for all SSB aspirants as well as IOs, GTOs and Psychologists, including those who are coaching kids for the SSB. Presented as a thread here. @SSBCrackExams@simply_mixed_up@ZeOldMonk
ANGULAR PERSONALITIES OF THE DEFENCE SERVICES: Part 1
By Brig BL Poonia, VSM (Retd)
What is an Angular Personality? These are the people whose personality graph at some point shows a prominent kink. They are generally difficult people. But how do we define difficult people? 1/15
They are a 'miniscule minority' who are capable of making the lives of others difficult. In a social group, they are capable of screwing the happiness of even a matured majority. They always want to remain in the limelight and dominate various social groups without having... 2/15
This is an inspiring real story involving an ex Army officer, who after retirement, was working with the Syndicate bank. There are not many people like this soldier. He is Col AK Jayachandran of 12 ASSAM.
Read on in is his own words...
1/10
In life there are some days when one feels terrible & some days, when one feels really good from within. One such happened on a Friday evening at around 7 pm last year in Sep. I was set to go home from the Bank. One clerk & an officer were all who remained in CPPC.
2/10
The phone rang. I hesitated for a minute & picked it up. It was a Veteran Honorary Captain. He was irate & sounded quite fed up. To cut a long story short, he'd approached his bank's branch to settle his dues from his son's pension, which had not been correctly calculated.
3/10
An interesting tale about submarines.
A Soviet submarine ran aground on Sweden's south coast very close to a Swedish naval base in 1981. They claimed it was due to an emergency and navigation errors, but Sweden took it as attempted snooping by the USSR in Swedish waters.
1/10
The sub returned but Sweden was on alert, convinced that Russian subs could still be lurking off their coast. Soon they began to pick up elusive underwater signals & sounds. Swedish subs, patrol boats, and helicopters started pursuing them for over a decade but to no avail.
2/10
Each time, the search would reveal nothing but a few bubbles on the sea surface. Sweden was worried about the intrusions but couldn't fathom why, would Russia provoke them since the Cold War was long over.
3/10
Shared by another Veteran Submariner. Makes a lot of sense to me. Read on...
No retired Chief Justice or Judge comes on the National TV and criticises the judgement delivered by the serving Judge. 1/5
No retired Bureaucrat ever criticises the order passed by the present Cabinet Secretary downward to the SDM. This domain is reserved for the Politicians as they have to fight the elections and gather votes. 2/5
Why the retired Generals come on the National Media and discuss the strategy and tactics of the present day LAC? Who is bothered about their irrelevant obsolete strategy in the present scenario? 3/5