Saturday, 18 December 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
After 50 years, the officers of the 48 Regular and 32 Technical Graduate Course gathered at prestigious Indian Military Academy (IMA) to celebrate the golden jubilee of their passing out from the portals of the academy. This re union was held in the academy from December 15 to 17. These officers were commissioned into the Indian Army on Nov 14, 1971. Incidentally the year being the 50th anniversary of the victory of the 1971 War is also celebrated as Swarnim Vijay Varsh in Honour of the Indian Soldiers.
A communiqué from the academy stated, “The course in true spirit of camaraderie has a very active participation of 205 veterans along with their family members. The young officers of this landmark course got into active operations of the 1971 Indo Pak War that saw the birth of a new nation, Bangladesh. During the 1971 War, two young officers, second lieutenant MPS Choudhary and second lieutenant R M Naresh, of this course made the supreme sacrifice. The golden jubilee course also has the pride of giving two Army Commanders to the Nation, Lt Gen ( Retd) SR Ghosh and Lt Gen (Dr) ( Retd) VK Ahluwalia’’.
The golden jubilee reunion commenced with the solemn wreath laying ceremony wherein all the veterans of the course paid homage at the IMA War Memorial in memory of their martyr course mates. The Course presented a life size Bangladesh Liberation Statue to IMA to mark their active participation in 1971 war. The statue has been installed at Training and Administrative Building (TAB) in IMA and depicts the historic moment of signing the ‘Instrument of Surrender’ at Dacca wherein India defeated Pakistan and the new nation, Bangladesh was born.
In the reunion the batch-mates became nostalgic and discussed their career in Army from training days at IMA, participation in operations and the social get togethers. As a tribute of remembrance to their martyr course mates they released Golden Jubilee Coffee Table Book, titled ‘Baptized into Battle’.
