Main aur Meri helmet took a ride to Meri Paltan on LoC, on eve of our Raising day. Thrill of the road trip was matched by pleasure of chatting with the boys. It was so good to be back home again. We are blessed to have such brave soldiers who ask for so little, yet are willing to pay the biggest price – of sacrificing their own lives to defend the country and countrymen, that is you and me.
—————————————————————————–
– From the FaceBook wall of Lt. Gen (Rtd.) Satish Dua –
—————————————————————————–
After spending the night in Nagrota, Main aur Meri helmet went to Meri Paltan ka Raising Day get-together in Samba, organised by veteran officers of Paltan for retired soldiers of Paltan.
Birth of my Bravest of Brave Bn is an interesting story. The border town of Poonch and numerous villages around it were gheaoed by Pakistan army in Oct 1947. The area in ringed by mountains on all sides. Hundreds of volunteers from amongst the locals as well as refugees, who had been driven away from Pakistan, came forward to help army construct a runway where Air Force started landing transport aircraft and the siege was sustained for one year before it could be broken.
Soon after construction work was over, these volunteers were organised into an armed group called Border Scouts by Brigadier Pritam Singh, the Garrison Commander. This volunteer force assisted in fighting the enemy using their own personal weapons and ammunition. Not only were they not paid, they could not even be fed by the army initially, as they were not in their posted strength. Their wives used to bring them food at their posts from home.
This and several other such volunteer groups that had sprung up in different parts of J&K during this invasion by Pakistan were later grouped as J&K Militia, a paramilitary force. Border Scouts became 8 J&K Militia.
Born in Battle, purified in blood, there was no stopping our Jangi Paltan after that. We won two Battle Honours in 71 war, captured Bana Top in highest attack in the world in Siachen glacier, awarded PVC, MVC, and numerous other awards, set a record of elimination terrorists for three years in J&K, getting first unit citation, served in Sudan under UN, a unit citation there, got an Ashok Chakra in Kashmir, getting another unit citation and rare title of Bravest of Brave, served in Rashtrapati Bhavan, and counting…
Isn’t this a battlefield birthday worth celebrating. Heartening to see the spirit of our serving soldiers and retired veterans. Always!
Kya Jazba hai…
(This is non edited content carried from the Face Book wall of Indian Army’s retired Lt.Gen. Satish Dua)
