I run a transit camp. My residence & the transit camp officer's
mess are barely five feet apart. Nevertheless, I always make it a point to
dress up & visit the mess for all three meals, daily. I never order food
into my room. In fact I never order food into my room anywhere, even in a
hotel. The reasons are many.
Firstly, its a strain on the staff to serve me in my room. Secondly,
its almost obscene to have unwashed crockery & utensils lying in one's room
as you retire for the day. Thirdly, the smell of the used crockery, utensils
& leftover food tends to seep into every nook, cranny, furniture, linen
& clothing in the room. But the principal reason I go to the mess is to
meet people. You see, my outfit is a transit unit & as such I receive a new
lot of people, officers, JCOs, OR & even some civilians in my unit almost
everyday. I run the first stage acclimatisation camp. I probably have more
officers and men on any given day, than any Inf battalion or Arty regiment.
They all spend 8 - 10 days on an average acclimatising with us before leaving
for their tough assignments in super-high altitudes. Occasionally, when the weather
is bad or when the lines of communication are disrupted, these people spend
more days with us. So, apart from my routine rounds of the camp, I make it a
point to be there at the mess to interact with these officers. This is their
first stage of induction into the high altitude area & I feel obligated to
meet & greet them and learn from them. I am fortunate to the extent that I
get a fairly eclectic mix of officers at the camp. Nearing middle age in life
& old age in service, I consciously avoid sliding into rambling
reminiscences and hemming & hawing about my days etc that will not only
bore the officers but also waste their precious time. So I try to keep the
conversation on the table brief and limited to the time taken to consume the
pudding & be served the after mint. Still, you get to talk a lot during
these interludes.
But this is not a story of my mess going habits. It is sadly an
obituary. You see, most officers I notice want to just get done with their
meals and get back to their rooms and their mobiles and laptops. They do not
want to interact in the mess. Many sit in far off tables & seldom make the
effort to come & join you for the meal at your table if it is empty. I
suppose the fact that liquor is banned at this location is one of the reasons
for this lacklustre motivation to interact. It is curious for the government
does authorise us all Rum & Cigarette Allowance at this location. But then
orders are orders.
There are however a few officers who like to spend time with the people
around, interact with them & allow
for reciprocal learning from each other's experiences. One such officer was Maj
Nisheet Dogra, newly posted to take over an Independent Armoured Squadron in
High Altitude Area. He came in here on 19 Jan 19, from the Western Sector, as
usual for the regular acclimatisation. He was different, I noticed. He
interacted with people around and tried to imbibe from them. He was placed on
reserve for the upcoming Junior Command Course that he felt he may have to
attend. So he came over to me on 26 Jan
19, asking me to teach him about the employment of Artillery and other
professional subjects. We spent hours in my room discussing the mechanics of
Fire Planning and the art of writing a tactical appreciation over mugs of black
coffee. He was an intent listener and a conscientious learner. Apart from
tactics and other professional subjects, he would discuss with me as to how he
can develop the infrastructure and facilities for his squadron, that was newly
inducting from the plains to take over its role in a High Altitude Area. He
spent about 15 days here, stuck as he was along with many other officers
because of heavy snow that precluded movement along the road going upto his
location and beyond. In all these days, I noticed that he continued to learn
from people around and spent time studying in his room. He was generally
concerned that his handing/ taking over period was being depleted by the
weather that was preventing his move to the designated location to take over
from the existing squadron that was scheduled to move out shortly.
He left this place on 31 Jan 19 to the next stage acclimatisation. He
reached his sub-unit location I presume on 05 Feb 19 after the four days second
stage acclimatisation at the next transit camp. I hear that he even continued
to interact with the CO of the next transit camp on similar lines. Considering
the usual four day handing/ taking over period for appointments, I presume that
he would have taken over the same on 09 Feb 19.
It snowed heavily yesterday in this sector especially in the higher
reaches where it touched close to 6 - 8 feet. At about 1500 - 1530hrs on 09 Feb
19, a large and heavy mass of snow slid down the mountainside & struck the
temporary 'Chakda' shelter of Maj Nisheet Dogra. The mass of snow broke in from
one end of the shelter, flushing everything inside including the officer who
was probably resting in his bed along with his belongings & furniture from
the other side. The officer was probably hit badly on his head by some blunt object
even as he was washed out of his shelter and buried 3 - 4 feet under the snow,
with his belongings and furniture scattered over a 50 - 70m distance. Nobody
had noticed the same. At about 1600 - 1630hr, I believe some other officer was
trying to contact him on the telephone and when he got no response he sent
someone to look him up. The people could not find the officer & soon having
realised that he may be buried under the snow, the unit was assembled and they
started digging & pulled him out from under about 20 - 30m away from his
shelter at about 2200hrs (nearly 5 - 6hrs later). I am told his body was frozen
stiff & he had a severe gash on his head, but he probably had some weak
pulse. He could not be evacuated because the roads were not cleared for move due
to snow and the night flying ALH couldn't make it, for whatever reason. In any
case he was in a bad shape and was declared dead at around midnight.
Three Cheetahs of the Army and One Cheetah and one Chetak of the IAF
came here in the morning and couldn't pick up the body from the place
purportedly due to snow, although they were equipped with skis. Finally, the
troops moved the body to another helipad five km away in a tank (a tank mind
you) from where a Mi - 17 finally evacuated his body at around 1530hrs (24hrs
after the tragedy).
The above incident brings to light so many points to ponder. We are
talking about a two and half front war, but we are unable to open up a road to
even one front. Imagine, it took 24hrs to evacuate a body. I really do not know
why a night evacuation was not attempted, but we have received assurances from
higher HQ that when required ALH will be used for night evacuation. However, I
cannot fathom how the pilots can suddenly one fine day take off on a critical
night mission, if they have not practiced the same during normal periods. I
have never seen an ALH arrive in this area by night or even dusk. I am sure
they are capable, but you have to rigorously practice these things during peace
if you have to execute such missions in war or during a crisis. If you cannot
take risk in peace, do you really think you can summon the courage and the
ability to take one during war and execute it effectively.
The next aspect is the roads in these areas. Even after so many years
we do not have proper roads to support our troops. Imagine, they could not
evacuate a casualty because the road is full of snow. We do not have snow
clearing machines. In any case, these machines only function well when the
roads are smooth tarmac. How can you clear a road that is full of boulders and
rocks. A body was transported by a tank. The GREF dozers that are ordinarily
used for these purposes are not functional most of the time.
Then comes our habitat. A 'Chakda' shelter is nothing but a
semi-circular tin sheet with improvised entry/ exit on either sides. Its
uncomfortable to live & inefficient to heat and yet we house our troops in
these at high altitudes where temperatures touch -25 to -40 degrees celsius. We do not plan the
layout of our habitat well and let things develop in an ad hoc & haphazard
manner with no siting keeping terrain, weather and geographic considerations.
We are like those idiots in Hawai, who built a settlement next to an active
volcano and were then wondering why there's lava in their living room. Our
utilities are so poorly planned that we cannot supply water to these troops in
pipelines that do not freeze in the severe winters. Electricity is either
non-existent or through generators and the installations are so poorly done
that there is always the danger of short circuit, electrocution or fire.
And yet war game after war game after war game after war game, we keep
hemming & hawing about defeating this or
that enemy. We want to create IBGs to make vacancies for higher ranks,
but we cannot plan a simple settlement of troops that is safe from essential
elements, forget the enemy.
It is about time we got ourselves to plan well, train well &
execute well. We are doing none of the above. We are day by day becoming a
scared and indifferent army. We are passing orders that absolve us of potential
crisis and consequently and have over the years made our personnel (officers,
JCOs & OR) incapable of performing in a crisis. We are just managing the
aftermath of a crisis and congratulating ourselves of getting through the day.
This is true of all arms and services and all cadres.
Nisheet Dogra's death was tragic, untimely & I feel highly
avoidable. The young man had dreams that he shall never realise now. He is
survived by a wife whom he had married not a year ago.
Lastly, I carry a a mixed bag of remorse and requital in my mind.
Remorse that Nisheet died so young for nothing and requital that my lessons
were probably the last items in his dreams of a good soldiering career, when
the mountain claimed him. I feel that my regular visits to the mess allowed me
to meet this truly energetic young man who was not aloof, indifferent or self
engrossed but was bubbling with enthusiasm and zest for life and willing to
interact with people and learn, and while his face and smile still haunt me I
am also thankful for that for otherwise he would have been just another
faceless casualty among many that our army suffers for nothing.
The only eternal question is Why Him God? Why Him!
Rest In Peace you grateful departed soul. There are no more fire plans
or appreciations to bother you.
No comments:
Post a Comment