The village in Maharashtra has continuously sent soldiers to the Army since World War I. Every other person you meet is a soldier or a retired soldier or is aspiring to be a soldier.
On the parade ground are sons of jawans, farmers, LIC agents, daily wage farm labourers, shopkeepers. all living their moment of triumph; their faces bright with the possibilities that lie ahead.
I was a young pilot in the IAF and Tom Cruise (with his genuine Ray-Bans) was now an icon with his sensational performance in Top Gun. The IAF, maybe influenced by the movie, decided to issue pilots Ray-Bans as part of their flying kit, remembers IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe.
After five months of a rigorous training, the Agniveervayus passed out of the Airmen Training School, impressing the audience with the skills they had acquired in just 22 weeks of training at the IAF base.
BY AIR COMMODORE NITIN SATHE (RETD) The 1971 war. His first mission. The last thing the young flying officer expected was to be shot down. He ejected safely and followed the protocol for surviving in Pakistan. ‘I am Flight Lieutenant Mansoor Ali of the Pakistan air force and I was shot down by the Indians