AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 6 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 212 of 332 18 Arrow Pointing to the North Wg Cdr C Ravishankar Genre: Humour in Uniform hose of us who have passed through the exalted portals of the DSSC would have experienced the light hearted inter services competition and the harmless pulling of each other’s legs that happens through the Course. The tight upper-lipped stiffness of the Army, the perceived casualness of the Air Force and the deafening silence of the Navy are the usual subjects of tongue-in-cheek references most of the time. This is one such incident. During some academic event on Close Air Support, in good humour though, an under-the-belt and an uncharitable dig was made on Air Force which evoked much laughter from the audience, mostly from the Army. The fact that the jibe was conceptually wrong had the Air Force licking it’s wounds and smarting silently on that day. Very soon, an opportunity to pay back in kind and in the same coin presented itself. It was a Sand Model discussion, hosted by the Army. Quite unlike the usual precision planning that one associates with the Army, this inter-services event was postponed twice at short notice, leaving no time to re-schedule their own Wing events for the Air Force and the Navy. And when the event was finally scheduled for the third time, the Air Force and Navy were mistakenly given a time of start that was an hour ahead of the actual event. It was an irritant for the Air Force and Navy to sit and wait doing nothing, but the stupendous quality of the Sand Model kept the early birds from the Air Force and Navy Wings spell bound for the first 15 minutes of the long wait. That is when the student Officers saw all the Air Force DS getting together in a huddle and one of the senior DS, with a wink in his eyes, who was also known for his subtle sense of humour, walked up to the Sand Model and removed the bright red coloured, classic ‘Arrow Pointing to the North’, and placed it upside down in the opposite corner of the Model. It merged with the simulated ambience and none could see anything was amiss. The seated audience was amused but kept quiet. T