AFVOA Newsletter 03 of 2020

Section 2 – News / Updates from the Association CV 2 No. 03 / 2020 Page 13 of 167 With a high powered MC at the helm, it is but natural that they have a lot of news and updates to report. Each of their Webinars is a debonair show of e(lectrifying)Connect eSpecially with eMembers! Not to be charged with partiality, the MC picked a name for the eBook outside of the big list from the enthusiastic members! For those who had read all the articles in the May issue of eBook, Raghu’s Rear View Mirror helps them see clear reflections on all the salient features in those articles. The feedback from the avid readers tested totally positive which should not be construed negatively in the context of Corona testing! The minute by minute account of the launch made me feel that I was watching a new ISRO channel. Then I realized that it was the launch of our website. Kudos to the AFVOA team for reaping rich fruits within six months of planting the first seed of the website! The team deserves all the applauding sentiments of the members. ‘A Race to Dhaka’ was a nail biting thriller. It was so absorbing that I forgot to bite my nails! One wonders how Krishnaswami was continuously making momentous decisions to meet the changing needs of the explosive situation. Equally nerve-racking was ‘The Attack on Tiger Hill’ by Air Marshal Nambiar. Only pilots and meteorologists appreciate the exacting nature of winds at high altitudes! To tame the Tiger, the airmen had to beat both the enemy and the weather. All along I was under the impression that both these authors were script writers for war movies! In the days of deep rooted inter services rivalry, ‘In the Thick of the Battle’ recounts the story of a young ebullient Flt Lt Pereira actively coordinating air support for army maneuvers amidst the din and fury of a battle and that at the cost of his own life. ‘Paid Back in Their coin’ narrates how an enemy coin was good enough for an enterprising Sqn Ldr Gill for a quick fix of his Canberra in pitch dark conditions. In the ‘Valour of a Greenhorn’, the paramount importance of maintaining the flying machines at the backend is fully emphasized by Sankaran. While the Gnat pilots were bombing the enemy, he was de-bombing the enemy (as the leader of the demolition squad in Amritsar Air Base). In ‘A Bond Still Strong’, Mangala disproves the ancient theory that families cannot live in harm’s way and survive the rigor of the forward bases. She also disproves Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest and demonstrates that it was the survival of the bravest. Vijayasarathy’s narration of rescuing a grounded destroyer from coral reef in the waters of Male turns out to be a ‘rat’tling story of Polish rats, Indian rats and English rats whose interracial multiplication cannot be be‘rat’ed or under‘rat’ed. ‘A Ringside Untold Account’ is one illustration of many peace time adventures of the Indian Navy. Interestingly, India was the most hospitable nation to welcome Polish refugees when many European nations turned their backs on them during the World War II. Raghu’s ‘A