AFVOA Newsletter 03 of 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 03 / 2020 Page 148 of 167 The Local Flotilla Ops Officer, another good friend of mine was the sole custodian of Review Charts signed by the President of India. These signed copies were limited in number. They were to be distributed to VIPs, COs of ships, submarines and air squadrons participating in PFR. I got mine and in a couple of days and soon he ran out of signed charts. When I met him later he had a worried look on his face. The reason was that he was given an additional list by HQWNC for signed Review Charts and he didn’t have any. It was too late to get additional copies signed by the President and also would have been embarrassing. He thought for a minute, had a look at the chart and visibly brightened. Two days later he rang up to tell me that the required numbers of signed additional charts were ‘resourcefully’ got ready and distributed to the satisfaction of all concerned. He signed them himself. The sun was setting in Bombay on 8 th Feb 1984 and the last ship of the Review Fleet had anchored. Forming of Review Lines commenced on 6 th of Feb and except for minor snafus it was carried out with clockwork precision under the leadership of Commanding Officer Rana who was in-charge of this operation. Erring ships were made to weigh anchor and re-anchor. Malvan and Mangrol also shifted to the anchorage that evening, and were part of the second Review Line. In all there were 8 review Lines. We were the smallest in the Review Fleet (100 tons), each with crew strength of 2 Officers and 11 men. The harbor was now alive with number of ship’s boats moving from ship to shore and back with liberty men. There was plenty of R/T natter between the ships and their boats. Except for a few boats which were using their (Ships numbers& Baby) as call signs, most of the others were using ‘Mother& Baby’ as call signs for communication. The air was therefore full of Mothers and Babies and there was utter confusion in the friendly ranks. One exasperated voice suddenly piped up on R/T and said” Who’s Baby am I? Who is my Mother?” There was a deathly R/T silence as if a switch had been thrown. A few minutes later an authoritative voice from the Senior Ship came on the line and