AFVOA Newsletter of Year 2021

Section 6 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 01 / 2021 Page 74 of 123 on a very high pedestal and any attempt to show them in poor light, even in an informal game, will not fall in line with “the good order and discipline in the forces”. In other words, the plans presented were simply asking for trouble. Secondly, any tomfoolery that we indulge in should expose the weaknesses in the system, not people. What he said made a lot of sense but with the time running out, we had no Plan B in place. He suddenly assumed the air of Abraham Lincoln who was about to deliver his legendary speech in Gettysburg and said “Chivalry, Gentlemen, and not chicanery will count ultimately”. He himself couldn’t handle the weight of delivering such a Quotable Quote and broke into peals of laughter. In parting, he assured us not to worry and that he would think up something by the morrow. People dispersed with drooping shoulders. As we got out of the Conference Room, my Station Commander was leaving for the day too. He knew what we were there for and asked for a “Sitrep”. When we said nothing concrete had been worked out, he said in a recriminatory tone “I wish you guys had half the imagination of those gutsy ladies. Very disappointing. In our days, we did such scandalous things. You guys always want to play safe and that’s the problem. You will regret when your grandchildren hear the stories of that ballerina incident” and left with a loud guffaw. To say he rubbed salt into the wound would be a gross understatement. Under the circumstances, pouring of a barrel full of unadulterated hydrofluoric acid down our throats would have been less painful! Unlike the previous year, the arrival of D Day did not arouse excitement. More so, when we got to know that the Sqn Ldr had gone out on an Op Mission early in the morning. Post lunch, when we were generally ruing on the lost opportunities, we saw the last flight, with the Sqn Ldr on board landing back. A word about the location. Our Officers’ Mess was on top of a hillock, overlooking the entire runway. While the distance through the winding road was about 4 km, the aerial distance as the crow flies was less than a km. From the lawns, we could watch almost the entire length and breadth of my Base. When we received the Sqn Ldr in the Dining Hall for a late lunch, his manner indicated that he had forgotten his assurances of the previous day. But not the one to give up in a hurry, he surveyed the scene and made some impromptu plans on the fly and headed towards the common telephone booth of the OM. We followed him blindly. He covered the mouth piece with his hanky and dialed the Station Commander’s home number. Our hearts sank when we saw this as nobody plays the fool with the Commander in Services. But we knew that the Station Commander was the Sqn Ldr’s course mate and the special bonding one develops with one’s course mates allows some liberties. The following is a