AFVOA Newsletter of Year 2021

Section 6 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 01 / 2021 Page 76 of 123 The call ended. Waving his hanky, the Sqn Ldr turned towards us triumphantly but we were scandalized. We didn’t imagine that he would do something as stupid and dangerous as this, course mate or no course mate. Within 3 minutes, we saw the Stn Cdr’s Jonga flying past the OM at break neck speed and we followed its course. We saw the Stn Cdr stopping at the Guard Room and going inside. Within a couple of minutes, he, accompanied by two IAF Police guys in his Jonga, sped towards Blast Pen 3. We later got to know that the Stn Cdr drew a Revolver from the Guard Room. After a few suspenseful minutes in Blast Pen 3, we saw the Jonga moving from one Blast Pen to another as though the entire Base was on fire ! By now, their object of search had changed from Cheetah to Corporal Nair! This is when we panicked. We knew intrinsically that taking such liberties with the Commander is absolute sacrilege and blasphemy. It could have very serious disciplinary repercussions, that too in a field area where the Commanders are vested with higher punitive powers. The ‘Damocles Sword’ over my head looked even more menacing as I was the officiating Adjutant of the Unit. But our man, the Sqn Ldr, was unfazed. He said “Don’t worry guys, let us now think on our feet as to the next steps”. He looked a little lost for a while and his feet didn’t seem to be thinking too much then. When I told him that it could land us all in a Court of Inquiry (CoI), another youngster, who had appeared for his Promotion Exam recently and whose knowledge of Air Force Law was more current than mine, corrected me to say “No. CoI is only when the culpability cannot be established conclusively. This is a pucca case for Summary of Evidence (which is the first step before ordering a Court Martial)”. All of us had an insane desire to wring his neck at this smart aleck wisecrack from him at the most inappropriate time. Nothing of this mundane conversation seemed to detract the Sqn Ldr, who looked like a man possessed and a man on a mission. The Jeeves in him announced grandly “Guys, now is the time to involve the ladies” and started walking towards the Stn Cdr’s residence. Elsewhere in the Base, the Jonga was still making internecine circles, looking for that elusive Corporal Nair. It was already 4 PM. Having completed a threat analysis and seeing no activity from the bachelors’ quarters, the ladies including the Commander’s wife, had retired to their usual Kitty Party routine at the Commander’s home but the threat of the Cheetah’s presence somewhere down there had dampened their spirits. We caught the