50 yrs on, ‘Born to battle’ IMA batch pays homage to mates

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 13

Completing 50 years of having passed out of the Indian Military Academy (IMA), officers from the famed “Born to battle” course got together to pay homage to their mates at the National War Memorial in the national capital on Sunday.

The batch had passed out of the IMA on June 13, 1971, and within six months were thrust into the India-Pakistan war of December 1971, hence the sobriquet “born to battle”.

Twentysix of the batch mates got together in New Delhi today. Lt Gen Vishnu Kant Chaturvedi, one of those who attended the event, said similar events were organised at Chandimandir, Pune and Bengaluru.

A total of 349 cadets passed out of the IMA in June 1971 and 50 years later, 95 of them have passed away due to various reasons. Five officers of the batch were martyred during the 1971 war. One among them was Param Vir Chakra awardee Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal of the Poona Horse Regiment. He was responsible for repulsing a fierce counterattack at the Basantar river in the western sector. After having destroyed five enemy tanks, he laid down his life fighting for the country.

Col NJC Nair, Commanding Officer of the 16 Maratha light infantry, was awarded the highest peacetime gallantry award Ashok Chakra posthumously for counter insurgency operations in Nagaland.

According to the original plan, the batch mates were to reunite at the IMA, Dehradun, to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of their passing out, but the Covid-19 pandemic forced them to change the plan.