Excelled during their service in Indian Army and selected Mysuru city to spend retired life

By Dr. Manik A.V. Bengeri

[Continued from Aug. 11]

The second person who responded quickly and positively to share his experience was Brig. Vinod Kumar Adappa SM, from the Sikh Regiment. He is from Bajpe, Mangaluru and belongs to the Bunt community.

It was quite interesting to know about his decision of joining the Indian Army though no one from his family had joined the Forces before him. We now have a fair number of Officers from Mangaluru. Back then, it was practically unheard of, especially since youngsters were actively encouraged to take up engineering, become a Doctor or look after the farmland.

His parents late Doddakambala Kanthappa Adappa and Saraswati Adappa were shocked to learn that their son was joining the Indian Army, but they didn’t oppose his decision. 

After undergoing initial training at the Officers Training Academy, he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant into the Sikh Regiment and was posted at the Sikkim Sector on the Indo- China Border. As a Platoon Commander, along with 35 Sikh soldiers he was responsible to guard approximately one km stretch of Indo – China Border at the high altitude of 17,000 ft day and night, come rain or snow.

Vinod Kumar Adappa has participated in almost all operations launched by the Indian Army. He has served along China, Pakistan, Burma, Bangladesh and Nepal borders.

He had opportunities to work at difficult points/borders; he is distinguished in high altitude warfare including operations in Siachen Glacier and has participated in Counter Insurgency operations in Mizoram, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir (J&K). 

During his Battalion command period of  April 2001 to August 2003, soldiers under his command eliminated 86 terrorists in counter terrorist operations in J&K. This obviously reflects the operational skills and directions given by him while commanding the Battalion. In recognition of his great achievement, the President of India, who is also the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces, honoured him with the Sena Medal.

 In the year 2009 – 2010,  Vinod Kumar Adappa was nominated to Command a Brigade with not less than 5,000 soldiers under his command, again in Jammu & Kashmir region. On completion of his successful command, he was posted as the Deputy Director General, NCC, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and during this tenure he has guided more than 90,000 NCC cadets over 68 districts of these two States. Out of these cadets, many have joined the Indian Army — a highly creditable job for Nation-building.

He proudly recalls that he owes a lot to his family members, parents in early stage of his life and his wife at the later stage of his life. He becomes emotional while remembering that when their children were growing he could not witness their progress or could help them in their studies. However, he was happy that while he was serving at the borders or carrying out counter terrorist operations, he need not have worried about his domestic front as his wife Sonia Adappa managed the home front courageously. This is the support system that holds the families together through Peace and Field postings.

Now we are sure to get his knowledge for the benefit of our young generation, as he has settled down in Mysuru.  Let us Mysureans wish him a comfortable and peaceful retired life after serving the Nation.

Lt. Col. B.S. Satish

The youngest and enthusiastic retired Lt. Col. B.S. Satish is born into a middle class family on 9th April,1974 and brought up in Shivamogga. His father was a State Government employee in PWD.

Satish was brought up with high values and he developed special interest in NCC. He was academically excellent. Always a distinction holder, PUC proved a tuning point in his life.

While studying B.Sc he joined NCC which was the base for him to decide his line of career — that is, joining Indian Army and serving the Nation. Satish was commissioned in Army on 24th August,1996 as Second Lieutenant and reached to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Due to his Science graduation, he was selected in Technical Arm Corps of Electronics & Mechanical Engineering where the main task of this section is to provide repair overhaul and maintenance cover to war equipment in situ. Satish was associated with Maratha Infantry. His first posting was in Assam which was followed by Baroda,  Secunderabad, Pune, Baramulla, J&K, Jhansi, Delhi etc. He retired from Pune.

He explains about the Army saying that Army is such an organisation, which gives training at all time so that the knowledge remains at the sharpest edge. Awareness of situations like counter-insurgency, border-disputes, riot-control or disaster-management, the trainees are trained very well with man-management, financial-management, logistics as well. The Commander is given the task of managing everything as he is responsible for everything. Just like Brig. Vinod Kumar Adappa, Lt. Col. Satish is also the only one to join the Army from his family.

Seeing his dedication and sense of responsibilities one can conclude that he is born to serve the Nation as he is in true sense wedded to Indian Army.

While narrating his experience, he was saying that he always wanted to serve the Nation by being posted at the borders. But according to his experience, not all can get postings of their choice. In the beginning of his service, he had to face rebels of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) as his first posting was in Assam. It was in 1996 when Satish was sent on duty to search militants of NDFB who were fighting for their separate land. Now, the movement has been extinguished as the militants compromised in the year 2012.

When militant encounter was planned, a militant fired at their search party and at that moment  the bullet just whizzed past him and Satish was saved. At the same time they were also successful in arresting the leader of the militant group. When he asked his higher authorities for further action, his boss Col. ECH Francis arrived at  the spot and appreciated the action of arresting the militant alive rather than killing the militant. This was the first lesson for Satish in his service as well as for life.

Col. Francis conveyed that ‘trigger is easy to operate but difficult to control. One should know the skill of controlling.’ These words remained in the mind of Col. Satish throughout his service. For Col. Satish, ‘Army is not a Profession; it is a way of Life.’

He proudly says that the Army provides everything to the staff not only while in service but also prepares them for the retired life. For this, a special Department has been established and it works in full swing — it is known as DGR (Directorate General Resettlement), which provides them different professional courses, higher qualifications to lead better life.

Serving in the Indian Army was most satisfying for Satish and he is grateful for the same. He is associated with many cultural organisations especially amateur theatre groups. Since he is fluent in Hindi, he enacts in Hindi dramas as well.

To conclude, we can say that these are the real heroes of our country and we are indebted to them. I wish all of them a very happy retired life in Mysuru.

 Jai Hind