Vijay Diwas 1
Vijay Diwas
1999 June - July days.. It’s raining cats and dogs in southern parts of India… South-West monsoon lashing the Konkan shores with ferocious beating.
And in North West of India, what’s raining are shells, bullets, bombs, rockets etc.. Yes, let me invite you to one of those days of Kargil Conflict between India and Pak in 1999 May- July days.
I was in Navy, posted at Goa, Dabolim Naval Air Base called INS Hansa. All Naval Air Bases are named after some birds like Garuda in Kochi, Rajali in Arakkonam, Madras, etc. for obvious reasons. I was Chief-in-charge of the Second line maintenance Unit for the Russian made Kamov 25 Helo( Helicopter). Our job is to support the Front line Air squadrons and ship borne flights to ensure serviceability and operability of the ‘birds’.
With Monsoon at it’s peak, Arabian sea was at it’s roughest and sea state was generally ‘6’ ( very rough with wave height generally 4 -6 mtrs) and for a sailor, the toughest of time in the sea. Ships roll and pitch at the max amplitude causing even the toughest of the sailor to succumb to sea sickness. It’s never easy to sail at these conditions, but that’s no excuse. Captains have no options to choose from. And they don’t look for them too….
We were on alert and have to maintain all critical spares at all times and keep them ready for a short notice requirement. My men were reduced to minimum as many of them were assigned on other general duties. We were all discussing the daily happening at the front line and our blood were fuming at some of the un-soldier like activities by Pak army. Our daily meeting with the Officers in charge (OIC) turned out to be blood boosters and we were all eager to be part of the action, some how.
And there we are…., I am called upstairs to the O I C and he shows me a ‘signal’ (Signal is a Military telegram send through morse coding) from the leading destroyer ship from R class, INS Rana. It says something like this… IN 574 stbd ( right side) Landing gear brace strut Pt No….. cracked. INS Rana reaching goa port with the U/s helo at ….. . Request supports for repair and replacement.
OIC writes ‘na pls’ (necessary action, please) in the signal and hands it to me. We had around 8 hours for the preparations till the ship to reach Goa Mormugoa port in Vasco. Rana was sailing off- Mumbai and they would rush firing in all cylinders to Goa and by then we had to prepare the substitute for the cracked brace strut which connects the wheels with shock absorber to the aircraft body.
It was not the usual what we expected. Scenario is very serious. Helo is standing on support jacks. We need to replace the brace support either inside the ship hangar or we need to lift the whole hello to the jetty, by a large crane, and try replacing the strut on the jetty. Second option is not practicable because of many reasons, like arranging and setting up crane on the jetty, dangers of jacking up the helo out doors with the windy and rainy conditions etc.
We decided to go with the first option, but it had many difficulties of it’s own. The helo hanger inside the ship is a small room, which can barely accommodate the helo. The sea state even along the jetty was not good causing ship to move, even if she is tightly moored to the bollards. And jacking up the helo to almost 1 mtr to offload the wheels on a moving ship is highly risky. Jacking up the helo, onboard has never been done earlier.
To know what happened later, milthe hein break ke baad…..
And in North West of India, what’s raining are shells, bullets, bombs, rockets etc.. Yes, let me invite you to one of those days of Kargil Conflict between India and Pak in 1999 May- July days.
I was in Navy, posted at Goa, Dabolim Naval Air Base called INS Hansa. All Naval Air Bases are named after some birds like Garuda in Kochi, Rajali in Arakkonam, Madras, etc. for obvious reasons. I was Chief-in-charge of the Second line maintenance Unit for the Russian made Kamov 25 Helo( Helicopter). Our job is to support the Front line Air squadrons and ship borne flights to ensure serviceability and operability of the ‘birds’.
As you know, Kargil was a ‘localized’ conflict and not a full fledged war. While Army and Air force was in the upfront, Navy’s contribution was to ensure, there were no attacks through the Arabian Sea to the western parts like Gujarat and Mumbai. For this purpose Navy had mobilized most of its fleet from western command based at Mumbai and some major destroyers from Eastern Fleet based at Vishakhapatnam. All the fighter aircraft and helos were onboard their respective ships.
With Monsoon at it’s peak, Arabian sea was at it’s roughest and sea state was generally ‘6’ ( very rough with wave height generally 4 -6 mtrs) and for a sailor, the toughest of time in the sea. Ships roll and pitch at the max amplitude causing even the toughest of the sailor to succumb to sea sickness. It’s never easy to sail at these conditions, but that’s no excuse. Captains have no options to choose from. And they don’t look for them too….
We were on alert and have to maintain all critical spares at all times and keep them ready for a short notice requirement. My men were reduced to minimum as many of them were assigned on other general duties. We were all discussing the daily happening at the front line and our blood were fuming at some of the un-soldier like activities by Pak army. Our daily meeting with the Officers in charge (OIC) turned out to be blood boosters and we were all eager to be part of the action, some how.
And there we are…., I am called upstairs to the O I C and he shows me a ‘signal’ (Signal is a Military telegram send through morse coding) from the leading destroyer ship from R class, INS Rana. It says something like this… IN 574 stbd ( right side) Landing gear brace strut Pt No….. cracked. INS Rana reaching goa port with the U/s helo at ….. . Request supports for repair and replacement.
OIC writes ‘na pls’ (necessary action, please) in the signal and hands it to me. We had around 8 hours for the preparations till the ship to reach Goa Mormugoa port in Vasco. Rana was sailing off- Mumbai and they would rush firing in all cylinders to Goa and by then we had to prepare the substitute for the cracked brace strut which connects the wheels with shock absorber to the aircraft body.
It was not the usual what we expected. Scenario is very serious. Helo is standing on support jacks. We need to replace the brace support either inside the ship hangar or we need to lift the whole hello to the jetty, by a large crane, and try replacing the strut on the jetty. Second option is not practicable because of many reasons, like arranging and setting up crane on the jetty, dangers of jacking up the helo out doors with the windy and rainy conditions etc.
We decided to go with the first option, but it had many difficulties of it’s own. The helo hanger inside the ship is a small room, which can barely accommodate the helo. The sea state even along the jetty was not good causing ship to move, even if she is tightly moored to the bollards. And jacking up the helo to almost 1 mtr to offload the wheels on a moving ship is highly risky. Jacking up the helo, onboard has never been done earlier.
To know what happened later, milthe hein break ke baad…..
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