The Indian Buff

'If we had sent a few airplanes (into Tibet), we could have wiped the Chinese out.' 'And everything could have been different in the 1962 War.' These were the words of the wing commander Jag Mohan Nath who was deployed in the air force in 1962 and he and the air force strongly believed that their involvement could have turned the tables around for India.  Can you imagine an India where more than 5000 soldiers' lives would have been saved (not to mention the countless other lives that we continue losing due to the constant cross-border issues at the Galwan valley)? An India where the Aksai Chin region, a highly strategic vantage point for China against India, could have stayed with India? Where possibly even the Indo-Pak 1965 war could have been avoided completely?  Exactly 59 years ago the lyrics aye mere vatan ke logon zara aankh mein bhar lo paani jo shaheed hue hain unki zara yaad karo qurbani had got the entire nation, the then prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru...

 Ever wondered how the soldiers serving at Siachen or the line of actual control manage to sustain under uninhabitable conditions?  How do they get their medical-aid, food, ammunition and artillery supplies at such immense heights?                              If yes, then the answer to the questions above and to every soldier serving at Siachen is none other than the ‘Army Aviation Corps’ - one of the youngest Corps in the Indian Army, but did you know that it was in fact a subsidiary of   the IAF before transferring its complete jurisdiction over to the army? Though playing a major role in Siachen, this unit of the army has an exposure to all kinds of terrain, from deserts, plains, forests and high mountains to perpetually frozen battlefields.   Army aviators in short are the driving force multiplier who provide rapid movement of men and material at short notice A quick time travel to ...