Sino-Indian border personnel meet on Harvest Festival

Sino-Indian border personnel meet on Harvest Festival: Leh. 14 April, 2016. Ceremonial Border Personnel Meetings (BPMs) on the occasion of “Harvest Festival’’ was conducted on today at Indian BPM hut in Chushul and  at Indian Meeting Point Hut at Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) in Eastern Ladakh. The…

Ashton Carter all set to forge closer ties with India

Ashton Carter all set to forge closer ties with India: By Sangeeta Saxena New Delhi. April 8, 2016. As Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s high profile visit to India began with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s home state Goa, the  progress in aircraft carrier, jet fighter, and jet engine collaboration will be…

Indo-Thai coordinated patrol (CORPAT) in Andaman Sea

Indo-Thai coordinated patrol (CORPAT) in Andaman Sea: New Delhi. 23 April 2016. INS Karmuk, an indigenously built Missile Corvette based at the Andaman and Nicobar Command, alongwith a Dornier Maritime Patrol Aircraft, are participating in the 22nd Indo-Thai Coordinated Patrol (CORPAT) in the Andaman Sea. Maritime interaction between India…

Sino-Indian relationship : A little more friendly in Modi’s regime

Sino-Indian relationship : A little more friendly in Modi’s regime: Parrikar’s maiden visit to China begins By Brig.Vijay Atray & Sangeeta Saxena. Singapore & New Delhi. 18 April, 2016. Amidst mumbles of discontent and sharp Indian reactions on Beijing’s move to block India’s attempts in the UN to ban Pakistan-based…

Women climb higher in US army ranks

Women climb higher in US army ranks

·         10^th Mountain Div gets its first lady Brigadier

·         Army Rangers get their first women officers

By  Sangeeta Saxena

New Delhi.  US has come a long way  since the American Revolutionary War, women served the U.S. Army in traditional roles as nurses, seamstresses and cooks for troops in camp. Army Col. Diana Holland, the 10th Mountain Division’s deputy commander for support, was promoted to brigadier general and became the first woman to serve as deputy commanding general in any US Army light infantry division.

 Holland is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan this fall as the division’s deputy commanding general for support, in support of Operation Resolute Support. Holland previously deployed with the 3rd Infantry Division to Iraq in 2004 and led the 92nd Engineer Battalion and the 130th Engineer Brigade during deployments in Afghanistan.

 Holland was among 895 second lieutenants who graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1990. It was the 10th class to graduate women and the first to have a female cadet serve as first captain, the highest leadership position in the Corp of Cadets. Approximately 2,000 of the 7,000 lieutenants who received their commission that year went on to reach the rank of colonel, and only 40 have been selected to become brigadier generals.

Lauding  the noncommissioned officers with whom she has worked throughout her career she  said, “As a leader in the Army, we are charged with inspiring our soldiers but I often found myself inspired by them.” Previously, 18 of the Army's 308 generals were women. Now Holland has joined their ranks.

In another first Captain Kristen Griest and First Lieutenant Shaye Haver became first women to wear the tabs of  US army rangers. An Apache helicopter pilot from Copperas Cove, Texas, Haver said she plans to return to her unit. Griest, a military police officer from Orange, Connecticut, said she’s interested in special forces operations should they open their teams up to women. She said that she had wanted to become a ranger for years, and both she and Haver said that they wanted the best training the army could provide.

To trace history General Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Florence Blanchfield to be a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, making her the first woman in U.S. history to hold a permanent military rank. A member of the Army Nurse Corps since 1917, Blanchfield secured her commission following the passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act of 1947 by Congress. Blanchfield had served as superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps during World War II and was instrumental in securing passage of the Army-Navy Nurse Act, which was advocated by Representative Frances Payne Bolton.

And it has not been a bed of roses as many would like to believe, for these women. During the War in Iraq, three Army women become prisoners of war in the first days of the invasion and total casualties to date in the two Gulf Wars is 98. And they are great soldiers who don't make excuses about their gender. 42 women in different ranks of the Army became casualties in Afghanistan.

During the Revolutionary War, women follow their husbands to war out of necessity. Many serve in military camps as laundresses, cooks, and nurses but only with permission from the commanding officers and only if they proved they were helpful. Deborah Sampson served for over a year in General Washington’s army disguised as a man. After being wounded, her gender was discovered and she was honorably discharged. Later, she received a military pension from the Continental Congress.

In the last two years of World War I, women are allowed to join the military. 33,000 women served as nurses and support staff officially in the military and more than 400 nurses died in the line of duty. During World War II, more than 400,000 women served at home and abroad as mechanics, ambulance drives, pilots, administrators, nurses, and in other non-combat roles. Eighty-eight women are captured and held as POWs (prisoners of war). In 1948 Congress passed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act granting women permanent status in the military subject to military authority and regulations and entitled to veterans benefits.

During the Korean War, over 50,000 women served out of whom 500 serve in combat zones as nurses. In the Vietnam War, over 7,000 women served, mostly as nurses in all five divisions of the military, Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard in Vietnam and all were volunteers. In 1973 the military draft (only for males) ended and an all-volunteer military was formed creating opportunities for women. In 1976 the first females were admitted to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to be trained in military science.

The US Army Women’s Museum is on the Fort Lee Army Post uses uniform displays, pictures, recordings, dioramas, static displays, and material and equipment to tell the story of women who have served in wars and military operations from the American Revolution through the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the name suggests, the museum is all about women’s role in the history of the Army.

BRO  all set to fill the yawning gap at Sino-Indian border

By Sangeeta Saxena

New Delhi. As Border Roads Organisation turned fifty five this year, there is something new and promising which catches the eye. It has stopped sailing  with it’s feet on two boats- Ministry of defence and  Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The BRO which has been functioning under the administrative control of Ministry of Defence (MoD), gets it’s budget reflected in the Demands for Grants under from Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) until year 2014-15. Accordingly, from the financial year 2015-16, the budget of BRO has also been shifted from MoRTH to MoD.

Vide Gazette Notification dated 9th January, 2015, all matters relating to Border Roads Development Board and Border RoadsOrganisation have been placed under Ministry of Defence in Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961. In another development instruction has been issued for E-procurement in BRO for ensuring transparency.

A civil engineering institution responsible to provide civil (construction) engineering cover to the Armed Forces of India, during war and peace,BRO is the brain child of India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. It has till date constructed 28,342 km of formation cutting, 32,885 km of surfacing, 12,200 metres of permanent bridges and has undertake Rs 2039 crore (USD 436 Million) worth of permanent works. Over 75 percent of BRO’s road construction projects are in High Altitude Areas (HAAs). It is presently building 2,764 km of a total of 5,061 km road length in India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh alone.

Government has identified 73 roads for development along the International Border with China. Of these 73 Indo-China BorderRoads (ICBRs), 61 roads of total length 3410 km have been entrusted to Border Roads Organisation (BRO). Certain norms have been relaxed for projects concerning national defence and security or involving other strategic considerations. Out of 61 ICBRs with BRO, 19 roads of length 625 Km has already been completed. The connectivity (formation work completed) has been achieved on 24 roads and the work is under progress on 16 roads, while works on 2 roads is yet to commence. Out of the remaining 42 ICBRs, the target set for completion for 40 ICBRs is 2018 and for 2 roads the completion is expected to go beyond 2018.

Measures have  been taken to improve the work in BRO as Prime Minister Narendra  Modi’s second pet project after Make in India is Make for India. The financial powers of ground executive have been enhanced for speedy sanction and execution of works. In order to introduce the latest art of technology being used by various developed countries the officers of BRO are being sent on training in various foreign countries. Inspection of works on roads is being carried out regularly by executives at Project, Task Force level and by Regional inspection teams to ensure the quality of works. In case of delay in completion of works Chief Engineer Projects are counselled to show greater diligence in the achievement of laid down targets.

An important reason why India is lagging far behind China with regard to roads and rail near the LAC is their very different perceptions of border infrastructure. Besides the very difficult terrain and hostile weather conditions in which roads in the Himalayas have to be built , problem is also due to the unrealistic deadlines set by the government. Challenges like land acquisition and environmental clearances delay the projects . Also forest and wildlife clearance, hard rock stretches, limited working season, difficulties in availability of construction material due to natural disaster such as flash floods earthquake , avalanches and snow create hindrances for BRO. The GREF (Ground Reserve Engineering Force)as it is also called, ensures restoration of damaged bridges in addition to road infrastructure .

The yawning gap in the quantity and quality of India and China’s infrastructure near the LAC has multiple and far reaching implications. This is why a rejuvenated , self sufficient , motivated and diligent Border Roads Organisation is the need of the hour.

CRPF defends the nation at HotSprings in 1959

An event that changed the course of Indian history

CRPF’s Operation Hot Springs

By Sangeeta Saxena

The CRPF men who gave the supreme sacrifice at Hotsprings

New Delhi. Very few Indians know that it was the Police personnel who were responsible for manning the 2,500 mile long border of India with Tibet until the autumn of 1959. On October of that year, at a height of 15,300 feet above sea level, in temperatures much below zero at Hot Springs in Ladakh,10 policemen were killed in an unequal combat with heavily armed Chinese troops.  

In early September a patrol party of Indian soldiers was captured east of Chushul by the Chinese and released in the beginning of October. It was a time when the nearest Army Garrison was at Leh. The only units available for the Indian Government to use to project force quickly were the IBTF(Indian Border Task Force) and the CRPF(Central Reserve Police Force) units in the area. As a repercussion the two forces, got orders from the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Home Affairs on 22" September to establish new posts right at the Chinese occupation line in Ladakh. For all intents and purposes the jurisdiction of the operation was given to the IBTF units under DSP Karam Singh and a force of forty CRPF personnel deputed to the IBTF under DSP S.P. Tyagi. The first outpost was supposed to be at a place called Hot Springs.

Memorial for the brave at Hotsprings 

On October 20, 1959, three reconnaissance parties were launched from Hot Springs in North Eastern Ladakh in preparation for further movement of an Indian expedition which was on its way to Lanak La. While members of two parties returned to Hot Springs by the afternoon of that day, the third one comprising of two Police Constables and a Porter did not return. Karam Singh sent out a larger team of ten policemen to go out and look for the three lost men who returned at 2300 hours that same night without success. But interestingly they had discovered hoof -prints on the ground which was proof of Chinese soldiers in the area.

At 0700 hours the next morning, on the fateful day of October 21, 1959, Karam Singh and Tyagi led a team of around twenty policemen armed with bolt action rifles in search of the missing policemen on ponies. The rest of the force was ordered to follow behind on foot. They reached the point of the hoof –prints, dismounted and awaited the arrival of the main force. On the arrival of the main party it was decided that Tyagi would stay behind and command this larger force while Karam Singh and his small group of twenty would follow the tracks and see if they led to the Chinese intruders in that sector. Because of the hill feature along the bank of the Chang Chenmo River where the hoof –prints continued, the two parties lost contact. At about midday, Chinese Army personnel who had the advantage of height by camping on a hillock, opened fire and threw grenades at Karam Singh’s party.

In the massacre ten CRPF men laid their lives  and nine were wounded. The main force under Tyagi was forced to retreat and their attempts to recover the bodies of the dead CRPF men later in the night went in vain since many of the forty men under his command had also been wounded to some degree or another and the Chinese still dominated the hill above the riverbank which they continued to hold even on the 22^ndOctober when Tyagi was finally ordered to retrieve his remaining force back to Tsogstsalu. Four of the more seriously injured policemen under Tyagi were airlifted to Srinagar on November first to be placed in a Military Hospital there.

For Karam Singh and the other prisoners the tragedy had just begun. Five of them were made to carry the dead body of the Chinese soldier who had been killed. They were all put together in a pit six feet deep, seven feet wide and fifteen feet long, normally used for storing vegetables. It was covered with a tarpaulin which left several openings through which the ice-cold breezes penetrated. We had to spend the night on the frozen ground without any covering. No water for drinking was provided nor were they permitted to ease themselves during the night and the following day. For the first three or four days they were given only dry bread to eat. Frostbite had started to set in due to the extrme cold.

DSP Karam Singh 

On the 24th Karam Singh was shown the corpses of the Indian policemen killed during the gunfire and asked to identify them. Then for the next twelve days he was tortured along with the others to make him admit that the Indians had opened fire and precipitated the skirmish, which he didn’t. The interrogation continued on the 27^th and 28^th . On 29^th along with Karam Singh and his fellow prisoners,  Chinese also returned the three Indian policemen for whom Karam Singh’s search party had started the hunt. The body of Constable Makhan Lal was never returned and remained unacknowledged by the Chinese. The last time he was seen was where the Chinese had forced Karam Singh and his men to leave his wounded body on the bank of the Chang Chenmo River under the protection of Chinese soldiers. He was most likely neglected and died of his wounds but there are no confirmations of this ruthless act on the part of the Chinese.

The bodies of the ten brave CRPF men were returned by the Chinese at the Sino-Indian border on November 13, 1959. At 8:00 AM on November 14, 1959, the bodies of the CRPF men were cremated with full police honors at Hot Springs. Karam Singh received a national hero's welcome. He was awarded the President's Police Medal by Prime Minister Nehru himself. The day of this gallant sacrifice is now commemorated as Martyrs Day by the Police all over India. Every year on this day, representatives of all the Police Forces in India gather at the Martyrs Memorial at Hot Springs to pay tribute to the Martyrdom of these brave hearts.

New Delhi got the news of the surrender of Karam Singh and his group of survivors under devastating Chinese fire on October 22, a day after the tragedy. On October 23 the Ministry of External Affairs submitted a note of protest to the Chinese Ambassador in Delhi. However, on the inside, Prime Minister Nehru and the Army Commanders had immediately come to realize that the region could not be left to the IB and police alone and army definitely needed to step in. Two days later from October 25 the Indian outposts in the region began receiving reinforcements and medical. On October 27 the Chinese Foreign Ministry informed India and the world that it was prepared to release the captured Indian policemen "at any time". On November 15, 1959, the Indian Army took over direct command of the frontier with China. It was one of the most crucial events leading up to the 1962 war.