OF ACTION, PASSION AND HONOUR
A Soldier Tale
He was a problem child for his parents. At school, he was a backbencher and naughty. The parents had no great hopes about him, the teachers wrote him off. Nevertheless, he was full of life and had his fingers in every pie, except in what happened in the classroom. He enjoyed cartoons and war comics, while other children read textbooks. Yet, he scrapped through and went to college. That didn’t seem to change him. He was an all-rounder and popular but aimless and devil-may-care in attitude. When a girl took a shine to him, her father despaired why of all the boys she chose a rascal. And then the war happened. He couldn’t wait to make it into the army. He had barely completed graduation when he catapulted himself into officers’ training. The girl was in tears, begging him to choose a civilian career and marry her. Her father wasn’t the type to let her remain a spinster until he made his bones in the army. It hurt to break her heart, but he was far too fired up to be held back.
It took time for him to transform himself into a soldier from a playful student, frequenting the punishment parades as a cadet, but transform he did, passing out of the academy an officer. Amidst his fellow officers and men in a combat regiment, he found his world at last and lived and loved it. He continued to be popular with his peers and the men he commanded, not always so with his superiors though, which was not in his stars. He could never be the perfect drill-square soldier, but a first-class fighter he was and proved it under fire when another war came. Back to peacetime routine after the dust settled, he found himself restless. It was his quest for adventure that had brought him into the army. Now that he had a taste of it, but with the prospect of another war dim, the army life held no more charm for him. He loved action and soldiering was his passion, but never counted himself a career soldier. Neither did the army, which eased his exit. He loved the army, the friends, the bonhomie, the camaraderie; but it was time to say au revoir, akin, ironically, to bidding good bye to his teenage sweetheart.
He hit the civvy street and found the going tough at first, but resilient as the army had groomed him, he battled on and made his mark. In a checkered career that spanned over three decades, he donned the roles of a farmer, businessman and corporate executive before hanging up his spurs. Somewhere enroute, he had found himself a woman for his life mate and with two children, ended up a happy family man.
Not the retiring type however, he turned to his second passion – writing. Graduating from war comics to war books, he had turned an avid reader of military literature even before joining the army. With a penchant for writing and his own combat experience to help, it was only a matter of time before he turned a moderately successful military writer. One led to another and, out-of-the-box thinker he was, he found himself a gratifying occupation as a military heritage activist.
On home ground, with fellow veterans for company, he couldn’t but observe their obsession with pension and related benefits. He drew no pension, but was happy with what he had earned and saved and the basic needs of life, although he couldn’t probably afford the luxury of a holiday abroad. To him, being active, having things to do, was the greatest source of happiness. And he derived immense pleasure reminiscing his army days. The army had given him the chance of a lifetime for fulfilling the one goal he had set for himself and passionately held the dearest all along, to be in action. What more pension does one need?
He was just a cog in the wheel that the mammoth military machine is. Yet, it hurts him to watch the powers that be denigrating the army he adores. And he finds the sight of the top brass succumbing to political pressure deplorable. Have they forgotten the Chetwode Motto that binds every officer’s code of conduct? “The safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and every time. The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next. Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time.” The honour of the entire army is at stake when the top brass waver. If they cannot defend their own honour, how would they defend the army’s? Having reached where they are, what do they have to fear anyway?
A country’s armed forces remaining apolitical is the cornerstone of every successful democracy. Are we disregarding that tenet? The political class has even begun to decry the unique status of the armed forces. He finds it preposterous to hear a senior politician sermonizing people that there is no difference between soldiers and civilians, his logic: soldiers are civilians before and after they serve in the army and their family members are always civilians! The guy doesn’t seem to have heard the maxim “Once a Soldier, always a Soldier”.
