A License to Kill … And Die (with apologies to Mr Bond, and anyone else)

Author: Major General Vijay Pande, VSM (Retd)

“To every man upon this earth, death cometh sooner or later,
And how can a man die better, than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his gods”

The Roman warrior Horatius said these memorable lines in the sixth century BC as he valiantly stood on the only bridge on the Tiber River to defend Rome against the army of the King of Clusium. He was there with only two others, hopelessly outnumbered but determined to defend the Gate to Rome. Fast forward to Saragarhi in Sep 1867, where 21 Sikh soldiers held out till the end against hordes of Afghans; to Major Shaitan Singh with his company of 113 men at Rezang La in 1962, who etched it with their blood what fighting to the last man and last round means. I am also reminded of the gallant Arun Khetrapal who fell in battle in 1971 with his last words “my gun can still fire” as well as the redoubtable Commanding Officer in Sri Lanka who, caught in the middle of an unbreakable ambush and implored by his headquarters to pull back, simply stated “Gorkhas don’t withdraw” and decided to fight it out to the last breath. Such examples are many. Laying down one’s life in the battlefield after all is considered the supreme sacrifice for no other reason. I was brought to believe since childhood that it is the most superior form of death as it guarantees a soldier a place in heaven. The fallen soldiers in the Galwan valley exemplified this everlasting attribute in our soldiers. It is not important as to how many of the enemy they killed or wounded, what is important is that the brave CO and his men did not go down without a fight. Without doubt this unparalleled trait will continue to inspire more and more soldiers to look at death in the eye in the line of duty.
After all what is it that differentiates a soldier from his civilian counterparts. At the outset, let me state unequivocally that all citizens, irrespective of the field they are engaged in, do their bit for their country. Patriotism and a sense of duty should not be considered the exclusive preserve of the armed forces. The humble farmer toiling in the fields and getting a pittance for his produce, the truck driver who delivers commodities across the length and breadth of India driving in the most abysmal conditions, the entrepreneur who literally risks his all and leaps into uncharted waters, the doctors, nurses, policemen,… there are so many others engaged in the development of the nation and the well being of its citizens.
There is but a slight difference with the soldier. While a young man or woman taking up a job gets the ‘first thrill’ on receiving his appointment letter and his first salary, the soldier takes an oath in front of his Flag and his God that he will serve anywhere and everywhere required and will lay down his life if his duty towards the country requires him to do so. His ‘first thrill’ is to feel the cold steel of the rifle which will become his companion for the rest of his service; indeed, the personal weapon will become an extension of his body. He will also go on to handle the bigger weapons of war with the expertise that his training will give him.
The soldier is not a warmonger, neither is he a coward. Jingoism of the kind seen in the media is good where it is – in the media and nowhere else. It has no place in the life of the soldier. The soldier must train to fight and fight to win. Simple.
The US Army had a culture of “embedding” journalists with military formations during operations so that they could report more realistically. The last of the kind was Molly Moore from ‘The Washington Post’ who accompanied Lt Gen Walter Boomer and his Marine Corps in Kuwait during the first Gulf War in 1991 and later penned her thoughts in a book titled ‘A Woman at War’. Some of our esteemed personalities appearing on media could do well to get a shot of military awareness, otherwise constantly sermonising on matters military without ever having fired a shot in anger or having been anywhere near the mud and grime of the trench dents their credibility. One needs to “differentiate between a guerrilla and a gorilla”, as the good Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw once remarked!