A Species called Coursemate

Air Force veterans of the 38 NDA/107 PC had a reunion at Hyderabad recently in Feb ’25. Hyderabad was important for them because the Air Force Academy at Dundigal had begun in January 1971 with the 38 NDA  along with the direct entry cadets of the 107 Pilots Course as the first entrants to the academy. They visited their Alma mater, AFA proudly attired in formals.

Having known many of the 38 NDA/107 PC officers since our younger days, it was indeed delightful to meet them on the sidelines of their reunion.

 

Just a month ago, we had a reunion of our Aeronautical Engineers Course, 4 AEC, also in Hyderabad. The venue was incidental without any historical connect with Hyderabad. Unfortunately, we haven’t had the privilege of going through the portals of AFA – the engineers have started coming to AFA only recently.

Reunions have great similarities, high levels of nostalgia being the most common factor. Happy energies during reunions are believed to add a few healthy years to each one’s life.

The term ‘Coursemate’ is specific to the military, the others being ‘classmate’ and ‘batchmate’. The IAS officers have adopted a lot of their culture from the armed forces. However, all those who share classrooms for two years in their academy, call themselves ‘batchmates’. ‘Classmates’ from schools, colleges, universities and Business Schools are common in all walks of life. Coursemates, however, are unique, far more than classmates and batchmates.

We had our ‘Golden Jubilee Reunion’ at IIT Roorkee three years ago. Some of us, who had missed the Silver Jubilee, were meeting classmates/ batchmates for the first time in 50 years. We had instantly travelled back to our classrooms and playgrounds to relive those lovely years. Life had dealt different cards to us, turning out some of the back benchers into reputed professors and a few top ranked students to initially struggle. Back at Roorkee, we were happily on the same old benches  without differences. However, barring a few who were in contact through the fifty years after graduation, there was little common ground with the others and their spouses.

Therefore, these two recent Air Force course reunions particularly brought home to me the uniqueness of the species called ‘Coursemate’.

The IAS and other services batchmates also meet regularly. Since they have attended classes together, they share fond memories of their younger days. They do run parallel in service, but they are scattered in different states and districts. Rarely would you find officers from the same batch posted together in one department. The same goes for Business School graduates.

In comparison, our young officers from a course are posted many to a squadron or a station together. Senior and junior course officers also come out as thick friends just like the coursemates.

We grow in service together, get married and share bonds with families within a big family called the squadron or unit. We do have operational emergencies unknown to the civilian world, which intensely bind the families together. Those happy times as well as tough times are remembered throughout. Coursemates revel in one another’s success and milestones and they are there in one another’s hardships.

A Coursemate is therefore, a classmate, a colleague and more. We must truly envy our Ex-NDA friends. They are classmates at two impressionable levels in life, one in NDA just out of school and the other at Air Force Academy. Their bonds are further strengthened during fighter, transport, helicopter conversion levels. And they have coursemates across different branches from pilots, navigators to the other ground duties as well. That’s a big, big plus!

As engineers, we had missed the fun of having the other branch officers as our coursemates. Good things do take time to happen. The recent policy of getting AE courses first to AFA for one term has been a blessing for engineers. Now they have coursemates at places of their first posting, facilitating a rollicking start to their innings in the Air Force.

We have long-awaited the establishment of an Air Force Engineering College - an in-house degree course would provide longer duration for military character-building process. Besides that, the coursemate effect would be tremendous, like that for the NDA graduates. Both the Army and the Navy have many institutions awarding engineering degrees in-house. But somehow the Air Force could never get the requisite approvals. The foundation stone for an Air Force Engineering College was once expected to be laid by the Raksha Mantri in Kanpur. However, we couldn't follow up.

Happily, now the policy of getting NDA graduates to come to AFTC for acquiring an engineering degree and join the AE branch has come about. I hope that this policy is sustained. This will surely enhance the coursemate effect and sore up the operational effectiveness.

Long live the Coursemates!

Air Mshl PV Athawale