Congratulations Alma mater NTS@75 !
Missing a date with my alma mater to celebrate its Platinum Jubilee would remain one of my biggest disappointments in recent times. Friends tell me that it was a fantastic show. I for one see that as a missed opportunity to see in person a living legend, Air Mshl Vir Narain and meeting many a revered senior and friend.
My first posting to 10 Squadron, was an entry into a big family of Maruts at Jodhpur - the three squadrons were lined up on a long dispersal. Pilots from the other squadrons sometimes flew with us and despite it being a big constraint, air bottle starter trolleys were readily shared by the EOs. Youngsters bouncing the other squadron parties were heartily welcomed.
A perfect world for me, however, changed when I applied for the Flt Signallers Course. But for a change in track, I would perhaps have had a much longer stay with Maruts followed by another fighter sqn posting. I would hopefully move to a modern fleet like Jaguars, before switching over to radars/ communication like the other AE(L) officers. That would have been a dream run like many of my friends. But what turned out was fascinating and enlightening too.
April to October 1977 was an amazing time at NSS. We learnt about a whole new world of air operations. I do fondly recall the wonderful faculty of officers and airmen led by our CO, Wg Cdr RK Vohra. From the Signals’ faculty, Flt Lt DR Belle (veteran Wg Cdr) and Flt Lt W Raymond (Veteran AVM) were the two role models, most closely associated with us . Flt Lt Rana N Singh (later Gp Capt) made Navigation as a subject interesting and easy for us. His chants of ‘Variation West Magnetic Best’ and ‘Variation East Magnetic Least’ ring in my years even today. The most interesting aspect of our training was the Morse. MWO Guy Thomas was a master at it - his Morse transmission was faster and clearer than his speech. Morse somehow came to me easy to keep me way ahead of my course mates. Ironically, most of them were posted to Jorhat to struggle with Morse while I headed to 6 Sqn with Super Connies and had no further requirement to use Morse.
Brushing shoulders with Super Connie and Canberra crew for five years in 6 Sqn was an eye opener. Pilots were always the icons. However, now I closely saw another set of brilliant professionals, the navigators.
Last year I had suffered from a terrible attack of cervical spondylosis and spasms. A friend, anaesthesiologist and a veteran of hundreds of open-heart surgeries was most supportive. I was amazed at his appreciation of the field of medicine and medical care way beyond his speciality. “You are like our brilliant navigators.” I said to him, and continued, “You don’t perform surgeries yourself. But that gives you time to step back and appreciate the whole process better than the surgeons themselves.”
I recall that Balu Sir’s (veteran Wg Cdr Balu Narayanan) presence in the cockpit was a big morale booster. Standing behind the pilots, he also had an eye on the Flt Engineer’s panel as he communicated on VHF R/T. The pilots had a marked sense of comfort with Balu behind. In fact, we had all highly experienced navigators, who brought quiet assurance to us. The 6 Squadron tenure also had me in awe of our Canberra crew especially the navigators, who had an extremely demanding role in those bombers.
The navigators’ glory seemed to be gradually fading after retirement of the Canberra fleet. However, the induction of Navigators as Weapons and Systems Operators (WSO) in SU-30s and Combat Systems Operators (CSO) in C-130Js shall revitalise the whole lot into an operationally sharpened workforce.
Long live TERNS in their new Avatar!
May the NTS go on to produce top-of-the-line air warriors!
Pramod Athawale
