BENGALURU: Business school students are not able to point out to where Siachen and Kargil are on the map, said Captain Raghu Raman, CEO of National Intelligence Grid, Ministry of Home Affairs, while speaking at the 4th edition of IIMBue.
An ex-armyman, Raman faced Pakistani troops in Siachen. He spoke about the trials he faced then and the lessons one can learn on combat training from these experiences.
“While patrolling, we walked in thigh-deep snow at a temperature of -45 degrees Celsius, carrying our weapons and supplies, all when the body’s metabolism is 1/5th of what it is normally. We walked in a group with a rope tied around our hips, to prevent anyone falling into crevices formed due to the constantly moving glacier. The entire team wins or loses together,” he said. He said that at those temperatures, troops also had to deal with chilblains, frostbites, pulmonary oedema and cerebral oedema.
“When a member of the troop died due to cerebral oedema, his body was wrapped and kept in the bunker. A 20-year-old soldier had to lead a team of men for the next 5 months and 25 days, living with the dead body, knowing every day that they could meet the same fate,” he said, adding that it was during times like these that true leadership came out.