NEW DELHI: A decade on since the devastating tsunami that struck South and South East Asia leaving in its wake a trail of death and large-scale destruction, an IAF officer on Friday published a book chronicling the despair and heroism that the force’s personnel faced while tackling the tidal tragedy.
IAF chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha released the book - A Few Good Men and the Angry Sea - penned by Air Commodore Nitin Sathe.The book is a collection of memoirs of the author who was a Wing Commander posted at the IAF Station in Car Nicobar during the tsunami. Among those present was Air Commodore B S Krishna Kumar, who had been posted as the Commanding Officer of a helicopter unit at Car Nicobar just about seven weeks before the catastrophe.
Kumar took off in his helicopter and rescued about 300 people on December 26, 2004. Kumar quoted from the diary of a survivor: “The wail of the grieved ones was strong enough to rip apart the strongest of hearts while the joy of people reuniting with their families was also beyond imagination... The ones who wept did not do so for (loss of) their homes or belongings and the ones who rejoiced did so inspite of it.”
Following tsunami, the IAF posted 11 officers and a bunch of dedicated men, including Sathe, to take up the challenge of restoring the operational fitness of the IAF base within 100 days.