Tales of Glory | Captain Sameer Kumar Singh: He flew in the face of adversity for the security of the motherland

This is a series of stories on officers of the Indian Armed Forces who gave their all to the Motherland. We shall be publishing these stories over the next year on the date these bravehearts performed in the highest traditions of the Indian Armed Forces but left us forever.

George Marshall’s quote — “The soldier’s heart, the soldier’s spirit, the soldier’s soul, are everything” — seems tailor-made for Captain Sameer Kumar Singh, who had a heart of gold, was extremely spirited and was a human par excellence.

On 7 July 1997, exactly 25 years ago, Captain Sameer Kumar Singh, of 79 NDA and 89 Regular Course, affectionately called SK by his coursemates, took off in a Chetak helicopter from Dimapur on an important operational mission.

SK did his schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Jorhat. He was very good in academics and was a fine cricketer and basketball player. He passed out as the Head Boy of the school.

SK belonged to an educated and distinguished family. His father had done BSc in agriculture engineering from the first batch of Pantnagar University and was a senior officer in the Government of India.

SK joined National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, Pune, and was allotted Bravo Squadron. After three years’ training in NDA, he went to Indian Military Academy, Dehradun for the last one year of pre-commission training and was allotted Alamein Company.

SK did well in both NDA and IMA, and won great respect among his coursemates because of his sincerity and his willingness to sacrifice his comfort for others. For his good performance in IMA, SK was given the appointment of Sergeant in the final term.

SK passed out from IMA on 14 December 1991 and was commissioned in 64 Field Regiment of Artillery. He did very well in the Young Officers Course in the School of Artillery, Deolali, and got an Alpha grading in the course.

During three years of Service, he volunteered for the Army aviation and topped the flying course where he obtained an Alpha grading.

An aviator with considerable experience on Chetak helicopters, SK soon became an important team member of the Reconnaissance & Observation Flight (R&O Flt) on his first posting in an Army aviation unit in the North-East after earning the coveted Wings.

His daredevilry and round-the-clock positive attitude made him the apple of the eye of the R&O Flight and he would often be assigned the most complex and compelling missions, which SK would execute with great elan and ease.

On 7 July 1997 in the daily morning briefing at 5 am, as is customary in any R&O Flt, the Commanding Officer of the Flt announced that an important operational mission had to be undertaken that day and it involved flying in an intense counter-insurgency operations area where the terrorists were known to be possessing shoulder to air fired missiles.

The mantle of this extremely important mission fell on none other than Capt SK Singh.

After the briefing SK and his co-pilot swung into action and were all seated in the cockpit of the helicopter along with another crew, awaiting clearance from Air Traffic Control (ATC) before taking off.

The weather was inclement that day and the meteorological reports were not conducive. However, the nature of the mission was such that SK did not think twice of the jeopardies of the mission as the call of duty in the service of the motherland was paramount, and soon he was airborne piloting the Chetak helicopter.

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Also Read: Other pieces in the Tales of Glory series

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While airborne the helicopter experienced turbulent weather. SK deftly tried to manoeuvre the helicopter with the controls. As SK was piloting the Chetak helicopter, the weather started deteriorating and soon after crossing village Tadubi in the Senapati district of Manipur, they crashed into the Sakrabami Ridge. Technically this is called controlled flight into terrain in aviation parlance.

All three persons on board sacrificed their lives in the service of the nation.

Just over a year before this tragic incident, SK had met his lady love and both were set to tie the holy nuptial knot in December 1997. But destiny had planned otherwise.

We pay homage to Captain Sameer Kumar Singh on this solemn day. You shall forever remain in our hearts and memories and will always be a source of inspiration to all of us. Our prayers for your Eternal Peace.

The writer, who retired from the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army, is an alumnus of NDA, Khadakwasla, and IIT Kanpur. He is a MTech in Structures, has done MBA and LLB, and is a prolific writer and a public speaker. He tweets and Koos at @JassiSodhi24. The views expressed are personal.

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