LAST MAN STANDING : VICE ADMIRAL SARMA VETERAN OF THREE WARS

Anil Dhir

Posted,Odishabarta

Bhubaneswar 17th Dec : Fifty years to the day that Pakistan surrendered 93000 troops in then Pakistan, now Bangladesh, and India’s Army, Navy and Air force established that India is a country which cannot be taken lightly.  Pakistan thought they had India on the ropes, they received a 13 day reply that clearly established that they were no match for India, and even the threat of the U.S. Seventh fleet did not deter India from completing what Pakistan had started.

To commemorate fiftieth year of the Victory, four Mashaals (Victory flames) have crisscrossed the country and visited the homes of as many 1971 veterans as was possible. One such flame also came to Odisha and to the home of Vice Admiral S.H.Sarma, then a Rear Admiral, who commanded the Eastern Fleet in the Bay of Bengal, which played a significant part in the 1971 war, for which the Nation deemed it fit to award him the PVSM “Param Vishisht Seva Medal”. 

As part of the commemoration and to coincide with Vijay Divas, Admiral Sarma was invited to New Delhi and was felicitated by the Navy. He is the senior most veteran to grace the events. On 13^th December, he laid a wreath at the National War Memorial on behalf of the Indian Navy, and also wrote a message in the electronic visitors book there. On the 14th the veterans were felicitated by the Defence Minister, Shri Rajnath Singh at the New Delhi Cantonment. He was the first veteran to be felicitated. 

On the 16^th the Chief of Naval Staff and other Senior Naval Officers felicitated and applauded  him for having been the first Fleet Commander of the Eastern Fleet and for having taken the fleet to Victory. The CNS Admiral R Hari Kumar, said that even though 50 years have passed it is difficult to forget the daring maritime escapades. As General J.S.Aurora had said “The Indian Navy had reduced the task of the Indian Army threefold in the Eastern Sector”. 

These celebrations also coincided with Admiral entering his centenary year on the 1^st of December 2021. Another coincidence is that Admiral joined the Royal Indian Naval reserve on the 16^th of December (1942), and Vijay Divas is celebrated on the 16^th of December every year.He is the only surviving Naval  officer to have served in the World War 2  and  the 1965 and 1971 wars.