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A Live war interview- 1971
This is an inter view of captain gopalakrishnan who fought for india in the war of 1971. he told our correspondent the events that took place in an live interview.
his now 68 and is still going strong. we wish this natioinal fighter but peace lover a long life.
Our correspondent (o.c) : So what branch of the Indian defense were you in? Captain Gopalakrishnan (c.g): I was a commander in the INS Vikrant and now I am a Captain of a merchant ship of ONGC. I was also responsible for the warplanes in the ship, I even had to go spying in them! ( laughs) our correspondent : Wasn’t it a scary situation? captain gopalkrishanan: Scary is not the word. Though I love my job, I hate the killing part. Thankfully, I was not in the combat war, I was in the navy and we do not kill, we capture. Our correspondent: So what spying did you have to do? Captain Gopalkrishanan : Since I am a naval officer, we had to go by ship. The ship had to get near the Pakistani coastline but we had to remain in Indian waters. The spying warplanes seated only two including the pilot, so only important naval officers were chosen for the task.. We used to go by night for quick round over Pakistan and before dawn we had to get back to the Indian side of the L.O.C. We had no staying arrangements as the L.O.C is the most well guarded among other war areas. The password to enter India used to change every hour and anyone not knowing it used to be shot. Every five hours the pilot and I used to be awake alternatively and find out the passwords soon. No one around knew who was Indian and who was Pakistani. Anyone with the permission from the Naval Aviation or Aviation Control to land was allowed, but they too were spied on as they could be enemies in disguise. We had to sleep under the airplane covered in camouflage blankets and go spying again at night. It was a panicky situation, but as long as we did not have to use our ammunition, it was fun! Our correspondent : Which war was this? Captain Gopalakrishnan: This was the war against Pakistan in 1971. Our correspondent: Have you faced any other ‘ Butterflies in the stomach’ situation? Captain Gopalakrishnan: Yes, once. Apart from the 1971 war I was always on ship. I learned to fly only for the 1971 war where I was assigned to fly and spy. Once when I was in my early days on ship, I was just a plain naval officer and not a commander naval officer. We had to fight pirates in the Indian Ocean . The pirates were Indian of course, but valiant fighters. It was a butterflies in the stomach situation at start, but it turned to a funny end because the first person I came face to face was the captain pirate. I didn’t know it was the captain and he could not see me as his back was faced to me. His pistol and sword was hanging from his belt behind and I grabbed it, and I went in front of him. After seeing me, he put his hand behind to remove the pistol and lo! It was not there! I started laughing and I was about to be smacked in the face by him, but my Captain snatched the sword from my hand and called one of the junior sailors to tie him up and my captain called me to a corner and said, “ Venu….what are you going to do with this sword. It is useless. Give it to me.” I had to give it up because politics used to run everywhere then. He took it and then later I found out that he claimed that it was he that took out the sword from the pirate captain in a difficult one-man combat! At first, I was totally pissed off thinking that I could have got a great boost off to my career. But I am happy, as I got more than I wished for. Our correspondent: Are you a lover of peace or war? Captain Gopalakrishnan: Peace, anyday. Our work was to capture the wrongdoers and people were are assigned to catch, and the judges used to sentence them to be shot or sent to jail. We are not responsible for the people who were hanged, etc. but we feel sad for those people, though wrongdoers, they were doing it for a family just like ours, back home.. Our correspondent: Thank you, and don't foget to check out our peace club! Captain gopalakrishnan: It sounds interesting, I sure will Our correspondent: shruti subramanium
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