One of our Army posts in Ladakh have been surrounded by Chinese invaders, had to depend solely on air support. Our troops who had endured the siege had to be relieved and this could be done only by helicopter. On 4th October 1062, Squadron Leader Badhwar and Flight Lieutenant Narayanan flew several sorties to carry out this task. During one of the sorties, they experienced loss of engine power and eventually force-landed in a river-bed after avoiding a few Chinese posts. In order to obtain relief, they walked towards one of our posts, but after some time they observed a large number of armed Chinese troops. They then returned to the helicopter and decided to chance a flight. Meanwhile, about 150 Chinese had taken up positions on the hill tops near the helicopter and were beckoning to them to surrender. With great presence of mind, they managed to get to the helicopter and piloted it safely to one of our posts and thus saved valuable lives and equipment. The cool courage displayed by Squadron Leader Badhwar and Flight Lieutenant Narayanan in a difficult situation was of a high order. |