Nine officers pass out of Naval Observer School

KOCHI: As many as nine officers, including four officers of the first all-woman batch of observer course, two Coast Guard officers and one officer from the Sri Lankan Navy graduated as observers from the Observer School at the Naval Base on Saturday. The short service commission officers course this time was an all-woman course, a first in the Navy. The observers were awarded ‘Wings’ by Commodore M R Ajay Kumar, Naval Officer-in-charge of Kerala and a veteran observer himself. At the passing-out course, Commodore Ajay Kumar said that observers are the long arms and the eyes and ears of the fleet at sea. Exhorting them to be conscious of this responsibility, the Commodore asked them to imbibe professionalism and technology to master their craft.Recalling the days when he passed out as an observer, Commodore Ajay Kumar said, “it was a different Navy then, and different naval aviation. The technology was different those days. Now the technology has advanced and there is no scope for error. As observers you will decide the course of action, fleet movement and operations in a war scenario,” he pointed out. During the course, the officers were trained in tactics employed in air warfare, anti-submarine warfare and exploitation of electronic intelligence systems. They will now join maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft of the Navy. The officers were trained at the Observer School commanded by Commander P V G K Nambiar. Lieutenant B Pradhan was awarded the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command rolling trophy for standing first in Flying, Sub-Lieutenant R V Kunte Memorial book prize for being adjudged the best in ground subjects and Uttar Pradesh Trophy for coming first in the overall order of merit and best all-round trainee respectively. Sub-Lieutenant Priya Jeyakumar from the Short Service Commission Officers Observer Course was adjudged the best in ground subjects, Sub-Lieutenant Santosh Kumari as the best in flying and Sub-Lieutenant Swetha was adjudged first in the overall order of merit.