Mangaluru, August 10: “We ask about what the nation has given us, but what we need to ask ourselves is what have we given to the nation”, said Subedar Yogendra Singh Yadav.
Param Vir Chakra awardee Subedar Yogendra Singh Yadav was delivering a talk on ‘Words of a Real Hero’, organized by Yuva Brigade, at Canara High School here on Sunday August 9th.
Yadav was awarded Param Vir Chakra for his bravery in the Kargil War, where he had killed four Pakistani soldiers and had survived several bullets.
Addressing the gathered he said, the soil of this land is sacred. It is only this country that we call as our motherland or Bharat Mata. Being born in this country, it is our responsibility that we should not forget our motherland till the very last breath. I was inspired by my father who served in the army. When I joined the army, my first posting was in Srinagar where I was deployed to counter terrorism, he said.
Recalling his experiences, he said, on May 1st, 1999, I visited home on leave, got married on May 5th and I returned to my duties on May 20th. When I returned, I learnt that our battalion from Manas sector was shifted to Dras sector. As I reached Srinagar, I came to know that Kargil War was about to begin. Each soldier thinks that he should do something for this great land and I got this opportunity at a very young age.
During the operation at Tiger Hill, it was too cold at Dras sector. Even in very harsh situations, our soldiers fought bravely against the enemy. Tiger Hill is also a very steep and climbing it is a very challenging job. It is also the toughest job to go reach the top and fight with enemies. We continued to fight even after suffering serious injuries and our soldiers managed to finish off the enemy team, he said.
Even after sustaining bullet wounds on hands and legs, I continued to fight against the Pakistani army who had advanced arms. Though the death of his colleagues shattered him, he fought bravely against more than eight Pakistani soldiers. The Pakistani army had planned to bombard the battalion of Indian post. Despite serious injuries, I succeeded in conveying the message about this to the commanding officer, he said.
The speciality of Indian soldiers is that they fight for their country till their last breath and the last bullet in their guns, he added.
Grenadier Subedar Yogendra Singh Yadav was honoured on this occasion. He also released the logo of 1965 ‘War of Tankers’ to mark its golden jubilee.
Farmer Frank Fernandes was also felicitated on this occasion, for his brave deed of averting the possible train mishap after learning about the fragmentation on the Bondel-Pachanady railway track recently.
MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, Chakravarthy Sulibele, Naresh Shenoy and others were present on this occasion.
