Made for defence forces

Chennai: For Adambakkam brothers K.M. Arun Kumar (Navy) and K.M. Raghuraman (Air Force), childhood bedtime stories were always about the armed forces. Their fa­ther, Kondam Muni Sub­r­aya Chetty, who hailed from Nellore and worked at Ch­ennai port, wanted his sons to join the defence services, as his grandmother had curtailed his interest.

The brothers, Arun Kumar and Raghuraman, were awarded the prestigious Nao Sena and Vayu Sena medals respectively for their service to the nation, on Republic Day.

Arun Kumar, currently commander at Maritime Warfare Centre, Kochi, was part of two successful In­dian Coast Guard (ICG) ope­rations in June 2013. As officer then in command of ICGS Varuna, he rescued 22 crew members of the Mal­divian cargo vessel MV Asian Express that sank off Lakshadweep due to engine failure and a 2-m vertical crack.

A week later, he and his team rescued an Iranian fishing boat, Al Husaini, carrying 13 Iranian and three Pakistani fishermen off the Kochi coast. The Somali pirates captured the fishing vessel and emptied the boat of food and fuel before the crew could seek the ICG’s assistance.

Raghuraman, the younger of the two, forfeited his le­ave and reported for duty after hearing about the flo­ods that ravaged Uttar­ak­hand on June 17. The helicopter pilot flew 15 sorties a day for one week to rescue 600 pilgrims in the Keda­rnath sector.

“I was actually on holiday in Chennai when the Uttarakhand floods happened. At that time, I was the flight commander of my unit in Bareilly and so I decided to go back even though there was no recall of leave by the headquarters,” said Raghuraman, who is now posted as a commanding officer of a helicopter unit near Delhi.

“We achieved all this only due to our father’s grooming. He would show us photos of Army, Navy and Air Force uniforms from childhood,” Raghuraman reca­ll­ed. The father is no more now but the sons were ha­p­py that he lived to hear ab­out their heroic deeds last year.

The two brothers schooled till class 10 at Sri Ram­akrishna Mission (south) in T. Nagar, before moving to Guru Nanak School. “We were into Bharat Scouts and NCC from our school days and have won Pres­ident’s medals,” said Arun Kumar, who later graduated from the Naval Academy in Goa.

Awareness about the armed forces was low during their school days, Arun Kumar said. Youngsters today should make use of va­ried entry levels available. “Due to lack of information, I wrote every exam and even joined the Air Force for airmen’s training at Tambaram before moving to the Navy,” he added.

The two brothers’ children, however, are clear ab­out their future. While Ar­un Kumar’s younger son Jayanth aspires to join the Rashtriya Indian Military College, his elder son Nik­hil Madhavan wants to go to NDA. Similarly, Raghu­ra­man’s son Surrya hopes to become an Army commando, while daughter Nisha aims to become a Naval officer.