Women cadets make history

Chennai: Two women cadets from the Officers Training Academy (OTA) made history at the passing out parade on Saturday by winning top honours, including the Sword of Honour awarded to Academy Cadet Adjutant Preeti Choudhary.
Senior Under Officer Vreeti was awarded the silver medal. Both women hailing from Haryana outsmarted over 200 men cadets to bag the honours.

Preeti Choudhary's interest towards the field budded quite early owing to the family's love for the uniform as her father Inder Singh retired as honorary Captain from the Indian Army.

“My father laid the stepping stone and I came all this way. It is a great feeling to compete with a lot of lady and men cadets and beat them all,” she said.

Commissioned in the Army Air Defence she is the third lady cadet in the history of OTA (55 years, of which 105 courses have passed out) to have received this honour.

First lady cadet to receive the Sword of Honour is Divya Ajith Kumar in 2010 followed by M. Anjana in 2015.

The Sword of Honour is awarded to the first cadet in overall order of merit. An officer cadet has to perform exceedingly well in physical tests, academic training, weapon training, leadership qualities, field engineering and drill and also win competitions like cross-country run, boxing and debate.

Silver medallist Vreeti commissioned to the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME), talking about what sparked her interest in the army said, “When I was working as a design engineer in a private organisation in Japan, I met Wing Commander Pooja Thakur, the first woman to lead the ceremonial tri-service guard of honour escorting US President Barack Obama and my life motto changed from that moment.”

At the Parameshwaram Drill Square, a total of 255 Officer Cadets, including 196 Gentlemen Cadets, 37 Lady Cadets and 19 foreign cadets marched in a parade and marked the end of their training.