Illustriously donning the dolphins — representing the Indian Navy's most potent submarine arm — on his chest for nearly 40 years, Vice-Admiral K.N. Sushil, hailing from Thiruvananthapuram, is retiring as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Naval Command on Thursday.
However, the senior-most submariner of the Navy has not given a thought to what he would do on superannuation. Keen and quick on the uptake, decisions come to him on the spur. Like the call he heeded as a cadet on board INS Krishna in 1971.
The training ship was on its way back to Mumbai from Porbander after the Independence Day.
“Just before we entered the Bombay harbour, we were sent along with another ship to look for a submarine. One of the fleet ships had picked up one, but lost contact with it. We sailed out with that ship for four-five days to hunt for the sub [which] we never found. In hindsight, it might have been PNS Ghazi on its passage to Vizag,” Vice-Admiral Sushil recounted to The Hindu.
The stealth of a submarine was demonstrated to the cadets as the ships returned to the harbour. INS Tir and INS Krishna were stationed and a submarine took the dive in between. The ships' sonars were holding contact with the sub until it dived up to 30 metres.
“It dives and Tir sends a signal to Krishna, ‘Request last known position of the submarine.' Krishna signals back, ‘Last known position of the submarine unknown.' So I decided that is the place to be in. The choice was very easily made,” Vice-Admiral Sushil said.
Later, as assistant officer on watch on INS Vagsheer, he identified attitude and confidence as the hallmarks of the arm.
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