Siachen Story Part 2 - Deployment

Also read: Siachen Story Part 1 - Induction     

Soon after our visit to the 'OP Baba' temple, we started our induction process. Amar Post is part of the Northern Glacier and situated off the Bila FondLa(18,000 feet) on a very high ridge, which is practically impossible to climb from the Indian side. And it was 14 to 15 days of walk and acclimatisation away.
   The induction involved four days walk to 'Kumar' at 16,000 feet followed by four days acclimatisation; three days to 'Bila' followed by another four days acclimatisation (I may have got the days wrong, but that's memory!). Last leg was a short helicopter ride to the post.
    
    We started early in the morning as part of a link patrol with all our stuff loaded into our oversized rucksacks. Every day, we walked about 5-6 hours to reach the next staging camp, where we would rest for the day. We were walking on the glacier itself, so the early morning marches - to reach the destination before the sun came up, along with which cracks and crevasses would start showing up on the Glacier surface. Of course, we were roped up, and were newly trained in shouting "Crevasse",  hitting the ground and burying our ice axe  in the ground as an anchor, and holding on tight, should someone fall down a crevasse...
    A couple of hours walk on the moraine is enough to make you regret the day you joined the Army. You start sweating inside your mountaineer clothing (imported at great cost by the government), breath starts freezing in your nose and around your mouth and you get tired of slipping and falling on the ice surface, in-spite of the crampons on your boots. This was repeated for the next four days till we reached 'Kumar' Post. 
    The three officers posted here promptly set up a bridge table and taught me the basics in their fibre glass hut, which kept warm with the perpetually burning kero heaters. We spent the next four days in this 'luxury camp' and I picked up a fair bit of bridge, and watched a couple of movies on a CD player, though, even this became monotonous after some time.

    After four days we moved on to the Bila glacier, and immediately, we could sense the effect of altitude and snow - we were walking through more than 4 feet of snow most of the time. We also crossed a number of huge crevasses, some 15 - 20 feet wide. We would sit on the ladder laid across and pull ourselves across, rung by rung. And its difficult when you're tied  to 6 other people by rope!

Another three days of endless walking (distances were not that great, but at 17,000 feet, they do feel huge because of the lack of oxygen). Well, we reached our last transit post before getting on the helicopter for the short hop onto Amar Post. We had to stay here and again acclimatise before going up. This was also the place where many a man ( and officer) had succumbed to the horror stories from the posts ahead and feigned a well timed 'chest pain' to return to Base Camp.

   

A Garhwal battalion was also inducting at that time. In the middle off the night, someone woke me up (I was the only officer on the transit post on that day) and said that one of the soldiers had seen a man near a crevasse where a soldier had fallen a few days back. I met the soldier who reported this and found him to be disoriented and delirious. The others probably couldn't see that he was suffering from HAPO (high altitude pulmonary edema), being the simpletons they were. So I told them to quietly slip him one of the tablets for the symptoms. The next morning, we checked and found that he was better and did not remember seeing any 'ghosts' near the crevasse.

    After three days, we were told that a helicopter would come and pick us up for Amar. It was a sunny day and sure enough, at 0800h, we saw the Cheetah helicopter come in and land at the helipad (I was very keen to join Army Aviation Corps and had put in my application, was waiting for my pilot aptitude test). The first few sorties to Amar carried only a Jerry can of kerosene each.(The helicopter could not carry a heavier load till its own fuel weight came down, since they were operating much higher than their operating ceiling of 17,700 feet). I got in on their fourth sortie and got the helicopter ride of my life! The chopper kept shuddering as it climb up and up till it could no longer, and then it flew along a ridge till I could see a couple of soldiers sitting in shallow trenches next to an 'H' at a gap in the ridge. That was it. The pilot set the helicopter on the helipad, which was on a slope. The door was opened by one of the guys on the ground, I was pulled out, and shoved into a small hole in the ridge along with my rucksack. The helicopter lifted off, and dropped into the valley from where it had come. Within 30 seconds, I felt the 'boom' and 'crump' of the first mortar bomb landing.

    

That was also the last sortie of the day, thanks to the shelling, and yet again, my men had been left behind! There was nothing much to do the rest of the day, except wait for the next bomb to fall and hope it was not on my bunker. And try to find out about life on the post from the two bearded, dirty soldiers in their blackened clothes who had stuffed themselves into the bunker with me. To help matters, I had a very bad headache(welcome to 20,500 feet) that had decided not to go away.

The party welcoming me to Amar post had just begun

Next Up: Life at 20,500 feet

Siachen Story Part 1 - Induction

   Also read: AFT Judgement : What's Ailing the Army?

     I've been thinking about writing this for a long time, because many things are forgotten as time passes, and then again, they come back suddenly. So I didn't want to forget most of it...
   I was at Siachen Glacier as part of a volunteer Artillery Observation Post(OP) team towards the end of 1996 for about 6 months, the normal tour of duty for OP teams. This was before the ceasefire of 2003, a time when Siachen was active duty, and counted as a battlefield by Army Headquarters(I think it still is, even though active hostilities have ceased).

    

    Well, my unit had reached Northern Command the previous year, and we youngsters (2nd Lieutenants and Captains) knew that vacancies for OP teams would crop up sometime soon. I had just been appointed Adjutant on being promoted Captain with two years service. I was keeping track of anything 'Siachen' in the Brigade HQ and keeping the Brigade Major in good humour to get that detail. Well, it did come my unit's way in July 1996. Being adjutant, it was a little less likely that I would be spared for the tour, but I guess I was more persistent than others and was 'permitted' by the Commanding Officer(CO).

    An interesting aspect of selecting my team - the CO, Colonel Menon told me to pick up whomsoever I wanted from the regiment for my four team mates. No one would be refused. I spoke to the regiment (which I could, inspite of being a Captain with only two years service, since I was the adjutant) and asked for volunteers. Though I needed four men, I got almost 20 volunteers! (The next year, a JCO(warrant officer) was to go on  similar tour of duty. I was helping him select a team, and when he asked for volunteers, there were none! I wonder why?) 

    Ultimately I selected four who were physically fit, sincere fellows who would be effective in a difficult situation. Everyone knew what volunteering meant, because those days, casualties among OP officers and  men was quite high - due to enemy fire, as well as weather and terrain. Well, all of us were sent off on a month's leave immediately to meet our families and get back in high spirits. This was required, because the only means of communication during the tour was letters, and they were dependant on the weather, link patrols, helicopter sorties, and many other factors. I was a bachelor, and I spent my time in Delhi watching movies and enjoying civilisation, which I knew I wouldn't see for a very long time.

   No thoughts of patriotism and lofty ideas of service to the nation crossed my mind while volunteering(and lobbying) for the tenure. I was looking for some action, being under fire  just to see what it would be like(and engaging the enemy), three medals(High Altitude, Siachen Glacier and Jammu & Kashmir), and bragging rights for the rest of my life! Patriotism, I guess, was for people who only talked about it from the safety of their offices.

   Well, we prepared for the tenure, getting equipment(special clothing, stores etc) and personal stuff (a transistor and a camera with enough film rolls, among other things). One critical item that we fabricated in good numbers was a small torch bulb connected to two lengths of wire. This could be connected to a discharged PRC battery(combat radio battery) for light in the bunker. Spare batteries for the camera and transistor was another item that was critical(listening to 'Forces Request', a program on radio for military officers was a popular pastime at Siachen.
    We had to go to Chandigarh, from where we would be airlifted by AN 32s (transport aircraft of Russian origin) to Thoise, and then go by road to Base Camp. Well, on the day that we were to board the aircraft, four of them were lined up, and I was manifested on the first one, being an officer. My men were on other flights. Luckily for me, I insisted on taking my luggage with me and not leave it with them. Well, my aircraft landed at Thoise and the weather 'packed up'! That was the last and only flight to land in the next six days! So while I acclimatised myself with high altitude for the next week, my team waited it out in Chandigarh. By the time they arrived 6 days later, my acclimatisation was over and I was supposed to move on to base camp. Well, my CO had told me,"whatever happens, don't leave anyone behind and always move together." So I waited for another six days while my men acclimatised. At an altitude of about 10-11,000 feet, the human body need that much time to get used to lack of oxygen. But we were only halfway to our post! During this period, I also went to Leh and met the brigade commander. This was a routine interview for all inductee officers. En route I crossed the Khardungla pass at 19,000 feet twice, both times skidding across on a truck without snow chains on its wheels in snowed up conditions! I also helped change a tyre at 15,000 feet in snow fall. Took the best part of two hours for three of us!
    The glacier itself begins at the Base camp and extends 76(?) km North West. Then there are a number of smaller glaciers connected to it, with the Northern ones being held by the Indian Army. In September, daytime temperatures at Base Camp were about 10 deg C, which would drop drastically below zero at night. The first sight of Siachen Glacier was overwhelming. When driving up from Thoise, you can see a blackish feature in the far distance, which looks like a flat rock covering the width of the valley. As you get closer, you realize the size of it and understand that the glacier is actually a moraine, which is melting continuously at a very slow rate.The black colour is because of the rocks and soil in the moraine.
      Base camp was all about training for the induction. We spent three weeks training on the ice walls of the glacier. The officers were separated and made to lead small groups of men who were also inducting. So no question of short cuts or shamming. The two point and three point climb using cramp ons on our boots was a daily routine and was killing on the ankle. We all had swollen ankles within a week, because all our weight would be on the ankles while climbing the ice wall. The afternoons and evenings were spent socialising with batch mates and other youngsters, who were all there for a tour of duty of six months. Very often, shelling would start, mostly our batteries deployed in the camp, and usually, it would go on for a couple of hours. Sometimes, when we were free, we would go to the nearest command post of a 155 mm battery just to cheer the Gun Position Officer on! Sometimes we saw helicopters coming in with casualties from the Glacier, but mostly it was routine sorties.
    We had a couple of route marches on the Glacier during our training to get us used to moving while roped up. This was the time that we heard stories from instructors about people falling into crevasses and not being recovered, or getting frozen to death, or dying of a heart attack because of not following rules of the mountains. I remember that we never worried about any of it, just cracked jokes about it. One being that, if one of us should fall down a crevasse, the others should send a 'Kero Heater'(a small heater that runs on kerosene) down to keep the guy warm!
    Well, our training got over, and it was time for us to be allotted our post. Usually, the post would be allotted to the team before they inducted, but sometimes, because of emergency evacuations or casualties, the schedule couldn't be followed. We soon came to know our induction schedule. We were to occupy one of the most notorious and difficult posts at 20,500 feet above sea level, Amar OP. It was 12 days walk  from base camp followed by a helicopter ride, manned by a handful of infantry and an artillery observation team. Approachable only by helicopter from the Indian side, with no chance of evacuation for any reason in bad weather or while under fire . But this was exactly what I'd asked for, so I had no complaints!
     Unfortunately, we had our first and only drop out during the medical check up. Havildar Panna Lal, BPET (Battle Physical Efficiency Test) leader of the regiment was found to have heart murmur! He tried to make the doctors understand that he led the regiment during BPET, but it was no go. Anyway, we decided to leave him at the Base Camp as our logistic coordinator. All of us went to the OP 'Baba' temple to seek his 'blessings', because that was the tradition. My team went inside to get some moral support from the 'Baba', but I chose to hang around outside, since I had no inclination to believe in such superstition. I've observed that whenever the going gets tough, men would seek solace in all kinds of religious and superstitious beliefs and most officers would go along with it. I saw more of this phenomenon during my tenure at the posts as well. 
    Training completed, medical check ups done, gods appeased, and we were ready to induct!

A couple of links about the Siachen Glacier for those interested:

http://bullkumar.com/media/articles/cold-mountain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Meghdoot

More about life on top of the world later!