Arvind Singh

Lieutenant Arvind Singh was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra in 1987.

Early life

Singh attended St Francis College and La Martiniere College in Lucknow, India. In 1987 he was an officer in the Indian Marines special forces (later MARCOS).

Career

As a cadet at the Naval Academy, Cochin, Arvind Singh was awarded the President's Gold Medal for best cadet in 1980. A meritorious naval officer, he was soon selected for the BUDS (Basic Underwater Demolition School)/ SEAL course at San Diego, USA, and emerged from the course with flying colours.

He was thereafter deployed to Sri Lanka with the IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Forces) at the helm of the newly raised Indian Marine Special Forces or IMSF (later MARCOS). As part of the Operations conductd by the IMSF in Sri Lanka he was awarded India's second highest Gallantry award, the Maha Vir Chakra^[1], thereby becoming one of only nine as well as the youngest ever recipient in the Indian Navy. The follwing is the citation of the MVC awarded to Lt Singh:

Lieutenant Arvind Singh was the Officer-in-Charge of the Indian Marine Special Force (IMSF) team which along with 10 Para Commandos was given certain specific tasks as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force operation in Sri Lanka.

Lieutenant Singh leading a team broke out from Jaffna Fort at 1430 hours on 19 October, 1987. During this operation, the team had to negotiate through heavily mined road - with booby traps laid by the militants. The team was under militants' fire from buildings and roof-tops. Lieutenant Singh by his personal example of bravery motivated his men to secure the area which resulted in link up of 41 Brigade with 1 Maratha Light Infantry on 20th October 1987.

On the Night of 21/22 October 1987, IMSF team under his leadership was tasked to destroy Guru Nagar Jetty and the militant speed Boats in the Jaffna Lagoon. The team successfully placed and detonated explosive charges and extensively damaged the Jetty and destroyed six militant speed boats. In order to destroy the remaining militant speed boats, the team reached its destination by swimming over a mile underwater and successfully planted demolition charges in 11 speed boats, kept ready for the escape of hard core militants. Before the charges could be exploded, the team came under heavy fire from the militants. Lieutenant Arvind Singh once again effectively took charge of the situation and provided diversion by exposing himself to militants' fire without regard to his life and personal safety.

'This act inspired his men who accomplished the task of destruction of all of the speed boats.

Lieutenant Arvind Singh thus displayed exceptional devotion to duty and gallantry in utter disregard to his personal safety.

In 1993, he was involved in the interdiction and destruction of an LTTE ship off Madras. For his actions, he was awarded his second gallantry award - the Nao Sena Medal (Gallantry).

He was selected for the Staff Course in 1995 at the prestigious Defence Services Staff College, Wellington Cantonment, Tamil Nadu. From 1996 to 1999 he was involved in staff duties at NHQ (Naval Headquarters). Thereafter he assumed role of XO (Executive Officer) on board INS Ranvir (D54); During his tenure at Ranvir, the ship earned the trophy for the best ship, the missile trophy as well as the best galley. This was followed up by a successful stint as CO of the 5665 ton INS Gharial (L23) LST (Landing Ship Tank) which conducted numerous successful beachings and retrievals in various exercises under his command. In 2003 he was given command of the Navy's premier Special Forces Establishment, INS Abhimanyu near Mumbai.

In 2004, he was promoted to Captain and completed a one year stint as CO of INS chilka, a large naval NCO training establishment near the Chilka lake in Orissa. On account of his meritorious services, he was selected for the Air Higher Command Course at the College of Air Warfare (CAW), Secundrabad, Andhra Pradesh in 2005.

He was Director of Diving & Special Operations at NHQ from 2006 to 2007 and thereafter assumed command of INS Ranjit (D53) until 2009. In view of his exemplary performance he was nominated to attend the prestigious Higher Command Course at the National Defence College, New Delhi.

References

1. ^ Arvind Singh's gallantry medal accessed July 2007