Defence accounts officers felicitate tri-service veteran

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, December 17

The Controller-General of Defence Accounts (CGDA), New Delhi, today felicitated Colonel Prithipal Singh Gill (retd), a World War—II veteran and only Indian to have served in the Army, Navy and Air Force, on attaining 100 years of age.

Sahil Goyal, Deputy Controller-General of Defence Accounts, Western Command, along with two officers, visited the veteran at his residence in Chandigarh and presented him with the revised pension orders and a plaque.

Colonel Gill and his wife also interacted with the CGDA representatives in a jubilant mood. The couple said they took regular morning walk and liked home-cooked food. They recalled that during service, their tenure at Manipur was the most memorable period. The couple was accompanied by their grandson and granddaughter-in-law.

Col Gill turned 100 on December 11. Joining the erstwhile Royal Indian Air Force in 1942, he left it at his father’s behest and joined the Navy, serving on ships detailed for escort duties in the Second World War. He then moved to the Army, seeing action in the 1965 Indo-Pak war with the artillery regiment.