War veteran who served in Air Force, Navy & Army turns 100

Vijay Mohan

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 11

Marking a centenary is rare, and rarer still is a veteran who has had the unique opportunity of having served with not just all three branches of the armed forces but also the paramilitary.

As Col Prithipal Singh Gill (retd) celebrated his 100th birthday in the city today, he fondly reminisced his stint in the uniform and the aura, adventure and elan associated with it.

With a twinkle in his eye as felicitations poured in, he cut a cake amidst a small gathering of family members and close relatives. The World War II veteran recalled his eventful and chequered service life in the cockpit, on the high seas and with the big guns. Brigadier Ravi Kumar from the Western Command presented him a memento on behalf of the Army and another was also sent by the 71 Medium Regiment, the unit he had commanded.

Col Prithpal Singh Gill’s journey began with him joining the erstwhile Royal Indian Air Force in 1942 as a flight cadet in Karachi, without telling his family. He had just spent a little over a year with the Air Force, learning to fly the Harvard aircraft, when his father learnt from a friend that he was a “good flyer” and pulled him out because flying in those days was considered unsafe and his father was afraid that he may die in an air crash. Then at the age of 23, he joined the Navy and served for five years (from January 1943 to September 1948) as a commissioned officer in the gunnery branch. He sailed on minesweepers and escort ships. During World War II, he was assigned to undertake escort duties for maritime convoys proceeding from the Indian mainland to the Persian Gulf. It was during his days with the Navy that then Sub-Lieutenant Prithipal Singh was detailed to attend the Long Gunnery Staff Course at the Army’s School of Artillery in Deolali, where he qualified as an instructor in gunnery.

After a brief interlude with a government agency, he donned the olive green in April 1951, joining the Regiment of Artillery on account of his previous naval gunnery experience. He then served with the 34 Medium Regiment that had earlier served with distinction in Iraq, Palestine, Egypt and Italy during World War II. Later, he raised and commanded the 71 Medium Regiment that saw action during the 1965 Indo-Pak War. “The most eventful part of my service was during the 1965 Indo-Pak War when I was commanding the regiment,” he said. Born in 1920 in Patiala, he studied at Government College, Lahore. After retirement, he took up farming in his family land near Faridkot but continued to keep a healthy lifestyle.