Meet man, who served in Indian Army, Navy, Air Force, fought in WWII, India Pak war, he is…

Meet man, who served in Indian Army, Navy, Air Force, fought in WWII, India Pak war, he is…

The Indian armed forces have played major roles in India China war, India Pakistan wars and many other battles. They have accomplished many sensitive operations like Operation Blue Star (1984), Operation Rakshak (1990s), Operation Trident and Operation Python (1988) and many others in which they proved their valour, bravery and strength. Officers like Captain Vikram Batra, Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon, Naib Subedar Sanjay Kumar and others have fought with bravery, and led India’s defence operations to success. However, long before these officers braved enemies in the battles, long before even India attained independence, there was an armed forces officer who fought in various significant battles and was a part of Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force.  

Who is Colonel Prithipal Singh Gill? 

Colonel Prithipal Singh Gill has every trait of a real soldier who had seen almost all possible war situations, braved every season and all kinds of enemies and have faced them with bravery, discipline, courage and a willingness to die in the battleground for the honour of the country. Col Gill is the only Indian to have served in all three branches of the Indian Defence Force– the Indian Air Force, Indian Navy, and the Indian Army. His life has indeed been an extraordinary as he dedicated it to India’s defence and for its honour.  

Col Prithipal Singh’s defence career 

Colonel Gill was born in 1920 in Patiala, a former princely state in the British era, in a family with deep Army roots. Singh joined the Royal Indian Air Force in 1942 when he was just 22 and did not inform his family. The World War II was ongoing in which he took part after being trained in Karachi and flying an aircraft under the British against the Axis Powers. But he soon left the Air Force after his father showed concern regarding the dangers of flying. 

After this, Gill joined the Royal Indian Navy the next year, in 1943. There, he worked on minesweeping vessels like INS Teer for five years. He even undertook risky operations like escorting cargo vessels across the seas while the war was taking place. He had to leave the Navy as well due to issues in lungs after being filled with water. 

After serving in the Indian Navy, he turned to the Indian Army in 1951 where he served as a Gunner Officer in the Regiment of Artillery. During the 1965 India-Pakistan, he was a commander of the 71 Medium Regiment in the brutal Sialkot sector, an extreme and vigorous battlefield. He then shifted to the Assam Rifles in Manipur as a Sector Commander.  

Prithipal took retirement in 1970 as a Colonel, after serving the nation for almost 30 years in all kinds of battlefields- land, sea, and sky.