She beat 200 ‘gentlemen’ for Sword of Honour

CHENNAI: In a first after three years, a woman beat more than 200 gentlemen cadets and bagged the overall prize, Sword of Honour, at the passing-out parade of the

Officers Training Academy

on Saturday. In the academy’s 55-year history, this is the third time a lady cadet has topped a course to bag the Sword of Honour.

Preeti Choudhary, who grew up with a fascination for the olive green uniform as her father was in the Army, topped the course, while the silver medal for standing second in overall merit was bagged by Vreeti, an automobile design engineer.

“I don’t know how to describe what I am feeling today. I am so proud. It is great to have won the honour, as lady cadets and gentlemen cadets competed on equal level in various aspects of training,” Preeti said soon after the pipping ceremony during which parents put on the rank badges on the uniforms of cadets who had passed out.

She earned the distinction as she did exeedingly well in physical tests, academic training, weapons training, leadership qualities, field engineering and drill and also won competitions like cross country running, boxing, debate and others and stood a step ahead of the gentlemen cadets.

Hailing from a non-services family, Vreeti’s achievement reflects the recent trend of engineering and IT professionals showing interest in joining the Army. Civil engineers, software engineers, automobile engineers and those who worked in corporate firms are part of the 257officer cadets who passed out and were commissioned into the Army.

Vreeti said, “Many people who work in corporate companies and engineering firms are coming into the Army. I was a design engineer in an auto firm in

Japan

. I worked for a year and then decided to join the Army after I watched Wing Commander Pooja Thakur leading the guard of honour when the then US President Barack Obama visited India.” Vreeti’s father Naresh Sharma said, “She is the first in our family to join the Army. Her sister works in a corporate firm.”

General Officer Commanding-in-chief Southern Command Lt General

Dewan Rabindranath Soni

, who reviewed the parade, said, “The Army is going in for a large-scale technological upgrade through integrated fire control, night vision goggles with thermal imaging, missiles that can be fired at 200km range and others. The cadets who come from the engineering and software background are important as their skill sets will be useful for the Army.”

He also said that women officers would be gradually brought into combat. “We are posting them in all units. They are in military police, air defence, signals,” he added. Those who passed out included 196 gentlemen cadets and 37 lady cadets from India, two gentlemen cadets and three lady cadets from

Bhutan

, nine gentlemen cadets from

Afghanistan

and eight gentlemen cadets from Tajikistan.

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