From Bathinda to Kartavya Path: Punjab lad commands T-90 Bhishma tank at RD parade

CHANDIGARH: A 27-year-old first-generation Army officer from Bathinda commanded a T-90 Bhishma main battle tank at the Republic Day parade this year, as Captain Vipanjot Virk of the Indian Army’s 77 Armoured Regiment led it along Kartavya Path. Commissioned as the first Young Officer of the regiment, Captain Virk traces his decision to join the Army to formative school years marked by regular exposure to military role models, including a defining 2013 interaction with then COAS General Bikram Singh that left a lasting impression.

“I knew about the Army through the school’s legacy of producing officers. You grow up seeing seniors joining the forces, and that makes the idea of serving in uniform feel achievable,” said Captain Vipanjot Virk.




He said a defining moment came in 2013 during his school’s Founders Day celebrations, when General Bikram Singh, then Chief of the Army Staff and an alumnus of the school, visited the campus for Founders’ Day. He met the Army chief during the event and that the interaction strengthened his resolve to pursue a career in the armed forces.

Captain Virk is part of the Indian Army’s 77 Armoured Regiment, a unit raised in recent years. He was commissioned into the regiment as one of its first officers and has been associated with it since its initial phase, including its raising and training activities.

A resident of village Virk Khurd near Bathinda, Captain Virk is the only child of Iqbal Singh Virk. With no prior family background in the armed forces, he joined the Army as a first-generation officer from Punjab’s rural belt.

“My son’s interest in the Army developed during his school years,” said his father, a farmer. “We never had anyone in the forces in our family, but he was clear about his goal very early and worked consistently towards it.”

He completed his schooling in 2016 and joined the National Defence Academy in 2017. Virk credits his early exposure to military life to his time at the Punjab Public School, Nabha, which has a long association with the armed forces and has produced several officers over the years, including Major Anuj Sood, who got martyred in Handwara in 2020.
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