FAT Part Five

The final chapter of the FAT took us to the plains of Jammu, well south of the Himalayas but still near the western border with Pakistan. Tensions in the area are still high, so the foreign officers were mostly relegated to staying in their rooms at night, traveling in convoys, and traveling by helicopter. To get to Jammu, we boarded an IL-76 from Leh. We were the first to board, so we all got decent seats and made ourselves comfortable. Once all of the officers had boarded, someone released the hordes and our plane was swamped with Indian soldiers trying to get out of Leh. I couldn't believe the pilots were willing to fly with passengers sitting in every possible nook and cranny in the back of the aircraft. Somehow, we still made it to Jammu...

Keep your seat backs and trays in the upright position for takeoff...

Ruwan, Riva, me and Dhar...tea and samosas upon arrival in Jammu.

Our time in Jammu was mostly spent traveling to different Indian Army formations in Punch, Rajouri, and Akhnour to see how they handle border security with Pakistan. To be honest, you can only see a border fence so many times before it becomes a bit redundant. Fortunately, there were some other sights to keep us occupied as well.

In front of a Hindu temple.

The faithful bring bells as offerings to the temple and leave them there.

In Akhnour we stopped by an Indian Army shooting range where they train their shooters for international competition. They showed us the skeet and air rifle ranges, and let us try our hand at some of the events. We all sucked big time at skeet shooting, but I held my own on the air rifle range.

It was also interesting to see yet another part of India, as each region in India tends to be very different from the others.

City of Rajouri

Street scene in Rajouri

Ali shops at a fruit stand.

Foreign officers with the Chief Instructor - Air, posing in front of our Mi-17 transport.

By the end of our time in Jammu, I was more than ready to get back to Wellington. Travel in India tends to wear you out, and we happily boarded one more IL-76 to get the hell outta Dodge.