Army was Olive Green

By Ashis Roy

Army is serious business. But with the Army comes tears and laughter. Anecdotes from life in the Army that look at the Army with a wink and a twinkle are described in this book. These anecdotes could happen to any Army personnel from any of the Armies of the world. Most of the anecdotes are true. Some are a mix of fact and fiction, with facts dominating the fact-fiction mix.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ashis Roy
• Release date: Mar 9, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458073938

Book preview

Army was Olive Green

By Ashis Roy

Copyright 2011 Ashis Roy

Smashwords Edition

To my son

Prologue

An explanation of the title of the book – Army was Olive Green - is in order: Indian Army always wore Olive Green. It still does. But now it also wears fatigues and khakhis. Olive Green was usually contracted to OG in the Army. And being OG meant having a straitjacket attitude. The more OG you are, the more stiff and stickler for rules you are. At worst, you live by the rule book and you can’t look beyond your nose.

After you go through the chapters that follow – I am hoping you do - make up your mind whether the Army was OG or was it a fun place to be in. I think you will probably go with the latter proposition.

Chapter 1: Unknown Soldier Who Is Alive

Two nights and a day of trudging through the mountain forests bordering Burma (now, Myanmar), brought the Captain and his patrol to the sleepy village. The sky had begun to become light when the men quietly settled into their positions covering the egress routes from the village. To a reader, route, may conjure an image of a 100 feet road vanishing into the distance. This was actually a mountain path, just wide enough for a person to scurry along. It disappeared into thick foliage only a few meters away from the village.

The patrol leader was not expecting trouble but a person can never be too careful. The sun started its journey across the eastern sky and the village stirred. As smoke started drifting from the huts into the morning haze, the Captain relaxed a little. The hour of uncertainty had passed. No suspicious movements into or away from the village had been noticed. So far so good, thought the Captain. Time to meet the village elder and then move on.

The village elder had deep furrows of age on his cheerful face. He had twinkling eyes and was smoking a bamboo pipe. The elder did not know the Captain's language and the Captain did not know his. They exchanged pleasantries through sign language. Through sign language the village elder asked the Captain to wait as went to fetch something from his hut.

He came back with a package that had a cloth covering. Almost reverentially he opened the package. Through sign language the village elder invited the Captain to examine the contents of the package. The elder kept beaming as the Captain began opening the package. The village elder kept pointing at himself and then at the package. The Captain gathered that the village elder