Decisions on the bridge

I have always maintained that its the people who you work with that matter the most. A job is a job and any value you attach to it (apart from the obvious monetary benefit) is mainly because of the people.

Background:

After almost 30 years in the Indian Navy and several years in the quasi-government sector, my Dad had pretty much accomplished everything there is to accomplish. A couple of months ago he received a phone call from a retired Naval sailor who had been trying to track him down for almost a decade. He wanted to talk about the "INS Andaman sinking episode" a very sad day in the Indian Navy's fine history. The said sailor (who will remain unnamed) had been trying to come to terms with the incident for several years now and had written down his experiences in the hopes of gaining some semblance of closure. He wanted to  seek my Dad's blessings before he shared his narrative with the rest of the world.

The Incident:

In late August 1990, INS Andaman sunk in the Bay of Bengal. 15 crew members lost their lives. You can read more about the incident here. My Dad was the Commanding Officer of INS Himgiri, one of the two ships that were ordered to assist in the rescue efforts. The article I mentioned is more or less accurate. INS Andaman did sink due to acute engine failure. But what the article does not mention are the herculean efforts of INS Himgiri and INS Trishul. 

In my Dad's words, his response to the sailor's narrative:

"First of all, I would like to thank you for taking  the trouble to  locate me and reaching out  to share your thoughts on this incident. I would like to congratulate you for your excellent narration of the incident as viewed by an young sailor from the decks of INS Himgiri. However, I do feel that the gravity of the situation with regards to the weather conditions and other aspects have not been emphasized enough. Not enough can be said about the conditions at sea. The waves were over the mast of the ship. The gales were strong, with  poor visibility. The conditions were truly against us. We were in the middle of a cyclone.  Despite all our efforts we could not transfer some equipment to the ill-fated ship as the sea conditions were very bad. The ship was rolling up to 27 degrees and pitching heavily. The waves were over the Sea Cat launcher. One moment we were clear of water and the next moment we were under the wave with nothing visible except water. We had to stop the ship to pick up the survivors. The ship was being tossed around like a match box if you did not have enough steerage way. Maneuvering the ship was very difficult, with constant fear of running over the survivors while picking them up. The safety of my crew who were on the upper deck for rescue ops was another aspect that bothered me that day. I did instruct that all the personnel should have a life line while working on the upper deck. One must note that helicopter ops were impossible under those conditions. INS Trishul's propellers got fouled with the tow rope while the rescue ops were in progress there by restricting the maneuverability. 

I did make the decision of sending the divers to assist the rescue ops by picking up the survivors. The sea was so rough that both the divers were lost for a considerable amount of time. We  did manage to  locate and pick them up. This incident led me to decide not to send any of my crew members out of the ship. Several crew members and I had spotted a dead body floating around and tried to retrieve it. But after seeing several survivors hanging on to dear life, I made the decision to only assist living crew members and then focus on the departed. 

The ship's crew exhibited exceptional courage, selflessness and true camaraderie during the entire  search and rescue operation. It is pertinent to mention my special appreciation for Master Chief Prasad of the engine room and Lt. Deepak Bali for their immense contribution to this operation."

I told my Dad that his greatest glory was not in being top of his class, representing India at the Naval Command College in the U.S or even being awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM). It is the fact that the people who had worked under him and beside him, chose to seek him out and congratulate him on his leadership, hard work and dedication.

It is always about the people.