A HEARTFELT SALUTE TO MY GURUS AT KDA By: Anuradha Wijegunawardhana – ex-Sri Lanka Navy -- Daily Mirror 13 Nov 2014 Life is a journey that takes one to different places and allows you to meet interesting people. My journey has taken me around the world where I have met some people who have had a lasting effect on my life. Next to my parents, one group of people who have molded my character, helping me to survive and thrive -- are my teachers. During my school years, many teachers taught various academic subjects and life skills. The sky was the limit for their commitment, compassion and love; I am eternally indebted to them for their contribution to the strong foundation in my life. After leaving school I met another set of “gurus” who were from a totally different breed; they neither had “forgive” in their vocabulary nor “soft corner” in their heart. From day one, they never stopped hollering in my ear, accepted my excuses or listened to my grievances. They noticed my flaws and were eager to “punish” me for everything and anything. They were on a mission to break you down; literarily you had reached your nadir in a matter of days. These are the officers and other rank instructors that were entrusted to train the 7th intake of Service Cadets at Kotelawala Defense Academy (KDA) on 14th November 1989 – 25 years ago. We were 90+ high school kids from different walks of life; some of us came from elite schools in Colombo while others had attended rural village schools. After completing A/L, we all decided to join the KDA – confident, frenzied and pumped with testosterone. The first semester of training was intense with a focus on physical, mental and military drills. The training staff pushed us through nonstop running, screaming, agony, sweat and tears. Every aspect of a cadet’s character including his physical and mental strength was being tested: stamina, teamwork, honesty, integrity, situational awareness and the ability to act under pressure. Any weakness was swooped, capitalized and punished without mercy. The first good thing we discovered in the basic training was a new found appreciation for sleep; the body was retrained to survive on power naps. Training a throng of high school graduates was not an easy task; our minds wandered around the world at lightning speed while our mouths never closed. However after a few days, the drill sergeants would muster us within two minutes in complete drill order; emotionless automated cadets who marched on one command. An old idiom says, you can cope with the pain of the crocodile’s bite, but kohila katu hurts more. Hollering insult into your face was part of the training and our instructors had amazing creativity with rules that made no sense and punishments to go along with them; even during mealtime. Cadets ate sitting at attention; no conversations, no looking around and two minutes to eat –for weeks I did not realize that my childhood friend Anil was sitting in front of me at the same table. The second good thing we learned was to ignore kohila katu. There were many men and women behind the cadet training program; everyone had something special to offer. Troop commander Captain Athula De Silva was a big brother to us and insisted on academic excellence. If he found a cadet not studying after dinner, he would ensure that the cadet went through “extra military training;” I personally had this privilege a few times. Captain Dilhan Jayawardena was an expert in military tactics –a battle-hardened field commander. Lieutenant Ulugethenna from SLNavy always uttered “carry on”, for weeks we did not realize that he meant disperse. Flight Lieutenant Nagahawatta was never hesitant to correct our English grammar. Staff Sergeant Tilakaratne, Sergeant Punchibanda and Corporal Wickramasinghe were in charge of Alpha troop and their dedication immensely benefited the cadets. Chief Petty Officer Sunil, who was assigned as divisional senior sailor, always assured us that anybody who died during the training at Naval and Maritime Academy, Trincomalee would be given a service funeral with full military honors. It is important to remember Leading Seaman Ranathunga who devoted his lunch time for our parade training. Our divisional officer at NMA Lieutenant PM Wickramasinghe could not stop laughing at our mistakes (bulls). Flight Lieutenant Ajith Abeyrathna and Squadron leader Mohan Zoysa prevented Air Force cadets from flying by having them crawl around the base. Major Lal Padmakumara, Major Lal Gunasekara and Major Dudly Weeraman were in charge of Army cadets at Sri Lanka Military Academy, Diyatalawa. Flight Lieutenant Chandrasekara insisted that the Engineering stream cadets perform well in academics. During the third year, we had Captain Senadeera, Lieutenant Jayasooriya and Flight Lieutenants Borelessa and Nissanka as troop commanders. Commander Dharmaweera and Commander Sunilsantha taught us Mechanical Engineering. And Colonel Shanne Balthazar encouraged us to work hard, so we could “shut the mouth of the critics”. There were many non military personnel involved in our training; Mrs. Burney Hay, Mrs. Kumarasinghe, Mrs. Panagoda, Mr. Assalaarachchi, Mr. Sirisena and Dr. Kekulawala who was the Director of Academic Studies, to name a few. Professor Dayawansa, Professor Lucas, Dr. Jayasinghe, Dr. Athukorale and Dr. Karunadasa were a few of the visiting lecturers from the University of Moratuwa. Mr. Samarasinghe taught Radar theory and was kind enough to organize a field trip to the radar station at Katunayake International Airport. It is important to remember the various instructors at the University of Moratuwa labs and Ceylon German Technical Training Institute who showed us the ropes in engineering. Further, it is paramount to mention the contribution of the non academic staff at KDA who rarely had any interaction with the cadets. KDA taught cadets the most effective way imaginable, it gave us battle hardened officers as Commanding Officers of the Cadet wing: Colonel Anton Wijendra, Colonel Gotabaya Rajapaksha and Colonel Hiran Halangoda. Colonel Halangoda had the most interaction and influence on us; his dedication and tactics were second to none. His ability to push student officers to walk the extra mile was amazing. He was a difficult instructor to impress, however we never gave up and few succeeded. Air Commodore PM Fernando and Brigadier AMU Senevirathne were at the helm during our years at KDA. The training regime at KDA rained down such a level of physical, verbal and psychological abuse that one person quit after a week and another jumped ship after a few weeks and eventually discharged. Personally I couldn’t believe I had made it to the KDA, however at times, it seemed like a challenge to survive another month. A few more dropped out during the three years and 84 of us graduated on January 1993. The three years we spent at KDA instilled us with the knowledge, professionalism, integrity and backbone to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with each other no matter what the risks were. Militarily speaking, the men and women at KDA taught us everything we know. We are eternally grateful for your contributions to our lives. As they say, the best welfare of a solder is the proper training, you did an admirable job – Thank you. “To lead an untrained people to war is to throw them away.” -Confucius 500 B.C.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 05:54:43 +0000
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