Naval Investiture Ceremony Conducted at Kochi
Naval Investiture Ceremony Conducted at Kochi
The Naval Investiture Ceremony for 2018 was held at Southern Naval Command (SNC), Kochi on 03 April 2018. Admiral Sunil Lanba PVSM, AVSM, ADC, Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) and Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS), on behalf of the President of India, conferred various Gallantry and non-Gallantry Awards, announced on the Republic Day this year to meritorious naval personnel as well as citations to naval units, which had distinguished themselves during the past year.
Admiral Sunil Lanba Inspecting the Guard of Honour
A 50 men Guard of Honour was paraded during the impressive ceremonial parade, held as part of the ceremony, which was inspected by Admiral Lanba prior to reviewing the parade comprising 24 platoons of naval personnel, drawn from various ships, training schools and establishments of SNC. On completion of the review, the CNS awarded the medals and citations to the proud recipients. A total of 38 medals which included 4 Nao Sena medals for gallantry, 13 Nao Sena Medals for Devotion to Duty and 16 Vishisht Seva Medals for distinguished service besides two Uttam Jeevan Raksha Padak and one Jeevan Raksha Padak for courage displayed in saving lives, one Captain Ravi Dhir Memorial Gold Medal for promoting innovativeness in Flight Safety and Lieutenant VK Jain Memorial Gold Medal for best applied research in naval technology were presented.
Admiral Sunil Lanba Reviewing the Ceremonial Parade
The CNS also presented unit citations to five operational units: INS Tabar, INS Kirch, INS Sharda (ships), INS Sindhugosh (submarine), and Indian Naval Air Squadron 310; as well as four shore establishments: INS Shivaji at Lonavala, Naval Aircraft Yard, Goa, INS Kattabomman, Tirunelveli and INS Jarawa in Andaman & Nicobar Command, for delivering exceptional performance over the past one year. Naval Ship Repair Yard, Kochi and INS Tunir at Karanja, Maharashtra were awarded the ‘CNS Trophy for Best Green Practices’ for their environment friendly, green initiatives.
Speaking on the occasion, Admiral Lanba said that the occasion is of special significance, as it allowed the Navy to formally acknowledge conspicuous acts of gallantry, as well as devotion to duty, of fellow shipmates. He thanked the family members of the award winners for their support to the service personnel in their performance of duty. He added that the Indian navy is acknowledged the world over as a professional force primarily due to the contributions of the men and women in service and not merely due to the sophisticated equipments held. He hoped that the example set by the award winners would inspire everyone else to achieve excellence in their respective field.
The ceremony was also attended by Flag Officers, Commanding Officers of various ships and establishments and a large number of service and civilian personnel and their families apart from close relatives of the award winners.
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The names of award winners are:-
Nao Sena Medal (Gallantry)
Lieutentant Pushpinder Tyagi
Jaskaran Singh, Chief Mechnician
Siba Thekho Pao, Petty Officer
Azhar Azharuddin, SEA II CD III
Nao Sena Medal (Devotion to Duty)
Rear Admiral Dalbir Singh Gujral
Rear Admiral Rajaram Swaminathan
Commodore G Prakash
Commodore Sanjeev Sharma
Commodore Ankur Sharma
Commodore Nelson D’Souza
Captain Sandeep Singh Sandhu
Commander Sunil Kumar Raghav
Lieutenant Commander Chandraveer Singh Yadav
Lieutenant Hari Prasath Nagrajan
Lieutenant Shashank Tewari
Hari Om, Petty Officer (GW)
Avinash Bawane, Medical Asst. I
Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM)
Rear Admiral V Raja Sekhara Rao
Rear Admiral Surendra Ahuja (Retd)
Commodore Arvind Singh Rana
Commodore Vinay Kumar
Commodore Joginder Chandna
Commodore CS Baburaj
Commodore J Harsha Vardhan
Commodore Himanshu Shrikrishna Sapre
Commodore Vitthal Ram Peshwae
Commodore Vikram Menon
Commodore Telidevara Venkat Naga Prasanna
Commodore KM Ramakrishnan
Commodore Arjun Dev Nair
Captain Biplab Hota
Surgeon Commander Rajesh Pandey
Dharam Pal Master Chief Petty Officer LOG(F&A) I
Uttam Jeevan Raksha Padak
Bhanu Chandra Pandey Petty Officer (UW)
Ravi Gorle, Petty Officer COM (Tel)
Jeevan Raksha Padak
Pradeep Kumar, SEA I
Captain Ravi Dhir Memorial Gold Medal
Commander JPS Hanspal.
Lieutenant VK Jain Memorial Gold Medal
Lieutenant Commander Ajay Kumar Tiwari
