Today I watched an episode of the History channel’s famous series ‘Dogfights’. A dogfight may be defined as air to air combat or an aerial battle between two military aircrafts. Dogfights were not uncommon, but this episode featured a pilot who actually made a last ditch attempt to destroy the enemy aircraft by ramming his own plane into his enemy’s and still lived to tell this heroic story. (Interviews were given by both the pilots………..the one who rammed his plane on the enemy’s and the one whos plane was rammed!!! Don’t ask me how they survived, call it the height of luck or the limit of mortality!!! See the documentary). And then, of course, who can forget the term ‘kamikaze’. The fearsome Japanese pilots, who, loaded their planes with explosives, bombs and in a last bid attempt to destroy enemy targets, would intentionally crash their planes onto the targets….!!!
Call it madness, sacrifice, love of mother land or whatever……
What must be passing through their minds, I often wonder, when I see such type of documentaries? What must they be thinking of, at that moment, at the moment when you know death is onto you, when you know that all is lost, when you see your comrades falling one by one….those people with whom you had shared some rare friendly moments……said best of luck to them before the mission and with a twinge of sadness said “Hope to see you again soon!!”. It is a blend of all these thoughts that brings a man to his final frenzy……..he readies himself at last, drives all these thoughts away……and thinks of only his target…….after that a bright light of explosion and then total darkness…… This is what I think, happens. I have not been in such a situation, even if I would be in such a situation I would not have the guts to carry out the final action. I think it would scare the shit out of me and I would run away or, in case of a plane, bale out!!
A salute to all those soldiers who died fighting for their country!!!
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