Monday, March 22, 2010

Indian Army promotes wheelchair user to major general

From News Worms:

The Indian army does what others even can't even think of as a wheelchair-bound brigadier's promotion to the rank of major general has been cleared.

He has cleared the promotion board recently so he will pick up his two-star rank as and when a vacancy arises.

Brigadier SK Razdan, a 55-year-old paratrooper, was left paralysed below his waist after a spinal injury during a gunfight in Kashmir, which had won him a Kriti Chakra, the country's second highest peace-time gallantry medal. The incident took place almost 15 years ago.

Razdan, then, had saved the lives of 14 women in a 16-hour gunbattle with terrorists in Damal Kunzipur on October 8, which also happens to be his birthday.

The Army has in the past promoted amputee officers to general-officer rank, but this would be the first time a wheelchair-bound officer would become a major general.