As 525 newly commissioned officers took their first step out of the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun, on Saturday, among them was a Sikh officer carrying forward five generations of military legacy. Two others came from families that have donned the uniform for four generations.

Commissioned into 20 Jat, the same unit as that of his father, Brigadier Upinder Pal Singh, Lt Sartaj Singh’s roots go back to 1897, when Sepoy Kirpal Singh of 36 Sikh took part in the Afghan campaign, setting the first stone of a lineage built on courage and sacrifice, according to information shared by the IMA.

That spirit was strengthened by his great-grandfather, Subedar Ajmer Singh of 2 Field Regiment, who fought at Bir Hakeim in World War II and earned the rare Order of British India for gallantry. H

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