'The Magnificent Seven'

Women paratroopers - the pride of SLAF:

by Shanika Sriyananda

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Women are beautiful and fragile. They are strong and brave too. Women can do things as good as men and even things that is difficult and risky.

This has been proved after seven women who took wings and landed safely last February 15, the day, that a new leaf was turned in the country's aviation history.

This is a fine example where girls' morale was used for a good cause at a time the LTTE brainwash innocent girls to motivate and forcibly use them to become suicide killers.

The young women in the MI17 Air Force helicopter did not take a leap backward. Sharp at 9.05 in that bright morning, Nayana Dilrukshi Hewawawasam took the historic jump from the helicopter at 1,200 metres high. The T 10 Bravo parachute brought her down gently and safely onto the middle of the Katunayake Air Force ground making her the first female paratrooper of the country, amidst the applause and cheers from the crowd.

The country's seven female paratroopers had their first jump at their passing out ceremony with their male counterparts - 10 airmen of the Air Force, two sailors from the Navy, five gunners from the Air Force Special Regiment and a doctor in the Air Force.

Since the recorded Andre-Jacques Garnerin jump from a hot-air balloon in 1797, parachuting has become a popular sport in many entertainment events locally and internationally.

But with deploying paratroopers in the second World War paratroopers were used in military activities, in emergencies, to destroy enemy camps and a mode of moving soldiers to battlefields. And in some countries the paratroopers have been used as forest fire-fighters.

Opened in 2004, the Parachuting Training School of the Air Force has produced 360 paratroopers upto now. While deploying them for various war related assignments, these paratroopers are mainly used in various military celebrations and national events and even represented the country at international parachuting events.

Now being trained to fly these brave women are not only ready to display their talents at ceremonies but are also brave enough to undertake any given task.

With joy and happiness, the female paratroopers Anoma Pathirana, Nirosha Kumarasena, Anuradha Senarath, Ranga Fernando, Irosha Rajapaksa, Nishadi Ranasinghe and Dilrukshi Hewawasam - who are stationed in Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Colombo respectively, said they clamoured to undergo training for years until the Air Force Commander, Air Vice Marshal Roshan Gunatileke endorsed the parachuting course for females.

Twenty-seven-year-old-Dilrukshi is still the 'naughty one' of her parents - Nalini and Hewagamage, who recalled her mischievous acts when she was small. Turning down her request to join the Air Force her parents didn't realise then that she would become the country's first female paratrooper one day. They offered vows to Gods, to look after her life.

"I am so proud, proud about the whole team. We trained together and the dedication of the team, under good instructors have brought results " Dilrukshi, a product of Nikaweratiya Central College said.

Recollecting her first jump at the Ampara Air Force Training Base, she said she was scared what would happen to her in the next minute but gradually it eased after the training.

We had a good sleep on 14 February and the whole team spent the day happily and we were confident about our mission and today, I do not feel any fear Female paratroopers were prominently deployed in fighting missions throughout 19th century and according to Squadron Leader Harish Herath the Commanding Officer (CO) of the Training School said that the seven female paratroopers were the pride of the Sri Lanka Air Force.

"This is a good opportunity to show the world that Sri Lankan women are highly talented and also brave enough to take any task", he said adding that training for girls the first time was very difficult.

According to CO Herath, only India boasted about female paratroopers earlier. He said Singapore, there were females who do parachuting but they are not in the military, and in Morocco and the United States there are female paratroopers.

In Afghanistan there are female paratroopers but they are US girls. This is a good event that indicates though we are a small country we are on par with the military of the other powerful countries, he said.

"It was really a challenge for both parties. It is lots of hard work and they have to do the ground training properly.

First we have to boost their morale. The ground training needs to be 100 percent accurate they need to follow the instructions carefully. Otherwise they can not jump from an aircraft with a speed of knots 120 per hour", he explained that 10 dedicated parachuting instructors at the school took extra effort to train these females.

The next milestone of these seven paratroopers is to jump 3,000 metres from the sky to become sky divers. According to CO Herath, training a girl is easy than a male as the latter always do not want to take any risk.

" Males always try to do experiments. But the girls do not move or come forward even an inch which the instructors say no. They are very obedient and also very clever. They are very loyal to their work and this make us easy to teach them", he said.

The marriage did not became a hindrance for them to take the challenge. Niroshi Kumarasena of Anuradhapura, who is in the Air Force for the last eight years first got the blessing of her husband who is also an airman.

Having a two and half-year-baby girl, she said, that from the day she enrolled to the Air Force she wanted to become a paratrooper. Ready to take any challenge, Nirosha early waiting the day they are allowed to do the sky diving course, where they have to jump from over 3,000 metres above the ground.

Echoing the same sentiment, Anoma Pathirana of Kirindiwela, a mother of a two-year-old baby, is also ready to take any task as their male counterparts.

To conclude the passing out four parachute instructors - Flight Lieutenants - S.M. Mangala Samarasinghe, Susil and Jagath and Sergent Dhanapala - displayed a colourful sky diving event 3,000 metres above the ground.

These seven paratroopers would bring fame to Sri Lanka as the first female sky divers in the entire South Asian region soon.

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A medical officer too has created a record as the country's first 'doctor- paratrooper'. Dr. Sampath Hewawasam, attached to the Katunayake Air Force medical unit, had always wanted to do something novel in his life and likes to take risks being a doctor himself.

"There was an incident where some soldiers died due to lack of medical treatment when the camp was totally surrounded by terrorists. As a doctor this motivated me to take to parachuting", he said.