Taking into the skies!

Nilma Dole

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P.G.G. Asela Indrajit is in every respect an air force hero who weathered many a storm in order to protect his motherland. Under the guidance of the then squadron leader Wing Commander C.K.Siriwardena and Sergent Somasiri, Corporal Gamage learnt the best way to be an air force fighter.

Time: 0900hrs
Date: 6th February 1999
Location: Mundimukku

While continuous fighting with the LTTE caused many forces to be despatched to the war zones, Corporal Gamage and his colleague Corporal Bandara flew over to the Mundimukku area.

Having reached a gravel road, they started to crawl on the ground at a stationed point and planned the perfect attack from their side. 500m away, they could see 2 LTTE terrorists throwing grenades and that they were bombing all over the place.

Thereafter, Corporal Gamage and Bandara started attacking the enemy with maximum firepower from a distance of 10m. As they began to fire, the 2 terrorists were attacking them at a rate. Corporal Gamage then went forward, leaving behind his colleague and did as much as he could to bring the terrorists down.

He fought until the end of the line to allow the rest of the air force to cross this point so that they can get to the other side.

Finally, after about half an hour of fighting from both sides, the terrorists were brought down and fighting stopped. Corporal Gamage said “Once we uncovered the area, we discovered that there was a lot of ammunition that amounted to nearly 600 grenades, a helmet, a torch and clothes”.

Eventually the fighting at this point stopped as the area was taken over by Infantry and then onwards the air force cleared the area. The incident was to hold the Mundimukku area which was under severe attack. “Out of 35 men who fought against the LTTE, we eventually had only 11 strong men left” the Corporal said.

Corporal Gamage underwent training at Diyatalawa and after 6 months of training, he was attached to Puliankulu Defense (FTL). Having been married for 5 years, he is a father of a daughter. Corporal Gamage is the second in a family of four where his elder brother is also in the air force.

For his bravery and patriotism, Corporal Gamage was awarded the Ranasura Padakama (RSP).