KDU felicitates Sixth Intake at silver jubilee

by Lakmal Welabada

C. Jayakody	Jayathilaka	M. Wijekoon	P. Vidanage
R. Shanthilal	V. de Silva	Y. Liyanarachchi	J. Premarathna
K.Thalawathugoda	P. Ramanayake	R.Padmasiri	S.Liyanage
W.Wickramaratne

The Sixth Intake of the Kotelawala Defence University (KDU) celebrates its silver jubilee and is felicitating members who sacrificed their lives and others who are either disabled or are still in service.

October 5 will be a special day for the KDU Sixth Intake and their families who will gather at the Mount Lavinia Hotel to celebrate the silver jubilee. “It’s going to be a memorable day for all of us as we’ll be meeting after so many years,” said treasurer of the KDU six silver jubilee steering committee, Group Captain Hemantha Soysa. “There were hundred and sixteen in our batch and it is said to be the largest ever intake in the history of the KDU. Fourteen members sacrificed their lives for the motherland. The families of the fourteen along with the serving batchmates will take part in a religious ceremony that will be held at the Sri Dalada Maligawa, Kandy on October 12 and 13,” he said.

The KDU was earlier known as the Kotelawala Defence Academy which was a dream come true for late Premier Sir John Kotelawala who donated his property in Ratmalana to fulfill the need of a fully fledged training academy for the Lankan Tri Forces – Army, Navy and Air Force. His residence the ‘Kandawala Walawwa’ complex was turned into a museum of his belongings and the rest of the space was used to train youth who contributed to end the war against terrorism.

This establishment was then groomed into a University a few years ago and became one of the world’s best Military Universities.

“We salute Premier Sir John Kotalawala, the KDU, present and past Commanders, instructors and our parents for making us brave sons to save this motherland.

We are indebted to President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa for providing encouragement to the Tri Forces and for taking the brave decision to end the war against terrorism ,” said President of the KDU six silver jubilee steering committee, Rtd Major Mahinda Adikari.

“There’s another group to whom we should not forget to pay our gratitude, they are wives and children of batchmates who have given us the encouragement, loyalty and peace to render our service to the country,” he said.