Live with integrity - Air Force Commander

Air Marshal Kolitha Gunetilleke inspects the Guard of Honour by cadets of Royal College

Air Marshal Gunetilleke and Principal Upali Gunasekara exchange mementos

Royal College and Members of the group of '76 organised a ceremony to felicitate the newly appointed Air Force Commander Air Marshal Kolitha Gunetilleke.

He is the 14th Commander of the Sri Lanka Air Force and succeeded another Royalist former Air Force Commander Air Marshal Harsha Abeywickrama. "It was an honour to succeed a Royalist and close friend", said Air Marshal Kolitha Gunetilleke addressing the gathering.

If one were to identify the most important value that a man must adhere to and live by, it would be integrity, he said.

"This is what institutions like our beloved alma mater can and do give us in abundance.

They reinforce in us the values that help us to do the right thing instinctively.

"I cannot count the times that I have put my life in the hands of my fellow men, blindly, unquestioningly.

Air Marshal Gunetilleke, wife Roshani Gunetilleke, Royal College Principal,Upali Gunasekara at the felicitation ceremony along with members of the Old Boys Union and students

I recall the countless times that I took an aircraft and went into hostile territory with supreme confidence that the men who maintained that aircraft had done everything that was needed to make the aircraft safe and effective; that the pilots who flew with me would do what they needed to do, to fulfil the mission and to keep me safe from harm".

There is no question that we would not have come home if we went there doubting the integrity of our fellow men.

There is no doubt that it was their integrity that allowed us to go time after time to fulfil our mission and come back unharmed."

Last but not least he added "Boast not, that you are a Royalist, but instead live in such a way that people will tell of you, "he is a Royalist!"