‘Heroes Forever’ is a series dedicated to Army, Air Force, Navy and the Police personnel who have gone beyond the call of duty. This is our token of appreciation on behalf of the whole nation to recognize their courage and determination. Nilma Dole [email protected]

Cdr Asoka Wijesiriwardane was a brave navy Commander who was a junior officer at the time the incidents from 26th to 29th March took place. It was one of the LTTE's massive attacks to obtain complete control of Jaffna from land and sea. Cdr Wijesiriwardane was commander of the P490 FAC and was based at Kankasanthurai (KKS) in the North Attachment when he had to supress the LTTE on the sea.

Date:        26th March 2000
Time:        2100hrs
Location:  Kankasanthurai

"We obtained information from FACs deployed at Vettilakani (VTK) that a large number of enemy craft was moving from their stronghold in Chalai towards VTK" said the Commander. He said that every cluster has six boats and were fast approaching towards their base. Cdr Wijesiriwardane aboard the P490 and about 8 other FACs were sent immediately to confront the enemy to prevent their movement towards Jaffna.

2230hrs: The FACs reached the place where enemy clusters were lined up and they observed that 10 were present to take on the navy. "We were not intimidated by such a huge number of LTTE boats because we knew that their weapons and manpower was less than ours", said Cdr Wijesiriwardane. The navy's FACs were equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry and the Commander took his position in the front, leading all the other FACs to battle with the enemy clusters who were now penetrating from all sides. "I had 18 men onboard and I communicated with them through a loud speaker during the confrontation, so that whenever I made a move, I made sure they knew what I was doing so that the fighting could go smoothly" he said. "We started attacking the enemy clusters as we approached them and the other FACs also assisted me in this" said the Commander.

0117hrs: "However, in the midst of the fighting, the main weapon armament system onboard our FAC, the Typhoon System gave up on us because it was exhausted due to the intense heat of the firing," said the Commander. He didn't lose control of the fight but pressed on with the stand-by weapons and by using other guns to supress the enemy. "At this point, it was difficult to bring down the enemy boats because without the Typhoon weapon, the distance of weapon effectiveness was less" he said. Hence, Cdr Wijesiriwardane had to steer forward to a dangerous distance of 400 metres near the LTTE boats to make maximum use of the weapons in order to bring them down. "I was more bothered about attacking the LTTE boats rather than my life since they were now gaining advantage so I carefully thought of a strategic technique where I could fool them with my actions" he said. The Commander confused the enemy boats by not taking traditional battle strategies but by surprising the enemy with different fighting methods.

0200hrs: After intense fighting, the 50 enemy boats who were planning to defeat the navy had decreased to less than 20 boats and the rest abandoned their sea induction due to the navy securing a victory spearheaded by Cdr Wijesiriwardane's defensive strategy.

After this incident, it was predicted that many enemy boats would soon come in as reinforcements and will try to take on the navy in another attack. The then Commanding Officer of the FAF-4 (Fast Attacking Fortilla) Manoj Jayasuriya took the decision of positioning the FACs along the east coast from Chalai to VTK in four sub divisions. Cdr Wijesiriwardane took the position at the southern attachment closest to the LTTE stronghold of Chalai and steered his FAC, which was the first one to move forward. In lieu of securing a victory for this attack as well, the Commander said "I was heading my sub division which was called 'Ashoka's Group' and it was the first time in navy history that I was leading commanders of the FACs who were much senior to me". He was given such a distinguished position and task of leading the commanders because he showed bravery in the first incident that made the Commanding Officer think him eligible to carry on the rest of the attack against the LTTE. "I was honoured but at the same time, determined to bring down the LTTE even though it was a formidable task" he said.

In that formation, the FACs attacked the enemy clusters which were coming from the Chalai area. Enemy monitoring revealed their inability to tackle any sea induction due to the effective victory secured by the navy in both incidents.

2245hrs: Cdr Wijesiriwardane decided to take matters into his own hands and decided that it was best to attack Chalai. "I spoke to Commander Jayasuriya that the LTTE boats will attack us and that we should enforce a defensive plan" he said. Even though nobody in history had thought about attacking LTTE's stronghold base Chalai, Cdr Wijesiriwardane thought that since it was an ambush, they can supress them with brute force and destroy their boats so that would not even think of retaliating.

Cdr. Asoka Wijesiriwardane being awarded the RSP from the President

"After my Commanding Officer gave the approval, I was aboard the P490 and I closed up to a distance of 8 cables to the LTTE's Chalai base" said the Commander. It was a shock to the LTTE and since they were caught by surprise, the navy secured a victory in this confrontation as well. Cdr. Wijesisirwardane was happy that his strategic defensive plan worked and saved the day.

For these separate incidents, Cdr Wijesiriwardane garnered two RSPs (Rana Soora Paddakkama) for the 26th to 28th incident and one for the 29th incident also. He remains as a modern day hero who overcomes any obstacle to defeat the enemy to save his motherland.

Cdr. Asoka Wijesiriwardane hails from Matara and attended Rahula College. Having joined the navy as a cadet officer in 1998, he trained at the Naval Maritime Academy, Trincomalee where he was commissioned as an Acting Sub Lieutenant. Today, he has a Master in Hydrographic Survey and is a qualified hydrographer where he has established the base point in the Northern Islands. He has done a seismic survey onboard the 'Polar Dune' with the aim of hydrocarbon exploration resources in the Gulf of Mannar basin. The Commander was also onboard the 'Geo Searcher' to claim Sri Lanka's continental shelf and also is a member of the Sethusamudra Project Impact study committee.

Cdr Ashoka Wijesiriwardane is now married to a lawyer and has two children.

He is the highest decorated officer in the navy with gallantry awards on 7 occasions with the RWP (Rana Wickrama Padakkama) and was given a special field promotion to the rank of Commander for services rendered.

Other awards include Deshaputhra Sammanaya, North East Operation Medal, Riviresa Medal, Long Service Medal, Poornaboomi Padakkama, 50th Independence Medal and 50th Navy Anniversary medal.