Sri Lanka Army, much-respected saviours of the Nation, who triumphantly eradicated the 30-year long LTTE terrorism and is now engaged in a multiplicity of nation-building development tasks, emerging as an admirable force to reckon with, marked its 61st Anniversary cum Army Day, during a colourful parade and special ceremony at Army Headquarters Saturday (9) morning.
Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, Commander of the Army graced the nadir of commemorative military events at Army Headquarters as Chief Guest in the company of senior officers.
Lieutenant General Jayasuriya, on arrival at the premises was received and conducted to inspect the Guard Turn-Out, accorded in his honour. Seconds after that, the Commander hoisted the Army Flag heralding the onset of the day’s agenda.
Immediately after flag hoisting, the Army song, “Sagarayen wata-Me mage mau rata….Rakimu sada,” jointly sung by all those present, rent the air adding grandeur as well as patriotic pride to the occasion.
The next moment on the itinerary was solemn and dignified since memories never die, as they say. A two-minute silence was then observed in honour of fallen War Heroes and those who went missing in action, during their sacred mission of defending the Motherland.
The stage was set for the day’s highlight as the Parade Commander in his colourful attire reported the parade to the Commander, in accordance with military traditions.
The ceremonial parade with Regimental colours, accorded to the Commander, amidst fluttering Army Regimental Flags and melodic rhythms of patriotic songs in the background, continued for about fifteen minutes as all eyes remained glued to it.
The much-awaited moment of significance on the agenda followed next as the Commander rose to his feet with his customary address to the troops, in which he called upon all Army personnel to maintain the highest standards of professionalism and discipline in the future too while working for the upturn in the country’s future. (See the Commander’s speech separately on this page).
Afterwards, the Commander met a cross section of senior Army officers, invitees as well as Other Ranks during refreshments after the day’s main ceremony was over. A representative gathering of past Commanders, retired senior officers and their spouses, principal staff officers, senior officers and other ranks also took part in the ceremony.
Before Lieutenant General Jayasuriya’s customary visit to meet recuperating War Heroes at Colombo Military Hospital, the Commander had the rare privilege of participating in a mammoth welfare project, organized by the Seva Vanitha Army Branch (SVAB), befitting the anniversary on the instructions of Mrs Manjulika Jayasuriya, President, Seva Vanitha Army Branch.
A total of 400 totally dependent, disable, partly handicapped or injured War Heroes, some of them on wheelchairs and the children of fallen and missing War Heroes, accompanied by their parents, showed up at the venue of the main ceremony to receive scholarships, keys for SVAB built houses, sanitary ware units, deeds for land slots, electric appliances, artificial limbs and medical accessories, building materials for construction, roofing sheets and a multitude of other essential household items.
Lieutenant General Jayasuriya at the invitation of Mrs Jayasuriya symbolically awarded those 85 scholarships to children of War Hero families and later on distributed above-mentioned essentials and gifts to over 100 War Heroes, affected by terrorism. Keys to two new houses, each worth more than Rs. 2 million, financial donations for house construction, wheelchairs, furniture, chinaware and cutlery, gift items, etc were given away at this memorable occasion, in addition to the symbolic donation of deeds for eleven plots of land for house constructions.
This feature on the agenda, though novel to the occasion, was the follow-up of the findings, made by the SVAB in the past few months, in relation to a multitude of requirements, shortcomings and pressing problems that had been projected by those handicapped War Heroes during the SVAB conducted problem solving ‘mobile services’ that were held, covering many regiments which have had the highest number of disables and the injured. Mrs Jayasuriya, accompanied by SVAB senior members too, joined in distributing those benefits to War Heroes.
Commander’s Hospital visit, one more important phase in the Army Day (October 10) event calendar, took place afterwards. Lieutenant General Jayasuriya and Mrs Jayasuriya visited recuperating War Heroes at the Colombo Military Hospital and met them. They both distributed gift parcels among hospitalized War Heroes and took time off to speak to them and inquired into their well-being and medical needs.
Simultaneous visits to the Military Hospital at Narahenpita, Colombo National Hospital, Colombo Eye Hospital, Sri Jayawardenapura Hospital, Panagoda Military Hospital and the Ranaviru Sevana were made by senior Army officers where gift parcels were distributed among them too.
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