By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 1 Mar: St Joseph’s Academy Alumni Association, Dehradun, hosted a ceremony in honour of the past students of the school who have served or are serving in the Indian Armed Forces, here, today. St Joseph’s Academy, established in 1934, has a rich legacy of students who have joined the Indian Defence Services ever since the 1950s. Honoured at the ceremony were the families of Martyrs Major Vibhuti Shankar Dhaundiya, Shaurya Chakra, and Major Chitresh Bisht, Sena Medal, amongst other Josephties who received awards recently, namely Maj Gen Mukesh Aggarwal, Group Capt. Tarun Gupta, and Major Rohit Shukla. In absentia, the SJA AA honoured Air Marshal Rajiv Dayal Lathur, AOC in Chief– EAC; Lt Gen RP Singh, GOC- in-C, Western Command, and Maj Gen Sanjay Sharma. Present were Col SK Murgai (Retd), 1954 Batch, Maj Gen Nandwani, 1956 Batch, Brig AN Acharya, 1962-63 Batch, and other past students from SJA who have made the nation proud. The ceremony witnessed the school choir perform some patriotic songs. Maj HPS Ahluwalia, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Shri and Arjuna Awardee, who passed out of SJA in 1952 and scaled Mt Everest, sent his wishes and blessings to the Alumni and the School. Principal Bro Jayseelan S congratulated the SJA Alumni for the function and invited the decorated officers to come and address the school students and encourage them to be better citizens. He stressed on the importance of being honest and disciplined in life. Ajay Goyal, President, SJA AA, said, “By honouring these officers, we have only honoured ourselves and the entire Josephite family. These are the real heroes who we all salute and respect from the core of our hearts.” The audience comprised Senior Alumni members from the batches of 1950s to the recent batch of 2000s. The batchmates of Maj Chitresh Bisht, announced a scholarship in his memory to sponsor the education of deserving wards of Martyrs of the Armed Forces or the Indian Police Services. The ceremony had a mix of emotions as the audience applauded the Martyrdom and Supreme sacrifices of the Young Josephites with moist eyes.
