Indian Navy Day: Marine commandos showcase stellar skills at Gateway of India in Mumbai

Indian Navy Day is celebrated on December 4 commemorating the launch of Operation Trident against Pakistan during the 1971 Indo-Pak War. During the Indian Navy week and even on the days prior to that, various events take place throughout the country. As part of Navy Day celebrations, Indian Navy marine commandos showcase skills at the Gateway of India in Mumbai on 2 November.  

In the video shared by news agency ANI on Twitter, the Indian Navy marine commandos showcased skills at the Gateway of India in Mumbai. The video showed a drill commanded by commander Deepak Dewan of the marine commando flight of INS Shikra. The drill demonstrated speedy extraction of MARCOS after a successful mission. According to the announcement in the clip, this mission is called small team assertion and extraction.

The clip shows the helicopter slowly rising from behind the Gateway of India. As the flight goes higher, commandos can be seen holding a rope and Indian flag can be seen attached to the rope. In another video posted by ANI, Navy commandos demonstrated their breathtaking skills during the Beating Retreat ceremony held in Mumbai ahead of Navy Day celebrations at the Gateway of India. 

History of Navy Day

Indian Navy in a Facebook post on 2 November informed that the Royal Indian Navy celebrated Navy Day for the first time on 21 October 1944, The idea behind celebrating Navy Day was to increase awareness about the Navy among the people. For the Navy Day celebrations traditionally,  there were parades organised at various port cities. Until 1972, Navy Day was celebrated on 15 December, and the week in which 15 December fell was observed as Navy Week. However, at the Senior Naval Officer's Conference in May 1972, it was decided that Navy Day would be celebrated on 4 December to commemorate the actions of the Indian Navy during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War.  Furthermore, Navy Day week is celebrated from 1 to 7 December. Navy Day in India is now celebrated to commemorate Operation Trident, which was the attack on the Karachi harbour during the Indo-Pakistan war and in reverence to all the martyrs of that war.

Inputs from ANI

Image: Twitter/@ANI