Marching Ahead | Career | wavemag.com.np

The job is to keep the nation safe, contribute in the peace-keeping forces and to carry out rescue operations. Listed as one of the ten most glamorous jobs in the world, a career in the army is good for those who take pride in the nation. The bonus is that it requires qualification of only an intermediate level. A stable long-term job, a military person is given utmost respect in our community.

In fact, the stability of a military career is so impressive that once you're a soldier, you're guaranteed a good match for marriage. And then there's the respect. Not just the army battalion, the entire neighborhood adds 'sab' while referring to an army official – Kar sab, Jar sab and so on.

Basically, there are two ways in which you can join the army, being a recruit or an officer. The minimum educational pre-requisite for a recruit is to have completed the 8th standard with an age limit of 18 to 22, while an officer cadet needs to have completed 12th standard with an age limit of 18 to 21 years or a bachelor's degree with an age limit of 18 to 24 years.

Qualification depends almost entirely on physical strength for soldiers. They have to weigh at least 50kg and be 5'3" in height, and are required to do 10 push-ups, 15 sit-ups, 5 chin-ups, a two-mile run in 14 minutes, a 300-metre run in 50 seconds and finally, an hour-long written exam. Women soldiers require a minimum weight of 40kg, a height of 4'10", 5 push-ups, 15 sit-ups, a mile-run in 11 minutes and a 300-metre run in 65 seconds. The selected soldiers are then trained for nine months.

It's a similar test for the officers as well. Immediately after passing the physical tests, officer cadets are entitled to give an IQ test and then a written exam in English, Mathematics and Nepali followed finally by a general knowledge test. As long as you get minimal pass marks in the last two exams, you're good to go. But the actual military exam is what your enlistment depends on.

The IQ test plays an important factor in enrollment, primarily because it is testing your aptitude to take the right decision within a few seconds when in battle. Those candidates that make through the above tests will then undergo a more rigorous 14-day long examination with numerous army officers judging ability to lead, management skills, commanding skills, planning abilities, dedication and other psychological analyses.

This final selection is a tough one as the officers look for strong cadets who can plan and function equally well even while physically exhausted. An officer who makes it through will then be given an 18-month long training that is five to ten times tougher than that of the soldiers.

But a career in the army is not your option if multiplying bank accounts is what you're heading for. One cannot cover family expenses with what little is earned in this sector. Pay starts at
Rs 6600 for recruits and goes up to a princely Rs 24,800 for generals.

Nevertheless, welfare schemes are offered for army personnel of all ranks. For instance, schools and scholarships for children of army officers, medical coverage for soldiers and families, housing schemes, legal assistance, special programs for war widows and families and rations for minimal prices.

The worst part of the job is that one is 24/7 away from the family. Besides being transported to various corners on duty and for training, one has to stay in the barrack at all times. An army man or woman is lucky to spend a month out of the whole year with the family.

Of course, once you get older in the military the glamour associated with it tends to fade away. Rising up the social ladder and becoming a captain may be comparatively easy but the going gets tough after that. You'll only get to the top if you're the best of the best.

Conquering Mountains in Mustang

Nepal Army has a total of 11 training establishments. Of these, we've selected one to give you an idea of how rigorous the training gets. The NA High Altitude Mountain Warfare School in Mustang runs a six-week course in three phases.

The first is rock climbing, where military personnel are taught to climb mountains vertically as well as horizontally. Depending on the terrain, there are three ways to climb - without ropes, known as 'free climbing', in groups with the help of a rope, and to the top with a pre-fixed rope. Says Captain Ganesh Adhikari of the warfare school in Mustang, "So rough is the rock in this area that a person can hold on to it with a finger." Then the trainees are taught various methods of descending, one of which is known as 'Austrian repelling' and requires one to steadily run downwards facing the direction of descent. They are then given extensive theoretical and practical knowledge about making knots and ropes and constructing firm bases.

Furthermore, because rivers are one of the major obstacles in wars and have to be crossed at any cost, trainees are taught a number of ways to traverse rivers: using long log shafts, crossing in a team, underwater crossing, or overwater crossing with the use of ropes.

The second phase includes training on how to cope with the snow. The trainees hike to Nilgiri Glacier at 14,500 ft and are taught various ice movements - ascending in a pair, ascending via construction of temporary snow tracks and crossing deep gorges using a ladder. They also learn to maintain tents and their clothing at high altitude. This phase ends with training on casualty evacuation and rescuing in mountainous terrain and crevasses. This is the most challenging phase, and can even result in trainee casualties.

In the final phase, the trainees conquer a 20,200 ft high peak, Mt Thorang. The four-day assault on the mountain requires trainees to use all the conceptual and practical knowledge they have gained in the six-week program.