A VETERAN SIGNALLER DOES US PROUD

A VETERAN SIGNALLER DOES US PROUD

Maj Gen VK Singh

Almost every senior officer of the Armed Forces, serving and retired, is acquainted with Colonel VK Singh VSM, (Retd). Most signallers of the present generation would have heard of him, but may not know of his achievements. Vijay is presently the Deputy Director (Adm) of the United Services Institution of India, more popularly known as the USI. Commissioned in June 1963, from the First Emergency Commissioned Course (EC-1), he has had an illustrious career. As a young captain, he was a divisional officer in the NDA. Later, he commanded 19 Infantry Divisional Signal Regiment, before serving in the Signals Directorate as Director (Sigs1). Age was against him, or else he would certainly have risen to the highest ranks in the Corps, given his undoubted merit and sterling qualities. 

On his retirement from active service in November 1991, he joined the USI, which was then in Kashmir House, behind the E-in-C’s office. Having spent 17 years with the USI, he is today the longest serving officer on its rolls. He played a key role in the move of the USI to its present location on Rao Tula Ram Marg, opposite the Signals Enclave in 1996. A large part of the credit for present standing of the USI in terms of facilities, ambience and academic excellence is due to him.

Though he modestly admits that he is neither a scholar nor a historian, this is not entirely true. The USI was established in 1870 and is one of the oldest academic institutions in the country. In fact, the USI Journal, published quarterly, is India’s oldest journal on defence affairs, a detail mentioned on its cover. It is read all over the World and frequently used as reference material by scholars. Noticing that the wealth of material available between its pages has never been indexed, Vijay decided to do it on his own. After painstaking work spread over several months, he compiled an index of USI journals from 1870 to 1970, covering one hundred years. This has now been put on the web site of the USI and is a boon for research scholars as well as general readers.

            Vijay’s most spectacular contribution is the compilation of History of the USI, which has recently been printed. Spending many hours after office and on Saturdays, pouring over old issues of the Journal and Minutes of Council/Executive Committee meetings, he has put together a detailed volume that covers not only the history of the USI but provides an insight into the functioning of the armed services during the British Raj and after Independence. As admitted by the Director, Lt Gen Satish Nambiar, who wrote the Foreword, the document was produced by Vijay “at entirely his own initiative as a ‘labour of love’ in every sense of the term.” Recognising the debt that the USI owes him for his contributions, General Nambiar adds: “what he has put together will serve the Institution and its members well in the years to come as reference book.”

Published in the Signalman, Jun 2009