ABOUT

 

FLEET  MEET

By  Rear Admiral K Mohanan AVSM (retd)

Patron, Fleet Meet, Kannur, Kerala

            “Fleet  Meet”  _  an organization  of  the  ex  Indian  Naval  Personnel  was conceptualized  in  early  2006  in  Kannur , Kerala  when a few  Naval personnel  attended the funeral  of an ex  Naval Officer.

            The  thought  process  came  at  a  time  when  there  was  no  formalized association  for  ex  Indian  Naval  Sailors.  However  there  was  an  association for  ex  Indian  Naval  Officers  in  the  form  of  Indian  Navy  Foundation. This too was limited to few stations such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Vishakhapatnam, Kochi, Chennai, Goa, Kolkotta, Coimbatore, Pune, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Bhuvaneshwar, Hyderabad etc.  For an ex Naval officer from Kannur  it was a herculean task to attend regular Navy Foundation meetings  at Kochi  due to distance involved.  This inconvenience, coupled with the fact that there was no formalised meeting point for ex sailors of Indian Navy led us to the formation of this unique body _ the “ FLEET MEET”.

            It was felt that in small towns, it would be ideal to create a common forum of all ex Naval Personnel without rank prejudice.  I was fortunate to have close interaction with Cmde  K Krishnan VSM (retd), ex L/ Tel  M Ramadasan and ex  PO  Vijayan Kaliath  who shared my view. These  can be called the  founder brains behind  this novel project.  We further involved more ex Naval Personnel such as CCP Nambiar, Muralidharan, Thamban Narayanan, Haridas Karivallur, Sridharan Palakkal , Karunakaran Nambiar and MR Rajan . After few rounds of deliberations, the ”Fleet Meet” was borne on 09 Jul 2006.

           We decided to meet three to four times in a year, of which, one would be with spouses, children and grandchildren.  We have successfully met 21 times in the last 7 years. It has been my observation at these meets that all ex Naval personnel and their children are well placed in the society. Most of them have taken up a post retirement vocation and proved themselves to be outstanding professionals.  They still recall that they owe their success in life to the training and grooming that the Indian Navy has provided them with.

The Fleet Meet which was formed in Kannur is probably the first organization of its kind in India where ex Officers and Sailors of Indian Navy meet regularly under a common umbrella and exchange notes of common interest.  It is a forum for social interaction and had no political or other agenda.  This attracted large number of personnel and the membership has now gone upto about 200 from a humble beginning.

            The official organization of ex Naval sailors, “Veteran Sailors Forum” came into existence in 2010- 11. However it is also having similar disadvantages as the Navy Foundation, being located only at very selected places.

            We were rather fortunate to have the patronage of the Chief of the Naval Staff,  Directorate of Ex  Servicemen Affairs (DESA),  the Flag Officer Commanding -in- Chief , Southern Naval Command, the Commandant, Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala and the Commanding Officer, INS Zamorin. The organization is networked with DESA, from where we get latest policy decisions and other relevant info concerning retired Naval personnel, which we are able to disseminate to the lower echelons of the retired community.

            We even had ex Naval personnel from far off places such as  Delhi, Kochi, Calicut, Palghat, Haripad, Thiruvalla and Trichur attending the meet  regularly. It is our sincere wish that The Indian Navy take note of our humble effort and create such organization  at all district level in India, from where the entire chain can be networked and brought under a common umbrella.