KDU Tenth Intake celebrates 26th Anniversary | Sunday Observer

KDU Tenth Intake celebrates 26th Anniversary

4 November, 2018

The Tenth Intake of the Kotelawala Defence University (formerly Kotelawala Defence Academy) celebrates its 26th Anniversary on Thursday, November 8, 2018. Serving and the retired officers of the Intake have organised a bodhi pooja at the Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya on the evening of the Anniversary, to invoke blessings on and to commemorate the great sacrifices made by the seven fallen war heroes of this Intake and also on the 4 other members of the Intake who had passed away due to natural causes, with the participation of their parents, wives and children.

Lt. Saman Muttettuwatta (Navy), Capt. Muditha Abeysekera (Army), Capt. Saliya Fernando (Army), Major Duminda Attanagoda (Army), Major Nandana Jayasinghe (Army), Major Terrance McKelvie (Army) and Commander Nishantha Abeysinghe (Navy) of the KDU sacrificed their lives in the line of duty and 2nd Lt. Harischandra Nanayakkara (Army), Major Prasad Perera (Army) and Lt. Sriyanjith Nagahawatta (Army) passed away untimely due to natural causes while Midshipman Jagath Rajapaksha (Navy) succumbed to injuries he received from a training-related accident while undergoing training at the Naval and Maritime Academy in Trincomalee in 1993.

The Tenth Intake, comprising 73 Officer Cadets, was inducted to the KDU, at the height of the War, on November 8, 1992 to begin their training as future military leaders of the Army (46), Navy (22) and the Air Force (05). The Intake graduated in 1995 producing 30 Army Officers, 20 Navy Officers and 3 Air Force Officers.

Officers of the KDU Ten, like everyone else who joined the Forces during that era were actively involved in the country’s war effort and by the time the war ended in victory wiping out the LTTE Terrorist organisation and its leadership from the face of our motherland, 7 of their fellow officers (5 Army and 2 Navy) had made the supreme sacrifice and many had received battle related disabilities while their Officers had been decorated with 5 WWVs (Weera Wickrama Padakkama), 8 RWPs (Rana Wickrama Padakkama) and 41 RSPs (Rana Sura Padakkama).

They will also take this opportunity to pay their respects and remember with gratitude the late General Sir John Kotelawala, on whose ideals ‘For the Motherland Forever’ and donation of resources the KDU was established in 1980.

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