Remembering our Heroes of “Operation Eagle”

It’s a tribute to my College mates at Ananda who were much involved in saving the motherland during the dark period which was engulfed with internal conflict with LTTE. It was almost 30 years ago on 3rd of July 1990 when “Operation Eagle” was launched to save the wounded and trapped soldiers inside Jaffna Fort.

I tried to post this article on 3rd of July but could not with work constrain.

The story is unfolded with all gratitude to the brave soldiers of Mother Lanka.

On 03rd July 1990, 30 years ago “Operation Eagle” was launched to evacuate a team of critically wounded soldiers of 6th Singha Regiment (6SR) and Policemen who were trapped inside the Jaffna Fort for more than 3 weeks under siege of terrorist attacks.

The operation was of two folds to deliver urgently needed weapons, ammunition's and medical supplies to the besieged soldiers in the Fort and to bring back the critically wounded soldiers.

This was the situation in Jaffna thirty years ago on 3rd July which was a far cry from what is today.

The LTTE Terrorists held the upper hand and they had taken the advantage of a catastrophe of a peace accord that prevailed earlier and completely surrounded the isolated Fort. The only access to the Fort was by air and this too was extremely dangerous as the Terrorists fired constantly at any low flying aircraft.

The think tank headed by Late Maj Gen Denzil Kobbekaduwa and other senior officers had a task in hand to accomplish a zero causality operation which was a daring task in all standards. Group Captain Anselem Peiris as Operations Commander and Sunil Cabral as the Mission Commander meticulously planned the operation and were somewhat lost in thought thinking whom to assign the daredevil operation which was highly risky in all aspects.

The riskiest and dangerous part of the operation was of two folds. 1st obviously was the landing of the helicopter for the rescue operation and to take off within the given time frame.

Squadron Leader Lasantha Waidyaratne was to be the Pilot of the rescue chopper with Flt Lt Avindra Mirando as his copilot for this dangerous operation (Both were Anandians & College Hostelers) to mention over here.

While Maj Gen Kobbekaduwa was engrossed in planning the overall operation for Jaffna in the Joint Operation Command (JOC) at Colombo HQ while Late Brig Wijeya Wimalaratne was busy discussing the finer details of this deadly mission with few of his trusted comrades including Sqd. Ldr. Waidyaratne.

Sqd. Ldr. Waidyaratne after going over the available maps and aerial photographs of the chosen landing site, was not convinced and happy as he observed a small speck on one of the photographs (landing site) which hindered his confidence.

On his concerns Late Brig Wimalaratne immediately called on Capt. Viraja Leelaratne for his expert opinion, who was a Civil Engineer attached to the Engineer Regiment (Viraja attached to JOC as G3, Capt who had graduated from the Moratuwa University with BSc (Hons) and from Kotelawala Defense Academy as well). As a Civil Engineer he had specialized in Remote Sensing techniques to precision from Aerial photographs.

On analyzing the photographs Capt. Leelaratne identified the speck that was bothering Sqd. Ldr Waidyaratne was a telephone pole and addition to that he observed there were a couple of wires still attached to the pole and a large tree which was on the flight path to the landing site.

While it was decided to instruct the troops in the Fort to remove the telephone pole and the wires under the cover of darkness. Sqd. Ldr. Waidyaratne had opted not to have the tree nor Telephone posts removed as it would alert the enemy of the impending operation. Meanwhile Viraja measured the distance from Rampart to the telephone post by calculating the length of Helicopter Rotor with absolute professionalism and to last decimal perfect measurement. 

Capt. Viraja Leelaratne with the intelligence of Sqd. Leader Waidyaratne had saved Operation Eagle from what could have ended up as an unthinkable disaster. It also speaks the volumes of the meticulous planning of Late Maj.Gen Kobbekaduwa and Brig Wimalaratne. The legendary duo who were responsible for many successful operations.

At the crack of dawn on 3rd July Squadron Leader Lasantha Waidyaratne and Flying Officer Avindra Mirando took their Bell-412 from Palaley Air Base on this DEADLY MISSION. With them were another 17 fixed wing aircraft's, helicopters and Three Chinese built Y-12 and one Y-8 stationed at Mannar for possible support. SL Navy was closely monitoring the seas of Jaffna. As planned all were deployed with the mission ahead. The troops inside the Fort had been informed of the top secret operation earlier on the 29th of June by dropping the documents concealed in a "Dummy bomb" from an SLAF aircraft during a planned attack on Terrorist positions around the Fort by distracting them.

Though these two brave pilots had not flown together before but knowing each other's strengths accompanied by two Airmen Rahula Perera and Sooriyadasa as gunners had combined to a perfect team. Lasantha handpicked these two gunners, Rahula was purely selected for his bravery on several previous missions performing to the utmost as gunner and Sooriyadasa who escaped three times from the Jaws of death for his bravery. Also on board were Capt. Jayantha Fernando with three other Soldiers who joined them to be with the rest of their 6SR colleagues.

The bravest part was that all of them had volunteered for this mission even though they were well aware of the extreme danger they would encounter which was between life and death. 

Capt Anura Perera & Lt Ramesh Fernando of 6SR with 50 Army soldiers and 112 Policemen were trapped inside Jaffna fort without food supplies and medical attention. Even the wounded soldiers were fighting valiantly to safeguard the Jaffna fort which was the most important strategic location for the Peninsula.

 When the SLAF aircraft approached the enemy positions around the Fort from the East, flying in from Palaley and started a heavy bombardment of enemy positions as a distraction measure. The Bell 412 Helicopter Piloted by Sqd. Ldr Waidyaratne and Fly Off Mirando were engaged with enemy fire, came in from the direction of Mandatiuw and swiftly landed at the designated location near Rampart of fort. No sooner they landed Capt. Anura Perera and 7 more serious casualties were carried to the chopper and all supplies including medicines, fresh Vegetables and most importantly 81mm Mortars and other vital ammunition were offloaded. Capt. Jayantha Fernando joined the rest of 6SR men who were holding the Fort remarkably with very limited fire power. Lt Ramesh Fernando was the only Officer who was there from day one holding the Fort heroically along with his brave team.

While the rescue mission was on operation Lt Ramesh Fernando got all the injured soldiers who were to be evacuated from the ramparts by chairs tied to the ropes under the cover of darkness 0430 hrs.

The whole process of offloading and loading took less than 45 seconds though they planned it for 60 seconds. Under the threatening conditions even 60 seconds was like an eternity ! They took off immediately and though still under enemy fire landed safely at Palaly Base by 0530 hours without any harm or damage to the Helicopter. The dedication to duty with great application and unwavering determination of these two flyers speaks volumes of their integrity and selfless bravely. 

Until the siege was successfully over powered on 13th Sept 1990 with “Operation Thrivida Balaya" in mid-September when three crack infantry regiments 1SR under the Command of Lt Col Sarath Fonseka (Anandian) 1GR Commanded by Lt Col Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (Present President of SL ( Anandian) and 4GR Commanded by Lt Col Gamini Gunesekera along with Special Forces Commanded Lt Col Gamini Hettiarachchi and Marksmanship Team Commanded by Lt Col Daya Rajasinghe entered the Fort under the overall Command of Maj. Gen Kobbekaduwa assisted by Col Gamini Angammana and liberated the fort.

Incidentally both these Heroic flyers are from Ananda College, not only that both of them were Hostelers Sqd Ldr Lasantha Waidyaratne was much senior to Fly Lt Avindra Mirando at College. Lasantha was an Athlete and Avindra was a super Basketball player and both loved motor car racing.

At the time of this Mission Lasantha's wife Dilrukshi was 6 months pregnant and their only son Uwin is now a Medical Doctor in UK. 

Young Avindra met his sweetheart Chelaka at Air force itself, got married on 20th Jan 1992 and they are blessed with two sweet daughters Layanvi & Kishali both are professionally qualified.

Both Lasantha and Avindra opted for an early retirement from SLAF after doing their duty for mother Lanka. Lasantha retired in 1992 with the same rank and Avindra retired as Wing Commander in 2005. Lasantha was attached to Sri Lankan Airlines and Avindra is presently attached to Abu Dhabi Oil Company.

Viraja Leelaratne, retired as Major in 1996, winner of the prestigious President's Award for Art at Dharmashoka Ambalangoda back in 1981. He was famous for his artistic ability and also a Senior Cadet Cpl and Basketball player. His lifetime partner Lakmini also from Dharmashoka and it dates back to school days’ romance. They got married on 18th Jan 1991 and as they stepped down from Poruwa, starting the new life together Brig Wijaya Wimalaratne was there to hold their hands, guiding and blessing them amidst of is busiest role as Overall Commander.

Viraja migrated to Auckland, New Zealand in 2000 presently work as a Senior Planning Engineer at Downer NZ Limited. Viraja & Lakmini are blessed with two sons Vibhava and Nikhila doing higher studies in Auckland. 

The other brave officer who fought courageously during the toughest times were Lt Ramesh Fernando, former Cadet Sgt and Rugby player from St Peter's College who got married to, Iresha his childhood sweetheart on 25th May 1995 and were blessed with Son Kamesh and daughter Nishmi, Ramesh too retired from the Army on 30th July 2012 as a Colonel and works for a Multinational Company. 

Gunner Rahula Perera migrated to Italy with his family and other Gunner Sooriyadasa (was not lucky for the 4th time) sacrificed his life for Mother Lanka while on duty. The Chopper he was came under attack and crashed a few years from the 1990 mission. 

Today we all live relatively peaceful life thanks to the brave and selfless service of these officers and soldiers like Lasantha Waidyaratne, Avindra Mirando,Viraja Leelaratne, Ramesh Fernando and Jayantha Fernando.

They will always remain among us as the courageous & gutsy heroes of mother Lanka who put their life before the country and got us that freedom to breath and walk on this soil once again with harmony and tranquility.

May their names be engraved in gold when the history of Sri Lanka is rewritten in the future.

My sincere gratitude to my 1981 senior buddy at College cadet Sergeant Nilakshan Perera who provided much of the required information.