PART B EXAM

 PART B EXAM

 

LT COL NOEL ELLIS

 

07/VII/2022

 

If you joined the Army you had to clear your promotion exams of Part B and later Part D.

 

One received a communication that an officer of my unit passed his Part B exam in the first attempt. There were many who did it in the first attempt, except yours truly. Such officers were either too intelligent or luck was on their side. Let me congratulate this young officer and wish him many promotions. God bless.

 

If my memory serves me right, ‘Part B’ comprised of four exams. I cleared two in the first attempt, one in the second and the last one took me four attempts. It was fear of not making it to the captain’s rank that pushed me to pass. The cursed subject was ‘Military Law’. ML used to be an open book exam and I flunked it every time.

 

While we were playing Inter-Div hockey at Jodhpur, someone filled in our ‘forms’ to appear in Part B? Probably it was the Adjutant or Head clerk. They definitely forged our signatures on the forms. Hockey in the morning & evening was our routine. We would come dead tired and fall flat on the bed till the next hockey session. Part B was never in the picture.

 

One day before the exam we were intimated that tomorrow you have to appear. Better reach the exam centre or face the music. We were sportsmen and didn’t even carry our uniforms. The Adjt caught hold of our buddies and sent a set of uniforms by the night train for us to enter the exam hall.

 

The night before, we all huddled, listening to stories of ‘Liddle Hart’ and the ‘North African Campaign’ from a few well prepared ‘Maharathis’ of our unit. Who fought with whom and why was not the matter, it was just hoping some key points stick?

 

When my results came, Tactics & Current Affairs got cleared. Overnight story sessions didn’t help. Those days they said that if you are a good officer, you should take four attempts to pass four exams & I took it seriously.

 

Law books didn’t change but the Military Campaign changed for the next exam. One more military personality & one new campaign had to be painfully gone through. We were lucky to get Kunji’s from a publisher from Dehradun. The exam in which one could carry books to refer was tougher than remembering dates, campaigns, names and places, thanks to the Kunji. Tobruk, Dunkirk, El Alamien etc were like Jalandhar, Ludhiana via Bathinda.

 

The Unit was bent upon ensuring I pass law, so they sent me on a ‘law cadre’ to Jaipur, all the way from Jaisalmer. Connecting Section 63 of the Army Act, “An act prejudicial to good order and military discipline”, which I wasn’t lacking at all, was a cakewalk.

 

That year too Law became my ‘Waterloo’. Again, I was sent on a Law cadre to Nasirabad. The ‘Topkhana’ people did a better job. This time one did not have a single law book for the exam, as they had been borrowed by officers appearing for tougher exams.

 

The invigilator asked me, how would I attempt a Law exam without law books? I gave him a sheepish look and told him sir; I can see many officers who have books but don’t know what to do with them. If he would allow me to borrow them, which was not allowed. Instead, the invigilator who had played hockey with me honoured that relation, went home and brought for me his personal set of books.

 

They were the most beautifully ‘flagged’ MML and Regulations for the Army. I wouldn’t have forgiven myself had I failed. With so many law cadres under my belt, I could beat any JAG branch army lawyer hands down. I was a ‘Master of Military Law’. You name a ‘charge’, I could quote its reference and cross reference and link it to any regulation like the back of my hand.

 

Finally, in my fourth attempt I passed Part B. On my first deputation to High Altitude in Tangtse, Ladakh, the Brigade gave a Law Cadre detailment at Leh. I was the Adjutant and junior most in the battalion. All other officers had passed their promotions exams. CO told me to detail myself and proceed as there was no other choice. I didn’t want to tell him that I am over qualified for law but who wanted to miss a paid break in Leh. It was fun.

 

I heard these days the exams can be taken online and at a convenient time suiting the candidate. Times have changed as now within a few hours of appearing, results are known. We had to wait three months for the results. Bad news travelled faster.

 

Any other Part B Law casualties? I wonder!!!!!!!!

 

JAI HIND

© NOEL ELLIS