Major Gen Ian Cardozo- Who Cut His Leg With Khukri

Hello aspirants,

We are back with one more article about a brave officer of our armed forces Maj Gen Cardozo. After reading this post, you will be full of motivation and will believe nothing is impossible at least for this brave officer it is true. Major General Ian Cardozo AVSM SM is a former Indian Army officer. He is the first war-disabled officer of the Indian Army to command a battalion and a brigade. The tale of his bravery is interesting to know. So, let's begin

Talking about early life, Ian Cardozo was born in 1937 in Bombay. He studied at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. Cardozo graduated from the National Defence Academy and then attended the Indian Military Academy, from where he commissioned into 5 Gorkha Rifles. It was during this time that the Major earned the nickname ‘Cartoos Sahib,’ as the soldiers in his battalion couldn’t pronounce his name!

Indo- Pak war of 1971

The incident took place when Ian unknowingly stepped on the landmine, and As a result, his leg blew off. A Bangladeshi saw this happening and took him to the battalion headquarters.

Here is a small excerpt from the interview in which Cardozo talked about the incident with Claude Arpi of Rediff.

I told the doctor, 'Give me some morphine.' They had no#8800 it had been destroyed during the operations. 'Do you have any Pethidine?' 'No.'

I told him: 'Could you cut this off?'

He said: 'I don't have any instrument.'

I asked my Batman: 'Where is my khukri?'

He said: 'Here it is, Sir.'

I told him: 'Cut it off.'

He answered in Gorkhali: 'Sir, I can't do it.'

I told him: 'Give it to me.' I cut my leg off and ordered: 'Now go and bury it.'

This incident would have meant the end of field duty for any other officer, but Major Cardozo was not going to be demoted to staff duty, and allow the impairment to take control of his life. He bravely fought for the commander’s position and even surpassed the ‘two-legged’ officers during the intense physical fitness examination.

He was very adamant and determined to command and didn’t let any hurdle stop him even with the artificial leg could easily walk through the sturdy mountains with the snow hardly affecting him and climb great heights which shocked the chief. After seeing his sheer will power, he was given the role to command a battalion and later on given the job to command a brigade as well.

The officer believed in the saying that “You have only one life to live, live it to the full” and motivates the youth never to give up and if you believe in anything you can surely achieve it with hard work.

DDE team salutes the bravery of the officer and feel proud to share the post.

Stay motivated aspirants!

JAI HIND