Serving your country of origin or residence is the biggest duty, the greatest religion, and the most heroic act. Motivated by the legacy of Indian-origin personnel in the US Armed Forces, actress Akila Narayanan has joined the US Army. Born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Akila found her calling as a lawyer with the US Army after a short stint in showbiz. Smitten by the bug of acting at a young age, Akila debuted on the silver screen with Kadampari, a Tamil horror film, early in 2021.
Since before Silicon Valley became the cradle of tech conglomerates and started attracting foreign tech grads, Indian immigrants have been contributing to the US Army in various roles and capacities. In the early 1970s, a handful of Indian immigrants found a sense of purpose in serving the adopted home away from the native country and rose to senior army officer ranks by the 1990s. The pride of being part of the US Army continued to be a wave in full force until the turn of the 20th century over the dotcom boom that threw multiple avenues open to the more educated and skilled second-generation Indian Americans.
Interestingly, Sunita Williams served in the US Navy before NASA handpicked her as an astronaut in 1998. She is the firs-generation Indian American female to have graduated from the US Naval Academy. She continued to progress from as a Basic Driving Officer to the Naval Aviation Training Command to Helicopter Combat Support Squadrons to overseas naval deployments in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf.
Many Indian American military personnel have stuck to their community service ethos even after they resigned or retired from the US military. Sunil Desai, a most decorated officer whose military career spanning 20 years in the US Marine Corps rose to the ranks of lieutenant colonel, runs a nonprofit to make Indian society respect women from different walks of life. He lives in Washington DC.
Among millennials born in India, Rahul Dutta is a US army officer. Driven by an urge to do something different in life while pursuing higher studies in America, he joined the US Army after a short stint with Air India. Hence, former President Donald Trump was right in praising Indian immigrants for their collective role in the armed forces while celebrating Diwali in the White House.
Reportedly, Akila Narayanan was able to join the US Army only after completion of rigorous combat training that was conducted for months.