Javed Nasir-A tale of inspiration
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Longfellow’s above verses personified the life of Lieutenant General Javed Nasir (retired) who in the master bard’s words was a true hero in the strife of life and the world’s broad field of battle. William Manchester writes about General Douglas Mac Arthur in his limpid prose that he was, “a great thundering paradox of a man, noble and ignoble, inspiring and outrageous, arrogant and shy the best of men and the worst of men, the most protean, most ridiculous, and most sublime”.
Lieutenant General Javed Nasir who passed away on 17th October at Lahore after living a full life as per his own convictions, inspired extreme feelings of awe, fear and hatred, depending upon the ideological prism from which he was being viewed.
One thing, however, even his worst detractors would conceded, that he was a very charismatic character, in whose presence there was neither a single dull moment nor any prosaic discourse. Whether he was in a class room or a cricket field he always made waves.
Thinking out of box like a maverick and acting on his convictions, secure in the knowledge that those convictions derived their strength from the immutable truths bequeathed to the mankind by the creator, he always soke with passion and clarity. He had a very engaging and riveting conversational style that came in very handy while tackling thorny issues of national and international import.
Lieutenant General Javed Nasir (retired) evoked strong feelings amongst his detractors as well as supporters due to his natural effervescence and ardour. A razor sharp and logical mind who could parse open the layers of complexity to present things in stark clarity.
The haze of confusion and the nimbus of adulation were alien to his direct and unadorned prose. He spoke with courage and conviction and was unconventional down to core. Protective of his juniors and a little irreverent towards seniors he could rub someone the wrong way without personal rancour. Truth came naturally to him and deceit and cant as an anathema.
He no doubt was a veritable thundering paradox of a man with compassion and rancour existing cheek by jowl in his irrepressible nature. Despite a libertine lifestyle in his younger days he made an unbelievable transition to a deeply religious lifestyle. So incredulous were his peers and seniors by his metamorphosis into a preacher that rumours were bruited about his real motives.
The transition was under scrutiny due to strict religiosity spawned by the Zia years. Luckily for him one of his seniors on the staff of General Zia ul Haq officers knew him to be observant of prayers and other religious obligations like fasting as a young officer, who spoke for him in front of Zia.
Javed Nasir’s life unfolded according to the inscrutable designs of providence as a child born to an educated household with his father amongst the few Muslim headmasters in undivided Punjab. There was no silver spoon for a scion of a noble yet financially humble family but he got on in life by dint of sheer talent whether in sports or in academics. He joined the prestigious Government College Lahore and got into the college cricket team which also featured one of his class mates, the legendary test cricketer Saeed Ahmed, who in later years joined the Tableeghi Jamaat as a preacher on Javed Nasir’s suggestion.
Javed Nasir joined Pakistan military Academy in 1956 with 18th PMA Long Course and graduated at number six in his course as Company Junior Under Officer. He was good in science subjects and written English but had to practice hard at his public speaking skills.
At the end of the curse he was tied with his course and platoon mate i.e Hamid Gul in academic and military subjects but since Hamid Gul was ahead of him in fourth term he was put as number five and Javed Nasir number six in the course. A young Lieutenant Javed Nasir was posted to 3 Engineer Dump Company located at Jehlum in 1958. After two months the martial law was imposed and the Engineer Dump Company was moved to Pattoki for some non-operational tasks.
Young Javed Nasir distinguished himself in officers’’ basic and the degree courses where one of the Bengali officers i,e Captain Muzammil later rose to be a Major General and Engineer in Chief of the Bangladesh Army. Javed Nasir got the top honours in basic and degree courses and was far ahead of his peers in marks.
He was marked for an instructional assignment at Military College of Engineering (MCE) but requested to be posted close to his parents at Lahore due to domestic constraints. He was therefore posted to 4 Engineer Battalion at Lahore. While doing the course at MCE Risalpur Javed Nasir picked up bridge as a special avocation.
Bridge according to Javed Nasir was an ideal game to keep the mind sharp and he excelled in it winning money as per the permissible practice in the Army messes and clubs then. During one of the visits to Lahore Javed Nasir and his friend Captain Anis played bridge with Captain(retired) Gohar Ayub (son of Field Marshal Ayub Khan) and one of his industrialist friends.
Javed Nasir and Anis won 80 points at the end of the game and the stakes for Rs 5 per point were announced by Gohar Ayub and partner who gave them Rs 400. Upon this Javed Nasir and partner squirmed with discomfiture as they thought they had played as per the Army meses rule of 8 Annas per point. In case of a loss, they did not have enough money to pay to the winners.
On the eve of 1965 War Captan Javed Nasir was posted as a staff officer to Commander 475 Army Engineer Brigade Group Colonel Naseer Uddin Humayun. According to Javed Nasir who had seen Lahore sector with 4 Engineer battalion and Sialkot sector as part of 475 Engineer Brigade Group Pakistan Army had not prepared bridges on BRBL canal on Wagah and Burki axes for demolition due to lack of anticipation of enemy reaction by the senior leadership. Captain Javed Nasir went ahead on reconnaissance mission ahead of Khem Karen to check the classification of load of a brick masonry bridge on Road Khem Karen-Harike Headworks.
At a strike Corps briefing Captain Javed Nasir was briefed that own troops were holding defensive line 4 kms ahead of Khem Karen. Pakistan’s 4 Cavalry had destroyed six Indian Centurion tanks between Indo-Pakistan border and Khem Karen and had moved ahead but stopped at a brick bridge. When Captain Javed Nasir moved ahead of Khem Karen he came under fire after moving one km ahead.
He escaped unhurt and conveyed the information to his headquarters that own troops had come back to around 1 km ahead. After ceasefire Javed Nasir visited Ferozepur for a post war conference and while crossing over River Sutlej noted that Indians had not prepared the bridge for demolition. Had Pakistan captured that bridge intact its forces would have captured Ferozepur and moved deep into Indian territory. It was a case of a missed opportunity.
Pakistan and China had decided to construct a highway linking Xinjiang province with Pakistan. The execution of the Karakorum Highway Project was assigned to Pakistan Army by the government through a formal letter dated 18th June 1966. The project was to be overseen by Engineer in Chief Pakistan Army with Director General Frontier Works Organization (FWO) as the officer in charge of the project.
A Task Force called The Khunjerab Force was raised alongwith 153 pioneer battalion to start the KKH from the Chinese border towards Pakistan. Since there was no road infrastructure from Pakistan’s side, the Task Force had to be airlifted to Xinjiang province of China.
The road alignment had to follow Khunjerab Pass towards Sust-Passu-Hunza in Pakistan’s territory. The Khumjerab Pass alignment had very difficult terrain from Pakistan’s side whereas on Chinese side the terrain was relatively plain and easy to construct and the Chinese had managed to construct a road till Khunjerab Pass.
The traditional crossing point of Mintaka Pass across Pakistan-China border had relatively easy terrain on both Pakistan and China’s side but Chinese were apprehensive of its proximity with the then Soviet territory. Secondly since they had already constructed a road towards Khunjerab they preferred this alignment over Mintaka Pass route.
Captain Javed Nasir was selected as part of Task Force and was tasked to take the advance party of 150 men of Khunjerab Force to Khunjerab Pass through China. On 30th June 1966 the advance party embarked on C130 aircraft flown by PAF and the 150 men snuggled in sitting on floor holding the ropes tied between the tail of C 130 to cockpit to remain safe during sir travel.
The C 130 landed at Hotian Airport in Xinjiang province of China located at an altitude of 4672 feet above sea level. When the C 130 landed the pavement of Chinese airfield cracked like potato chips due to the high load class of C 130. Chinese in 1966 had not advanced to the present level in infrastructural strength, hence the poor state of airfield runway and taxiways.
The troops alighted from the aircraft and boarded the PLA trucks to be taken 282 kms away to Yarkand, a town strategically located half way between Hotian and Kasghar at an elevation of 3974 feet. After a day’s stay, the troops were taken to Kashgar, 170 kms away, located at an altitude of 4212 feet. Kashgar was the fabled city of Xinjiang which had been part of Chinese, Mongol, Tibetan and Turkic empires.
Captain Javed Nasir discovered a prominent Jamia Mosque in Kashgar which was locked and used to be opened only on Sundays. Since it was a Friday, the Chinese authorities were requested to let the troops pray in mosque. Chinese in deference to the Task Force’s sensibilities relented and allowed the mosque to be opened.
The troops led by Javed Nasir went in and saw a cobweb ad dust covered mosque which was first cleaned by the men and then Jumma congregation was held there. A Chinese Muslim led the prayers after offering the Jumma Khutba, since there was not even one bearded individual in the Tsk Force.
After a two nights’ stay the men were taken to Tangai and from there onwards to Tashkurgan, the last inhabited town in Xinjiang, 215 kms away from Kashgar. After two nights’ stay the force moved to a Chinese camp Peroli at an elevation of 14000 feet, 32 kms short of Pak-China border.
The men stayed at Peroli for six days to get acclimatized. Nearly the whole advance party fell sick and four soldiers died due to high altitude sickness. These were our first shaheeds of Khunjerab Force raised to construct KKH. The party went ahead after sixth day and reached the watershed of Khunjerab.
Captain Javed Nasir pitched his tent at the highest point on the watershed and the men camped on a flat ground towards Pakistani territory. At night the men heard macabre sounds of shrieking demons. The next day a rumour gained strength that the camping site was demon infested. When the Task Force’s maulvi (religious leader) also failed to counter the devilish sounds through his efforts
Captain Javed Nasir pitched his tent at the site and heard the same sounds during the night. The next morning he ordered the ground in his to be dug. The deep moraine was dug and down below it was discovered that the men were camping over a frozen bed of River Khunjerab and that the devilish sounds were in fact the sounds of river ice thawing and freezing during the night.
Having resolved the issue of demons the men got down to work on the road. There was a great sense of isolation for the troops as there was no wireless or line communication with the home base in Pakistan. The nearest village on Pakistan’s side was at a distance of seven days and the men isolated in that icy wasteland facing altitude sickness yearned for human company while working in isolated teams.
The only company at tomes were the markhors and Marcopolo sheep that would come and view the men with curiously. Mercifully, a local courier named Pamirchi of Sust, the last Pakistni village ahead of Hunza came up to our camp, and Capt Javed Nasir hired him to carry mail from troops to the nearest post office at Misghar, six km away from Sust. That is how the isolation of the troops was broken.
The weather was atrocious where even thermometers stopped working due to below minus 20 celsius temperature. Frost bite in extreme cold resulted in eight amputation cases demoralizing the men. There were frequent heart seizures and in one such case the commanding officer Lt Colonel M.Z Kidwai collapsed. With nothing else at disposal, the regimental doctor Captain Tarar injected “Coramine” into his heart which miraculously revived the officer. After joining of the main body of the Khunjerab Force the strength of the troops went upto 1500 men who were distributed in three companies working on different road stretches.
With winter approaching the conditions were getting worse with no relief and rotation plan in sight. By a stroke of luck the daredevil chief of the Air Staff Air Marshal Nur Khan came to the area on a test flight of a new helicopter. In the last week of September, a helicopter was observed by Captain Javed Nasir circling over Koksil, some 4.74 km down the Khunjerab Pass.
The helicopter landed on a small platform available in the rocky gorge of the mountainous terrain at an altitude of 15000 feet. Captain Javed Nasir in whose area the helicopter had landed received Air Marshal Nur Khan who enquired about the commitment of the troops. He was the first senior officer to have visited the troops and was told by Javed Nasir that in the absence of hih altitude equipment and the communication arrangements the troops were in imminent danger of being frozen to death unless they were moved down to Passu in two weeks; time.
Air Marshal Nur Khan appreciated the effort of troops and boarded the helicopter that was n running rotor for flying back. The trouble was that due t othe rarefied air the helicopter was not getting lifted. A surreal spectacle was witnessed by Javed Nasir as the pilot moved the helicopter on wheels with running rotors and moved the helicopter off the edge of cliff towards a 200 feet wide and 600 feet deep gorge.
The helicopter initially dipped below but then started climbing up and flew towards Pakistan. The Air Chief went to the CinC and informed about the plight of Khunjerab Force. The EinC and the DG FWO were told to establish communications and plan winter evacuation of the troops from the Khunjerab Pass.
The Khunjerab Force was ordered to pack their belongings and carry those on person till Passu. It was a difficult undertaking and Javed Nasir again led his troops on that arduous journey in one of the roughest terrains of the world towards Passu
In the next working season in 1967 the Task Force again went to Khunjerab to recommence the work. During that year Javed Nasir was called for an interview to be elected for a foreign staff course. The selection for a foreign staff course is a great honour in army and Javed Nasir had no transport to travel down to Gilgit from where the air link was available for Rawalpindi.
He embarked on a foot journey towards Gilgit carrying his stuff on person. The journey was an epic in itself as he encountered several obstacles including a dysfunctional river crossing pulley and a road closed by a slide. He nearly lost his life while crossing the River Hunza like an acrobat. His reaching Rawalpindi was a miracle where the board for interview had dispersed.
The CGS Pakistan Army Lieutenant General Sahibzada Yaqub however took special care and reassembled the board. Captain Javed Nasir told of his record-breaking foot journey from Khunjerab to Passu and Gilgit in 3 days which was an unbelievable feat of super human endurance.
He was selected for Australian Staff Course at Queen’s Cliff Australia. His men achieved their mission before being relieved. The Force managed to construct a 13 kilometers long and four meters wide track capable of upholding three-ton Lorries at 30 miles per hour, a superhuman undertaking indeed, that too on heights ranging between 13000 to 15000 feet.
At Staff Course in Australia Major Javed Nasir so impressed the Australians because of his deep understanding of river crossing operations that asked for him to be posted as an instructor at the same college even wit the rank of a major.
He meanwhile had been posted to Military Operations Directorate where during an operational briefing he corrected the COS strike corps Brig (later four star General) Sawar Khan and was noticed by the CGS Lt General Gul Hasan.
Lt General Gul Hasan got Javed Nasir posted as his GSO II in CGS Secretariat and he replaced Major Mian Afzaal (later Lt General) who had completed his tenure and was leaving on another assignment with troops. During his tenure as GSO II CGS in 1968 Major Javed Nasir went to Jordan as part of a delegation to enquire about Syrian-Jordanian clash and the role of Brigadier Zia ul Haq, an armoured corps officer who was serving in Jordan as part of Pakistan’s Training Advisory mission. Zia informed Javed Nasir of the actual happening.
As per him the clash with Syrians in 1968 had left thehe he commended him for his novelty and Jordanian Armoured Brigade commander injured on the battlefield and there was no experienced officer to replace him. Brigadier Zia ul Haq therefore was requested by King Hussain of Jordan to take over the command of 3rd Armoured Brigade at Irbid on the border of Syria.
Zia however offered to help only the operation room and because of his help the Syrian attack was repulsed. The CinC General Yahya Khan was annoyed with Zia on not taking prior permission but was bailed out by Lt General Gul Hasan.
After 1971 War Major Javed was posted to 3 Engineer battalion at Lahore and after two years’ service got promoted as a Lt Colonel and was given command of an incoming unit in formation i.e 107 Engineer Battalion. As a commanding officer he had the full trust of GOC Major General Sawar Khan who relied a lot on his sound professional advice in operational matters.
Lt Colonel Javed Nasir displayed his characteristic unconventional approach when assigned with a task to construct accommodation for troops at Kasur cantonment. He saved a lot of public money by incentivizing the local kiln owners to prepare bricks on concessional rates compared to the market rates.
The engagement of kiln owners led to an intelligence report against him by an over zealous intelligence operator but when Javed Nasir explained the whole concept along with the details of the savings to the GOC he commended him for his ingenuity and initiative. During his command tenure he also saved the Balloki headworks from imminent collapse due to unprecedented floods of 1974.
He reached the Balloki Headworks at 10.30 pm to repair the right bank which had been badly damaged with one third portion of the bund having already been eroded by the flood. The situation was grim and had the bund been broken the damage to the vital headworks would have rendered all irrigation canals downstream dry, wreaking havoc on the agriculture output for years to come.
The situation was grim so the GOC was informed of the portents who requested the CM Punjab, Mr Ghulam Mustafa Khar to help get the requisite number of tractor trolleys for the bund protection effort. The Chief Minister ordered the IG Police to commandeer the trollies and immediately report to the CO Engineer Battalion by midnight. Due to assertive action of the CM the tractor trollies with labour reached the Balloki Headworks by midnight and the sappers swimming in the flood waters directed the trollies to the base of the bund to repair it in time.
After command assignment Javed Nasir was selected for the prestigious armed forces war course at National Defence College (Present NDU) in 1975. He distinguished himself amongst the galaxy of highly professional officers on the course like Shams ur Rehman Kallu, Nishat, Raja Saroop, Zulfiqar Akhter Naz, Shamim Alam Khan, and Lt Colonel Asif Nawaz, the future COAS.
Javed Nasir excelled in the course due to his sharp and analytical mind and operational acumen which he displayed in abundance to get the top grade on the course. The Chief Instructor Major General Aslam Beg wanted to retain him as an instructor. The Military Secretary’s Branch made a special exemption for him while amending the rank criterion for the appointment of instructors to post Javed Nasir as a first ever Lt Colonel DS instructor in war wing NDC.
In 1978 he was promoted Colonel and then shortly afterwards Brigadier and appointed as commander corps engineers at Karachi. It was here that an incident changed his mental and moral orientation. It was the death of his mother and her last half written missive to her that changed his total orientation from a hedonistic lifestyle to a proselytizing religiosity.
In a state of mental abstraction and pain he directly rang up the Military Secretary at GHQ and expressed his desire to be posted out of Karachi to reorient his life towards a religiously ordained lifestyle. Fortunately, the Military Secretary acquiesced to his request and posted him to command an infantry brigade at Dera Nawab.
As a Brigade Commander he distinguished himself as a commander and trainer introducing novel canal crossing expedients like tin buoys to assist soldiers in river crossing operations. He got an outstanding report as a brigade commander and got promoted as a Major General in 1983. He was the first Engineer officer to be posted as Chief Instructor War Wing in NDC where he stayed for four productive years.
Armed Forces War Course at NDC (Now NDU) is the apex course where the best officers of three services with potential to rise to higher leadership slots are selected for a year long professional regimen. In that capacity Major General Javed Nasir mentored and groomed a long list of future three and even four-star officers.
The officer that he had replaced as GSO II CGS i.e Mian Muhammad Afzaal was now the CGS of Army. A pivotal appointment in GHQ that actually runs the army on behalf of COAS. When Javed Nasir was posted as DG Engineers in 1987, he had a short but eventful tenure in that assignment with full support of the CGS.
He got all plans of engineer units updated especially minefields’ location in desert formations and the placement of bridges for pre-planned demolition (Known in army parlance as reserve demolitions. One of the most eventful incident in that tenure was the explosion in an ammunition dump at Ojhri Camp Rawalpindi. It was an ammunition dump where the weapons and ammunition including that which was used for Afghanistan War were dumped.
The explosion was a result of some sabotage activity and the impact was devastating. The Americans offered their support for clearing of the Ojhri Camp and were allocated 1/3rd of the total area ob Faizabad road’s side. They were very cautious in their clearing approach and in 30 days only cleared 30 rockets and mines.
The COAS, General Aslam Beg ordered DG Engineer Major General Javed Nasir to clear the Ojhri Camp. Javed Nasir in his typically unconventional style selected 300 troops from 6 Engineer Battalion and demonstrated to them how to dispose off the unexploded munitions. He recited a Quranic verse and lifted the first rocket himself out of the dump.
Seeing their charismatic commander leading from the front the troops embarked on the task with courage and conviction. One of the conditions laid down for all participating troops by Javed Nasir was to keep reciting a Quranic verse which was easy to remember and recite:-
وَلَهُۥ مَا سَكَنَ فِى ٱلَّيْلِ وَٱلنَّهَارِ ۚ وَهُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْعَلِيمُ
Unto Him belonged whatsoever rested in the night and the day. He is the Hearer, the Knower
اور جو مخلوق رات اور دن میں بستی ہے سب اسی کی ہے اور وہ سنتا جانتا ہے
Javed Nasir only allowed those troops to enter the Ojhri Camp who had learnt the above verse by heart. The result was a miraculous clearance of 41600 unexploded blind ammunition pieces from Ohri Camp ammunition dump in merely 12 days.
In 1988 when Major General Javed Nasir was DG FWO the FWO was tasked to construct a jet capable airfield at Skardu at an altitude of approximately 8000 ft. In Skardu due to weather conditions the working season was very short between July and September. Local and foreign consultants had estimated the cost of project between 800-900 million t o be completed in six to eight working seasons.
Major General Javed Nasir took up the project as a challenge and inspired the troops to work with dedication round the clock reciting the same Verse 13 of Surah Al Inam. He was very particular to ensure that only those who remembered that verse worked on that project. The airfield was completed in a one working season and the feat was praised by the Air Chief Air Marshal Hakimullah during his visit to Skardu in September 1988. A substantial saving was made from the construction funds saving the national exchequer exorbitant expenses.
Major General Javed Nasir was involved in trial report of US M1Abram tank trials in 1988. After careful scrutiny he rejected the tank’s adoption because of its high load class of 70 tons which might have made it unsuitable for our bridges. He was told by CGS to be present on the trials on 17th August at Bahawalpur. Javed Nasir requested the CGS to allow him to skip the trials due to the illness of a close relative whom he was looking after.
The CGS agreed and the slot of Javed Nasir was given to another officer i.e Major General Sami, on his request. This was a providential interference in saving Javed Nasir from an early death in C130 accident in which several officers including the US Defence Attache Herbert Wassom and Ambassador Arnold Raphael alongwith General Zia ul Haq died.
In 1991 there was huge explosion in Nowshera Ammunition Depot due to a probable act of sabotage. It was just like Ojhri Camp, albeit, at a smaller scale. Lt General Javed Nasir as Eingineer in Chief (EINC) visited the site and offered to lead the effort to clear the site.
His offer however was spurned by Corps Commander Peshawer, who wanted to clear the dump with his own troops. Unfortunately, a series of accidents convinced the army leadership to assign the task to EinC Javed Nasir employed the same method and motivational technique and managed to clear the dump of all blinds in two days without any further casualties.
In 1992 Lt General Javed Nasir was appointed as DG ISI and played an important part in bringing all the squabbling Afghan factions together to stitch up Peshawar Accord under Prime Minister Sibghatullah Mujaddedi in Kabul. During his tenure as DG ISI the Bosnian delegation came to Pakistan led by their President. At that time the Bosnian government was at the receiving end of Serb atrocities and their capital Sarajevo was completely surrounded by Bosnian tanks. Pakistan rendered necessary help and the Bosnian government managed to push back the marauding Serbs out of Bosnian territory.
Lt General Javed Nasir was retired in May 1993 due to his differences with the government on certain issues. He was appointed as Chairman Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) in 1997 by PM Nawaz Sharif. In that capacity Javed Nasir constituted a Pakistan Sikh Gurdawara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) in April 1999, charged with the responsibility to maintain Sikh Gurduwaras and organize Sikh holy functions.
The PSGPC committees were constituted in USA, UK, Canada and some European countries with Sikh community members as presidents of those committees. By managing the Trust properties well he raised a revenue of Rs 1.17 billion in one year, more than the total amount raised by his all his predecessors combined!
He also improved the condition of the Sikh Gurdawaras in Pakistan which were in a deplorable state of decay due to lack of maintenance. One of the reasons for that was the lack of funds which were sent by the rich Sikh diaspora in USA, UK, Canada and Europe to Sikh Gurdawara Parbandhak Committee in India which funnelled the funds to India leaving nothing for Pakistani Gurdawaras. Javed Nasir invoked a Sikh religious injunction according to which the donations meant for one Gurdawara in a city could not be transferred to another Gurdawara even in the same city.
By this arrangement the funds started pouring in to Pakistani PSGPC and the money was used for the maintenance and upkeep of Sikh shrines in Pakistan. The initial structure of Darbar Sahib Kartarpura, which was left abandoned after laying of foundation in 1947, was constructed under Javed Nasir’s tenure which has now been expanded and improved by the government into an impressive edifice. The Sikh community appreciated him for his services rendered in the cause of revival of their religious heritage and revere his memory.
Lt General (retired) Javed Nasir’s life offers some important life lessons for posterity. These include the value of originality, a penchant for the unconventional, and the courage of one’s convictions. The loathing of stilted protocols and archaic traditions, in favour of substantial contributions in the spiritual as well as temporal domains, remain his lasting legacy for new generation.
A quintessential warrior, whose mid life transition towards religious evangelism did not deter him from making tangible operational and strategic contributions to the military as well as national causes. His affable nature and gift of the gab were his endearing qualities that captivated audiences in his company despite differences of opinion. He was indeed a truly rare specimen of an officer and a gentleman.